The Single Most Expensive Mistake a Manager Can Make

 

 

 

 

 

The single most expensive mistake a manager can make is buying into the management myth:

"There isn’t enough time to coach people."

This myth comes from the fact that there are only 168 hours in a week and you have zillions of demands on your time—you have your own tasks and projects besides your management responsibilities.

What is the reality? Since your time is so limited, you definitely don’t have time not to manage-coach your people. Managers who do not prioritize time coaching people always spend lots of time managing people anyway. That’s because when a manager avoids spending time up front in advance making sure things go right, things often go wrong. Small problems pile up. Often, small problems fester unattended until they become so big they cannot be ignored. By that point, the manager has no choice but to chase down the problems and solve them. 

In crisis, the manager is virtually guaranteed to be less efficient, a further waste of time. So, these managers run around solving problems that never had to happen, getting big problems under control that should have been solved easily, recouping squandered resources, dealing with long-standing performance problems, feeling even more pressed for time.

That means in all likelihood, they will go right back to avoiding coaching people, and the next time they’ll make time for coaching is the next time there is another big problem to chase down and solve.

Remember, that the time you spend coaching is “high-leverage time.” By coaching, you engage the productive capacity of your people. For every, say, twenty-minute coaching conversation you have with an employee, you should be engaging hours or maybe days of the employee’s productive capacity. If that twenty-minute conversation is effective, that twenty minutes of coaching should substantially improve the quality and output of the employee’s work for hours or days. That’s a good return on investment—that’s why it’s called “high-leverage time.”

When managers do not coach and proactively communicate: 

• Problems hide below the radar. 
• Problems occur that never had to occur. 
• Problems get out of control that could have been solved. 
• Resources are squandered. 
• People go in the wrong direction for weeks or months without realizing it. 
• Low performers hide out and collect paychecks. 
• Mediocre performers start to think they're high performers. 
• High performers get frustrated and think of leaving. 
• Managers do tasks that should have been delegated.

Also, your team should be getting more capable over time. Think about it this way. As a leader of a team, on day one, your team has a certain capacity. Your team can deliver a certain amount of work, in a certain amount of time, at a particular level of quality and complexity. They have a certain amount of knowledge and particular level of ability to perform. This is their capacity on day one.

If, after a year goes by, you have delivered everything you been asked, you have done part of your job. But if your team is not more capable in some way--if they can't deliver more, better, faster, or higher quality--or if they have no new knowledge, skills or ability to perform at a higher level, you have not done the second part of your job. You have not coached and developed in order to increase the capacity of the team.

The Secret of the 5% Solution

Many managers when exhorted to coach more and boss less will rightly say, “But my plate is already full. I can’t handle one more obligation. I rarely see my people because I’m so busy and they are scattered all over the place. There’s no way I can do all this.” 

You face a dilemma: Simple solutions don’t work for development, yet you don’t have time for complex solutions. So you need a coaching process that attacks the true challenges of getting a variety of people to change and yet is still manageable in light of available time and resources. That process is the 5% solution. 

You can be effective and efficient if you focus 5% of your energy and attention on coaching and development. Working smarter—not harder—helps you make the best investment of your time. The secret of efficient coaching is to know your priorities and then to create and seize coaching opportunities that arise in the course of your everyday work. If you are prepared, you can leverage a relatively small investment of your time into a walloping payback. 

There's a time management maxim that says, "We always find time for the things that we think are important."

Start scheduling time for One-on-One coaching and watch your people grow and and improve.

Research by the Gallup organization supports the notion that you don't have time NOT to coach your people. Gallup's conclusion is that Failing to develop leaders is the single most expensive mistake a leader can make. Click here to read the article.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Why Leaders Must Give Up Control to Gain Influence

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the difference between control and influence? How do the differences between these two words affect the way you empower the people that you lead? And does the difference really matter in your life as a leader?

To answer these questions, let’s start by taking a closer look at the definitions of control and influence. According to Dictionary.com, the primary definition of each word is

❍  Control—to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command.
❍  Influence—the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

Notice that control is direct—you can control the things that you can make happen without the cooperation of others.

Influence, on the other hand, is more indirect. It begins with you and your behaviors, and then it extends to other people. Once other people are involved, you need their cooperation. In other words, you cannot directly ‘‘produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.’’ Their actions, behavior, and opinions are their choice. To expand this idea, consider a concept that comes from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. In this classic self-improvement text, Covey writes about what he calls the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Influence. For my purposes, I will modify the description slightly to speak specifically to people who work as leaders.
 

In a very broad sense, everything in your role as a leader fits into three categories.

 There are things you can

1.    Control (your personal circle of control)
2.   Influence (your personal circle of influence)
3.   Neither influence nor control (Concern or everything else)

The things that fall within your circle of control are those things that you can make happen without the cooperation of others. Your circle of control includes your own words and actions. There might also be some work rules and other procedural items that you can control, and that’s it.

Your circle of influence includes things outside of your direct control that you can cause to happen through the help and cooperation of others. This list includes their words, actions, motivations, and desires. Everything about other people is outside your circle of control.

You can influence other people. You cannot control them.

As a leader, the difference between control and influence is a critical concept to grasp. You will be responsible for the results of your team.

You will be responsible for influencing their behaviors to get tasks accomplished. And you cannot control them.
 

I often get questions like

❍    ‘‘How do I get my team to?’’ or
❍    ‘‘How do I make my team members do?’’

The intent behind these questions often stems from the leader’s desire to get results and to make things happen. I see no problem with the desired goal in asking the questions. I do see a problem with how they are phrased and the assumptions implied. The problem is that they are control questions rather than influence questions. By the way the questions are asked, the person asking them is asking how he or she can control another person.
I suggest rephrasing the questions above to something like this:

❍    ‘‘How do I change my words and behaviors so that I communicate with my team more effectively?’’ or
❍    ‘‘What can I do to create an environment where my team members want to do?’’

Rephrasing the questions in this way shifts the focus away from controlling others toward controlling   your own words and actions so that you can gain greater influence with them. This shift in focus helps you concentrate your energy and efforts where they have the greatest impact.

Attempting to control something that is outside your circle of control is usually frustrating, tiring, and ineffective. When you realize that something lies in your circle of influence rather than in your circle of control, you will begin to look for different, more effective strategies and tactics. You will waste less time and energy on activities that simply do not matter and will not have a positive impact on your results.

Likewise, realizing that an issue lies outside your circle of influence, in the Circle of Concern or everything else category, frees you to not worry about it or to waste energy on attempting to change it.
 

For example, most company policies and procedures lie outside the circle of influence for front-line leaders. If you are a front-line leader and you invest time, effort, and energy into discussing these issues beyond casual conversation, you are wasting your time, effort, and energy. Rather than worry about, complain about, or discuss these items, focus that energy on what you can control (your words and actions) and where you can have influence (the people with whom you have a direct relationship). 

SMART Principle: Control what you can. Influence who you can.

 

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance and power services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Why You Never Graduate from the School of Leadership

  

“I learn something new every day. But, even more importantly, I learn the same things over and over again.” 

I was immediately struck when I heard these words. They were spoken by a world-renowned physician and neuroscientist, Dr. Steven Galetta, in his acceptance speech for a prestigious award recognizing his excellence in his profession.

Dr. Galetta said that he was always excited to acquire some critical piece of knowledge every day that he could apply to his research and in the treatment of his ailing patients.

But, even more critical to him was the opportunity every day to re-learn the fundamentals of his profession; namely in how he works with his patients. How to carefully listen to patients. How to how to take enough time with patients and how to ask the right questions to elicit accurate information.

You never graduate from the school of leadership because if you want to keep your leadership efforts vital and fresh, if you want to reach the heights of career success/fulfillment and stay there, then it is important to always be learning. But what exactly do you need to learn? 

Let’s use the example of Dr Galetta to set two goals for yourself:

1. BECOME AN AGILE LEARNER.

The most important skill a leader or any professional needs to master in order to succeed is that of becoming an agile learner. In that vein, create a Personal Learning Plan. Write down what you need to learn from the perspective of your direct reports and key stakeholders. 

Personal growth and by extension, leadership growth, does not happen automatically because people are living or necessarily because they have experiences. Leadership development must be planned, deliberate and consistent. In other words, if we want to realize our true leadership potential we have to work at it daily.

There are four primary ways to develop leadership capability.

The first is to study leadership and apply the lessons learned. In addition to Smart leadership classes there are plenty of great podcasts and videocasts (E.g. TED Talks), webinars, blogs, meet-up groups to supplement your company-sponsored formal leadership education.

The second way is to learn from your experiences at work. For example ask to be assigned to a challenging project that will provide you an opportunity to exercise your leadership. Remember that leadership is about influencing positive change. Also, stay alert. Observe situations from different perspectives. Watch how different people handle leadership challenges. Have a teachable spirit and ask for feedback and be open to criticisms about your performance. And above all don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll learn more from failing once or twice than from succeeding all the time.

The third way dovetails with the second which is to engage a professional leadership coach. The best leaders are a lot like professional golfers. The one thing that every elite golfer has, is a coach.The coach is there to watch the pro’s swing. 

Why? Because the golfer can't change what they can't see. Because the coach can see what the golfer can’t, change is possible. This kind of feedback builds champions and great leaders.

Check out our blog post: Coaching Works. Here's Why

The final way to develop your leadership ability is to find a true mentor. The mentor should have life and business experiences that you want to gain, a genuine willingness to help you along, and a positive relationship with you.

Click here to discover the origins of the word mentor.

Industry Expertise: What industry expertise should you acquire that will help you to provide necessary insights to your direct reports, peers, managers and stakeholders. Read books about your profession and industry. Follow specific LinkedIn discussion groups in your target industry and read the discussion threads to learn about key industry concerns. Pick a mentor who is successful in your field and learn from them to to absorb some of their knowledge and expertise.

Stakeholder Knowledge: Do your research into the stakeholder's organization, services, products, and customers. Set up Google alerts for every key stakeholder to facilitate this. Use tools like Nimble to track the conversations your stakeholders are having online. This can point you in the direction of new knowledge that you need to acquire.

Become A Source Of Value: The challenge you must set for yourself is the following: How do I become a source of value for my direct reports, manager, peers and other stakeholders? How do I acquire the knowledge, understanding and insights that will enable me to become the trusted adviser to my direct reports, manager and peers?

Use your Personal Learning Plan to set learning goals for yourself and to commit to the specific actions you will take to acquire that knowledge. Most importantly, share your Personal Learning Plan with a manager or a peer within your organization. You want their help to hold you accountable for achieving your goals. But, whatever it is, do at least one thing every single day. Even if it just reading for 30 minutes before you turn off the lights for the day.

2. LEARN THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN

This is just as important as Lesson #1.

Never assume that you have learned everything there is to know about the fundamentals of your profession or as a leader. You can always ask a question better. You can always listen better. You can always prepare more thoroughly for the 1:1 conversations with your directs.

Your success is more dependent on your successful execution of leadership fundamentals than in mastering specialized leadership skills. Why? Because if your fundamental leadership skills and habits are lacking, then you’ll never get the opportunity to demonstrate your advanced knowledge. 

The first step you can take to start learning the fundamentals over and over again is to turn-off your autopilot and start paying attention. You’re not perfect. There’s always room for improvement. Take the time to ask the right questions of direct reports and then really listen to their answers. 

Remember: learn something new and big and exciting everyday. Look at the fundamentals of your leadership with a fresh eye every single day and be conscious of what you can improve in order to better serve and deliver more value to your direct reports, manager,  peers and other stakeholders.  The reward will be that you’re a better leader. And, a better person.

Click here to read a related post: Leaders Like Great Athletes Never Stop Practicing the Fundamentals

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

You Don't Get to Look Good and Grow at the Same Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you think about anything in your life that you've gotten better at, there are these periods, they're clunky, they're clumsy. We feel insecure, we feel like we're an imposter or fraud in some way. And that's, in particular, true about soft skills/ communication skills and especially when learning to have better accountability conversations with direct reports, peers, customers and other leaders.

Anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows that as you're trying to navigate that territory of getting to know another person and getting close with them and creating dialogue -- it feels awkward, it feels weird, we don't feel like ourselves. 

When we translate over into the workplace. When we're in a leadership position, it gets even more problematic because you think, "Oh, I can't show these people that I don't know what I'm doing. I can't show these people that I don't have the answer." And in particular, if we have a technical expertise, if we're a good engineer or a good accountant or a good marketer or a good technician, and we've made a whole career out of having the answers and knowing how to solve problems, that makes it doubly difficult.

So this idea of really just accepting that when it comes to the people side of the business of getting feedback and becoming a coach and becoming a mentor and opening up dialogue and building trust, it's okay to feel like a beginner. In fact, if you feel like a beginner, you're probably on the right track. 

Accountability conversations, obviously enough, they're not things that only happen at work. They happen in our life. They happen in our relationships and if you think about the people who you've come to respect and the people that you've come to trust in your life, oftentimes it's those people who are willing to have that conversation with you or willing to engage with you and share with you something that they're seeing or something that they've observed or ask you a question about something in a way that might not be so comfortable. Right? 

Those are the people that we often call our best friends. 

That's what leadership is all about. Leadership is not about making the most number of friends. Leadership is not about being nice all the time. It is often about stepping into moments that other people would rather say, well, "I'm not going to go there."  

But you as a leader, because this is about you and your life and your values, to say, "You know what? I could avoid this conversation but I'm not going to, not just because this person needs to hear this feedback, but because that's who I am as a human being. That's who I want to be. 

I want to be somebody who enters into those moments who lives up to their values, who says, you know, I see something and I think that person could be doing better than they are and I'm going to say something about it and I'm going to lean into those conversations because that's who I want to be."

Accountability, if you think about it some more, it's not about work. It's not about tasks. It's not about the things that are in our inbox. It's about who we are. It's about the type of people that we want to be. It's about the relationships that, we want to have, where we can stand in ourselves, and look back on the moments that we are at this organization or in this relationship. And we can honestly say to ourselves, "Hey, I've been the best version of me that I know how."

Click here for a related post. How to Navigate Difficult Conversations

Stay curious and hungry,

 

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Stretching outside your comfort zone is critical to grow as a leader

 


 
 

 

 

 

 

Your comfort zone is unique to you. What might feel risky for one person, may not for you – and the other way around.

 Learning and growth happen outside your comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable – the problem is when you don’t want to venture beyond the usual behaviors.

Leaving your comfort zone doesn't mean doing crazy things but being willing to experiment with new mindsets and behaviors. From making minor changes to your routines to trying new experiences – to learn you must let go of control and familiarity.
 
Your comfort zone is an established pattern of thinking that is “recorded” in your brain via neural pathways. Neural pathways are connections in your brain that are created each time you learn something new or have a new experience.

Neural pathways are strengthened each time you experience that same situation over and over again. Donald Hebb, a Canadian neuropsychologist known for his work in the field of associative learning famously said,

"Neurons that fire together, wire together."

The more you experience something, or the more you think about something, the stronger those neural pathways become. This repetition creates your habits, your thought patterns, and your comfort zone.

Think you have big goals that require a big comfort zone stretch? Several years ago, I read an article in Wired magazine about a long-distance runner named Dean Karnazes.

Get this:

• He ran fifty marathons in fifty states on fifty consecutive days.
• He once ran 350 miles in three days—without stopping and with no sleep.
• He’s run the Badwater Ultra Marathon eleven times. It starts in Death Valley, 250 feet below sea level and concludes, 135 miles later, halfway up Mt. Witney, at 8,360 feet. He won the race in 2004 on his fifth attempt.
• He runs 100 to 170 miles a week.
• He couldn’t find time to run 4-6 hours a day, so he began sleeping less. He currently sleeps four hours a night.
• His resting heart rate is 39 beat per minute!
  

In another interview in Outside magazine, Dean makes an important point that many of us have forgotten:

Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s little real struggle in our lives. Little sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes pretty easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I pushing hard and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.

This rings true for me. I think there are three reasons why we should embrace discomfort by stretching outside our comfort zone, whether we deliberately choose it, or it simply happens to us.

• Comfort is overrated. It doesn’t lead to happiness. It makes us lazy—and forgetful. It often leads to self-absorption, boredom, and discontent.
• Discomfort is a catalyst for growth. It makes us yearn for something more. It forces us to change, stretch, and adapt.
• Discomfort is a sign we’re making progress. You’ve heard the expression, “no pain, no gain.” It’s true! When you push yourself to grow, you will experience discomfort.
  

A few years ago, I started a daily practice of meditation. It sounded easy enough. Boy, was I wrong! It has proven to be incredibly challenging to sit for thirty minutes straight. But that’s the very reason I value it. I feel like I’m making progress by doing something that isn’t easy for me.

The more you deliberately stretch outside your comfort zone, the more comfortable you will become with doing so. Basically, if you can be at ease outside the confines of what's familiar, you'll feel more confident in your ability to handle what life throws at you.

Famed psychologist Abraham Maslow said, “One can choose safety or growth. Growth must be chosen again and again. Fear must overcome again and again. Life is a series of choices. Success and fulfillment in life is making the growth choice every time.”

The bottom line is this: we can either be comfortable and stagnate or stretch ourselves—become uncomfortable—and grow. We may think that comfort leads to happiness. It doesn’t. Happiness comes from growth and feeling like we're making progress.

(Check out our post on the Progress Principle)

“Get out and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone.”
                           --Bob Parson, Digital Entrepreneur

To your greater success and happiness,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees, please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.