What Geese Can Teach Us About Shared Leadership and Teamwork

I feel fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest. It's an outdoor person's paradise. One of the many delights of the Fall season is hearing the beautiful call of the Canadian geese which alerts you to look up in the sky. The first image of the skein (or flock) of geese reminds me of a floating black ribbon or the tail of a kite. 

In November the sky is alive with ribbons of geese gracefully swooping and looping sometimes bearing left and sometimes right. These maneuvers seem to give the stray birds time to catch up to the throng. 

When you watch the flock closely you realize that the geese are all leaders and followers each taking a turn. Alternately leading and following creates a perfect rhythm which enables them to get to their faraway winter destination. 

I believe there are several lessons in shared leadership and teamwork that we can learn from the goose. Geese are intriguing creatures and while considered pests in certain situations, they also have an incredibly strong sense of family and group loyalty. Probably one of the most phenomenal geese facts is that their desire to return to their birth place every year is so strong that they will often fly up to 3,000 miles to get there. 

Lesson #1: Empowering Others to Lead

When the lead goose in the front gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and allows another goose to take the leadership position. 
  
The lesson here is to empower others to also lead. It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. 
As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities, and unique arrangement of gifts, talents, or resources.

Lesson #2: Staying Committed to Core Values and Purpose

The geese migration routes never vary. They use the same route year after year. Even when the flock members change, the young learn the route from their parents. In the spring they will go back to the spot where they were born. 
  
The lesson to learn here is to stay true to our core values and purpose. 
  
Strategies, tactics may change in order remain agile, but great organizations always stick to their core purpose and values, and preserve them with vigor

Lesson #3: Offering Support in Challenging Times

When a goose gets sick or wounded, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. 

They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock. 

The lesson here is to stand by each other in difficult times. It’s easy to always be part of winning teams, but when things get difficult and people are facing challenges, that’s when your teammates need you the most. 

Lesson #4 Encouraging and Recognizing Other’s Contribution

The geese honk to recognize each other and encourage those up front to keep up their speed. The lesson here is to make sure we praise people and give them the recognition they deserve. 
  
Lack of recognition is one of the main reasons employees are unsatisfied at work and quit. 
  
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. 

In groups where there is encouragement, the production is greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. 

Lesson #5 Sharing a Common Goal

As each goose flaps its wings it creates “uplift”, an aerodynamics orientation that reduces air friction, for the birds that follow. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock achieves a 70% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone. 



The lesson we can learn here is that people who share a common direction and goal can get where they are going quicker and with less effort because they benefit from the momentum of the group moving around them. 
  
Make sure your team is aligned towards a common goal. 

Lesson #6 Having Humility to Seek Help

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the friction of flying alone. 
  
It then quickly adjusts its mistake and moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it. 

The lesson we can learn here is to be humble to admit the challenges we face and to seek help as soon as we get stuck. 
  
This humility will enable you, your team, to move faster and achieve more. 

A Story About Geese 

A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. 
  
One of the flock had been captured by a gardener, who had clipped its wings before releasing it. 

When the geese started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift itself into the air. The others, observing his struggles, flew about in obvious efforts to encourage him; but it was no use. 

Thereupon, the entire flock settled back on the pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong within them. For several days they waited until the damaged feathers had grown sufficiently to permit the goose to fly. 

Meanwhile, the unethical gardener, having been converted by the ethical geese, gladly watched them as they finally rose together and all resumed their long flight. 

--Albert Schweitzer 

To your greater success!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Facilitator

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, service providers, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength 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.

13 Ways Leaders Can Build A 'Coaching Culture' At Work

Building a coaching culture in the workplace better positions organizations and companies to grow talent which will help grow the organization. But what exactly is a "coaching culture," and how can leaders make this part of their everyday environment?

A coaching culture simply means supporting your employees so that they learn new skills and are able to make greater contributions to the company, the community and all the people they impact. A coaching culture is a collaborative environment where leaders have regularly scheduled interactions with employees to develop and retain top talent through well thought out coaching practices. 

A company that emphasizes coaching, training, regular feedback, and opportunities for growth creates a more engaged and energized workforce.

Below, are 13 things leaders can do to get started: 

1. Be Clear And Strategic 

If you don't already have a clear definition of what coaching is, you need to have one so everyone in the company is in sync with what it means, especially compared to mentoring, training, consulting, etc. If your company doesn't have a definition here's one you can adapt: Coaching is a deliberate process using focused conversations to create an environment for individual growth, purposeful action and sustained improvement.

Then, ensure coaching is not just an "ad hoc" activity but is truly integrated into your overall talent management strategy. Ask yourself how coaching fits with all other aspects of your employee lifecycle?

2. Lead By Example 

If you think your team could benefit from coaching, engage a coach for yourself. Find someone who delivers what you are hoping to provide for your team. If you achieve the desired results, then share your experiences with your team. Leading by example will change the paradigm of "you need assistance, but I'm just fine," to "I have benefited, and now I want you to experience this." 

Start by teaching senior leaders the skills of coaching including listening, asking questions, encouraging others to reflect and develop insights before taking action. Then guide them to coach their most respected team members. As these “influencers” gain traction from being coached, they will be open to learning and modeling the same coaching behaviors. Over time, a coaching culture will emerge.

3. Ask Your Employees The Right Questions 

A coaching culture encourages employees to learn from their experience by exploring the right questions rather than telling them what to do and how to do it. Next time an employee has a challenge ask them open-ended questions that begin with "how" or "what." For instance, "What would you have done differently? and "How can I support you?" This way you empower employees to come up with meaningful solutions.

4. Ask More Questions Than You Answer 

When someone asks you what to do, ask them what they think will work. Ask how they came to that conclusion. Ask what alternatives they've considered. Show them that you value their input, and empower them to make decisions and be ready to defend them. Over time, you’ll find that people will begin to bring you solutions instead of problems, and they’ll encourage their teams to do the same

5. Establish A Coaching Routine 

You can’t be a runner without putting in weekly miles, and you can’t have a coaching culture without a coaching routine. One high-performing sales manager at Salesforce creates a coaching culture by allocating an entire day each week to coaching. On Tuesdays her 10+ direct reports get 30 minutes of one-on-one coaching — time completely dedicated to their developmental needs.

6. Just Do It 

Coaching is a way of being, and as such, you can't simply integrate it. You just have to understand what it is and do it. It's not the same as adding carrots to your stew. So the key is to educate teams about what coaching is and then have them do it — coach each other. Have a weekly group coaching session with a coach to help answer questions and demonstrate.

7. Bring in Training and Coaching

If you are going to successfully integrate coaching into your workplace culture, you must engage expert coaches to train individuals at all levels of the organization in coaching practice. Too often, companies try to bring what they call "coaching" in, which is not actual coaching, but more like mentoring, advising or training. 

Training is teaching someone what to do, why or how to do it and perhaps when and where to do it. Coaching is helping a person with that knowledge attain a higher level of quality and performance. Training and coaching each do something fundamentally different and each work best when complimented by the other. 

You also need to ensure there is alignment at all levels and evaluate effectiveness. 

8. Hold Managers Accountable For Developing Employees 

Create a coaching culture by tying this activity to the organization's mission, and hold every manager accountable for coaching employees to help them master their jobs and learn new skills. Create a structured process with clear goals for coaching employees. Be sure to make time and resources available to guarantee success. Reward managers who meet or exceed these goals and coach those who don't.

9. Develop A Learn/Do Culture Where Teams Learn to Self-Coach 

The days of sitting in five-day courses designed to "fix" skill deficiencies are done. The new model for high performance is to implement hands-on, learn/do programs related to specific business outcomes, where teams receive on the job training and coaching from an expert, and hold themselves accountable to perform at a high level.

10. Live What You Claim 

Ever joined an organization that claimed they had an open-door policy but that door was always closed? To cultivate a coaching culture you need to create a workplace that walks the walk. Coaching, training, regular feedback and evaluation schedules, valuing different voices, rotating team leadership opportunities, and mentorship programs will create an interdependent and energized workplace. 

11. Have Lunch Bite Drop-In Sessions 

Teach people how to be with one another and listen through short introductory coaching lunch drop-in sessions. Many people say they listen when in fact they just wait their turn to speak. Coaching skills teach people how to deeply listen, stay curious, and locate the root of an issue fast. 

12. Gain Buy-In And Practice 

Coaching is real-time development by all team members to all team members. It's about practice, not perfection. Start asking questions to help individuals gain more insight on what happened and how they can handle it next time versus just telling them what to do. This gains buy-in and puts them in the driver seat. They will take on more ownership and know they have you for support and resources.  

13. Measure Employee Engagement Before and After The Implementation of Your Talent Development Programs

The primary reason for issuing engagement surveys is to measure the engagement level of your employees. Measuring the key drivers of engagement within your organization will allow you to assess whether your employees are engaged or disengaged. While there are no standard drivers of engagement, some commonly assessed factors are:   Training and development opportunities, recognition, pay & benefits, job role, leadership, work environment, etc. Engagement surveys are crucial because they give employees a venue for open feedback. 

Surveys are an opportunity to establish two-way communication and involve employees in the development process by giving them a direct voice to the management team. Being actively involved in the planning process makes employees realize that they have a stake in the company and that their opinions are valued.

Conducting an employee engagement before and after the implementation of coaching program will help gauge its effectiveness. Designing and implementing an employee engagement survey is far easier and less expensive and time consuming than most leaders think.

To your greater success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Facilitator and Trainer

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how coaching can benefit your organization? 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, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.





  















  

How To Slay The Vampires Of No Accountability

They lurk in the dark shadows near the break room. Their mere presence, and longevity remind all that what surrounds them is a less-than-optimal work culture. They are every hard-working manager’s nightmare.  As “owners” of the culture, they take pride in their power of destruction.  

Complaining daily of perceived failed promises, organizational ideocracy, lack of fair compensation and appreciation, they whittle away at the team’s morale one hour at a time.  Every new hire who comes onto the team is ceremoniously on-boarded with their version of “the truth.”  High hopes and enthusiastic energy is sucked from the new employee until their well is dry.

“Don’t work too hard or they will give you more to do.”

“They never hold anyone accountable here.”

“We have seen it all before, nothing ever changes.”

 “Management doesn’t care about us.”

“Everyone here quits after a year.”

Except these people don’t. They linger and linger and continue to drain the life-blood out of the manager who has inherited them and employees who have to work with them.  They are the Vampires of No Accountability (VONA) and keepers of the flame of the negative workplace culture.

How does a well-meaning leader mitigate the impact or remove these culture killers who drain you dry?

First and foremost, they must be identified. Listen to the language of your employees. Who among them persists with a “my work life sucks” daily attitude, performs at the bare minimum and occupies 80% of your time with their complaints?

Have a list now?

Most leaders can easily identify the VONA on their teams within minutes.  The sad fact is that they don’t know what to do next. The VONA are well-schooled in riding the line of acceptable behavior. In fact, they have perfected the art of making the air around them so toxic that most managers avoid them at all costs. However, no matter how uncomfortable it is to deal with them, your workplace culture will never change until they are released to other opportunities.

That’s right, gone.

The truth is that VONA are incapable of rehabilitation. They have such little self-awareness or care for others that motivation and empathy are simply words on an engagement poster that the “company” puts up in the break room. The other challenging factor is that they don’t want to go. Why would someone so unhappy with their work environment want to stay, you may ask? It’s simple. Well situated in their VONA role they don’t have to be accountable. They can do the bare minimum and blame everyone else for failures. There are a million reasons why they can’t do their job, complete the report on time, make a difference, or engage in problem solving. They are simply…” too busy and overworked”.  Their answer is always…what you are asking of them is impossible. And stupid. And not fair.

The answer to riding your team of the VONA, barring wearing necklaces of garlic, is to ignore them. That’s right. Ignore them.

Just like the age-old advice that Mom and Dad dispelled regarding your 8th-grade bullies. By ignoring the VONA you take away their life-sucking power. If no one is willing to drop what they are doing to listen to the 5,467th complaint they have this week, and “fix” the things not working in the department, what would they do?

Complaining is the life-blood of the VONA. It feeds their ego and their entitlement fantasy. It validates why they are not performing at a high level. The true path to ridding your team of these blood-suckers is to literally focus all of your coaching, mentoring attention to those on the team that are putting forth effort- and reward them. 

Look for those teammates who have a sense of the greater good, a few ideas about improvement, and ask meaningful questions as it relates to working smarter, not harder.  Find your employees that are confident and feel good about themselves and engage them in working together for a more noble cause. Find a common concern that is bigger than any one person and invite them to problem solve together to remove barriers for all. Let the VONA know they are invited but that’s it. No begging, no pleading, no kowtowing to “needing them” on the team.

The number one mind-blowing fact to engagement is that it starts with the individual employee. 

Motivation is self-owned. Managers can inspire, support, coach, and encourage self-development and growth but ultimately that leap from renter to owner is the employee’s decision.

Great leaders will spot the burgeoning seeds of excitement and stoke the fire daily to inspire.

Great leaders will also understand that allowing VONA to reside and breathe toxicity within the team is the biggest mistake they can make.

Teams would rather work short than deal with the draining energy of a toxic employee. According to the Harvard Business Review,  “people close to a toxic employee are more likely to become toxic themselves, but the good news is that the risk also subsides quickly. As soon as you put some physical distance between the offender and the rest of the team – for example, by rearranging desks, reassigning projects, scheduling fewer all-hands meetings you’ll see the situation start to improve.”

Grab your list of VONA. Commit to the following for 30-60 days and see what happens to your team’s culture.

+ Distance yourself and the team from the daily complaints. Do not allow VONA to take up more than 30 minutes of your time weekly. When complaints are voiced offer to meet with them to discuss but set a date at least 7 days away. Do not reward bad behavior by stopping what you are doing to entertain their latest complaint.

+ Set expectations for the VONA. Empathize(initially) with their dissatisfaction. Acknowledge their feelings and suggest ways they can be part of the solution or self-sooth if it is a working constraint. Role model professional behavior always.

+ Identify specific language and behaviors that are unacceptable in your working environment. Don’t’ shy away from having the “If you are really so unhappy maybe this might not be the right fit for you right now” conversation. No one can argue that they have a choice to look elsewhere to find happiness.

+ Spend 80% of your coaching time on those employees that are engaged and working together harmoniously. Assure them that you are working on establishing limits within the workplace culture. Invite them to peer interview all new hires with the agreed upon team values. Dilute the pool on your team to water down the effects of the VONA.

+ Document everything. Unfortunately, many VONA will not go down without a good fight. It is your job to show them the light if they are unable or unwilling to perform as expected. This includes behaviorally. Specific, clear expectations and consequences for non-compliance are necessary.

+ Recognize the tipping point. When the VONA begin to leave (either from self-direction or your direction) notice the mood and engagement of the other teammates. Are they helping you to recruit? Are they more engaged? These signs point to the positive shift of the culture. Hold on and stay consistent. Do not hire “a body” just to fill a position. This is a crucial time in culture development and patience will pay off in the long term.
Celebrate small wins. The loss of one VONA can have HUGE impacts on the team’s morale. The weight is lifted. Enjoy the shadowless corridors.

+ Don’t forget your own mental health. Fighting the VONA daily is exhausting. Be sure to find ways to decompress and fill your bucket with meaningful work. Do not let them infect you, or worse, escort you to the dark side.

You must protect your team from the Vampires of No Accountability much like you would protect them from a virus (In this case it's the negativity virus). Immunize your newly energized culture with rewards, recognition, and attention. Remind them how much they have accomplished together and how far they have come. Do not allow new VONA to join your team, no matter how short. You have the power to upend the culture of significant drama and infighting.

Lead your team into the sunlight.

To your greater success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com
Mobile: 323-854-1713

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.

A Profile In Positive Leadership

Jerry was the kind of guy you loved to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When any one would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “IF I WERE ANY BETTER, I WOULD BE TWINS!”

He was unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason why we waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there listening to the employee and telling them how to look at the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive, up person all the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry you have two choices today. You can chose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim, or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes complaining to me, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can help them create a solution, I choose to help them see the positive side of life.’

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said “Life is about choices. When you cut away the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good or bad mood. If you find yourself with an attitude that is not what you want, you can choose another one. You can’t choose a positive attitude everyday. True. But you do choose some type of attitude everyday. 

The bottom line: It’s your choice how to live your life.”

I reflected in what Jerry said. Soon thereafter I left the restaurant to go to college at an out of state university. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door, Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared, I asked?” “Absolutely,” Jerry replied.

Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

 “What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘BULLETS!!’

 Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his nurses and doctors, but also, because of his incredible attitude. I learned from him that every day we have a choice to live fully.

To your greater success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach and Trainer

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

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.

Lessons from the NFL on How to Close More Business

Ahhhhh…..  The NFL football season is well underway. We are a few weeks in, and there is still hope for all teams! Players and coaches are watching game and practice film to find ways to help players get better.

I read a piece by Peter King from SI.com about his conversation with Ellis Hobbs – former cornerback with the New England Patriots. He was talking about how much respect he had for head coach Bill Belichick.

He said, “Early in my career, Bill called me into his office, and we sat there – for a long time – studying film. He taught me to look for the simple things, and not to make football so complicated. I got better. I was with one of the best coaches of all time, and he helped me become a better player.”

In sales, too, you can become a better producer if you concentrate on the simple things and doing them better. Here are two things you can do starting today to increase your closing ratio and make more money:

1. Keep a record of the reasons your prospects don’t close and then concentrate on qualifying for these issues up front with all future prospects. This was one of the simplest and most effective habits I developed to get better.

I kept a notebook with all my prospects in it and every time they didn’t buy, I’d put in red ink the reason why not. I even broke it down to three codes: NI, for No Interest; NM for No Money; and NC for Not Controllable. And then throughout the weeks and months that followed, I’d go back through my notebook and look for patterns and ask myself, 

“What do I need to focus on during the qualification stage?”

If too many prospects were not buying because they simply weren’t ready or interested, then “No Interest” needed to be addressed on the front call. I’d start by asking more questions like:  

“Prospect, if you find that this would work for you, what is your time frame for moving ahead with it?”

And so on. Bottom line – if you don’t get it right on the front end then you’ll never increase your closing ratio on the back end.

2. Ask for larger orders on every close. Oh I know, you’ve heard this before, right? But how often do you actually do it? So many sales reps are afraid to ask for too much and are just happy to get a minimum order. I know because I used to be that way.

But my career turned around when I began asking for larger orders on every single call. And what I learned is that you never know how much a person or company can handle. You can always go down (in price, quantity, etc.), but it’s much harder to go up.

The truth is, it’s all the same amount of work anyway, so why not ask for two times, or three times the minimum order and see what you get! If only one in ten of your prospects buy the increased amount, how much more money would that mean to you?

The fun part about consistently asking for more is that you’ll end up getting more – and every time you do, you’ll reinforce the habit to do it. And as soon as you get a taste of closing bigger deals, you begin looking for and expecting them. Try it and you’ll see for yourself – it’s one of the simplest things you can do to make a lot more money.

So there you have it – two simple ways of closing more business and making more money. Just remember, as you’re reading this article, NFL players and coaches are working on the simple things to improve. You should be doing so, too!

To your greater success,

Peter C. Mclees, Sales Coach and Trainer
Smart Development
petercmclees@gmail.com
Mobile: 323-854-1713


We help sales reps and sales organizations accelerate their sales.

How to Get Clarity, Accountability and Results in Five Minutes

FRUSTRATION!

The team and I had just invested three hours wrestling with significant issues.

We defined the criteria that would make for a good decision…we had healthy debate among different opinions…we listened…we looked for alternatives…we considered consequences to the organization…we pushed hard looking for the best answers…

And finally we made a decision.

Or we thought we did.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Six weeks later we were back together to discuss results.

And everyone looked at each other…

Maybe you know the look – a little nervous, eyes wide, searching the room for safety in numbers.

No one had followed through on what we’d decided to do.

Not one person.

After spending all that time and energy to arrive at a productive solution, nothing happened.

We had wasted our time.

What happened?

A DECISION IS NOT A DECISION WITHOUT…

Many teams and leaders have experienced this frustrating lack of follow-through after decisions are made.

It can happen even with a team of high caliber, motivated people who take their work seriously.

The reason is that in arriving at a decision, you have only answered one out of four essential questions.

You have answered the “Why”, as in: “Why do we want to do this?”

The answers to the next three questions take a decision from being a nice idea and turn it into reality – something that gets done.

And the good news is that for most decisions, it only takes five minutes to answer them:

1. Who Is Doing What?

Until someone is actually doing something, nothing has changed from before you made the decision.

Until then, it is just a nice idea.

Keen readers will recognize two questions here: what is being done? who is doing it?

I prefer to combine them because it forces ownership. There is no task without a specific person having responsibility for completing it.

For smaller decisions there might be only one or two answers to this question. For larger strategic initiatives you might have an entire work plan outline dozens of tasks and people responsible.

2. By When?

As a team, agree upon deadlines for tasks to be completed.

When these deadlines are shared and publicly available, everyone is much more likely to meet them.

3. How Will We Know?

This is a critical question and the one teams most frequently ignore.

When someone completes a task, what do they do next?

• Do they need to pass the results to another person or group?
• Should they update the team and let them know?
• Will they make a presentation of their findings?
• Do they report completion in a project management software?

The specific answers depend on the task and project.

The point is accountability and efficiency.

Everyone knows what they are accountable to do, the team knows if it’s been completed, and no one is left waiting around for information they need.

STAND OUT

Who is doing what? By When? How will we know?

You can ask these questions whether you are the positional leader of a group or not.

In fact, it’s a great way to establish yourself as a leader who gets things done – people notice when you produce clarity, accountability, and results.

These questions aren’t new – you probably learned them in your earliest school days.

Despite their simplicity, many teams struggle to get things done because they don’t get clear answers to every one of these questions.

If you want anything to change, they are the most important five minutes you’ll spend.

To your greater success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Organizational Facilitator

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.

Replacing the Old Annual Performance Review System Isn't the Only Answer

Your employees want feedback. You want to improve their performance and help them in their careers. And yet, both giving and receiving feedback appear to be universally loathed.

It’s no longer news that annual reviews are unpopular. The headline of a 2013 Washington Post article summed up the then-new research: “Study finds that basically every single person hates performance reviews.” 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that only 30 percent of people actually incorporate feedback, making it not only unpleasant but unproductive.

Only 30 percent of people actually incorporate feedback, making it both unpleasant and unproductive 

On the other side of the desk, according to a recent Zenger/Folkman survey, 44 percent of managers agreed that giving negative feedback was stressful — so stressful, in fact, 21 percent “admitted they avoid giving negative feedback” altogether.

Moving Away From the Old Annual Review System

Employees feel ambushed if they only get feedback once a year.

As researchers have identified some of the problems of once-a-year feedback over the last few years, a number of big names — from Adobe to Zappos — made news ditching or supplementing annual reviews. There’s good reason for those moves. Annual reviews make everyone involved anxious, putting a strain on the relationship between those giving and receiving feedback. Employees feel ambushed if they only get feedback once a year. And, in fact, annual reviews are likely to focus solely on recent events. It’s hard for anything that happens in such a fraught and biased context to yield positive results.

Yet, only some of the challenges of feedback are the result of cramming it all into one tension-filled annual ritual. Certainly, more frequent feedback “lowers the stakes in each of the conversations.” But supplementing or replacing the annual review process doesn’t address the emotional challenges of feedback. 

In fact, increasing the frequency without creating a real culture of feedback can aggravate the original problems, rather than resulting in more accurate data and happier, more productive teams.

Your Brain On Feedback 

We’ve all been on the receiving end of feedback that made us feel bad in one way or another: We know it can affect employees’ commitment and engagement. 

Ironically, it can even diminish their ability to perform.

According to David Rock, director of the NeuroLeadership Institute, “People who feel betrayed or unrecognized at work experience it as a neural impulse, as powerful and painful as a blow to the head.” This may sound like hyperbole. However, because our brains “experience the workplace first and foremost as a social system,” feedback can, in fact, trigger a threat response.

For example, humans, you may have noticed, are incredibly sensitive to questions of fairness. Rock notes, “The perception that an event has been unfair…stir[s] hostility and undermin[es] trust” — either of which can make teamwork impossible.

Perhaps the trigger most recognizable to those of us who aren’t neuroscientists is uncertainty. Uncertainty takes a toll because we’re expending extra neural energy worrying. That’s energy we can’t use to call up memories or focus on what we’re doing.

Uncertainty takes a toll because we’re expending extra neural energy worrying.

“The threat response is both mentally taxing and deadly to the productivity of a person — or of an organization. Because this response uses up oxygen and glucose from the blood, they are diverted from other parts of the brain, including the working memory function, which processes new information and ideas. This impairs analytic thinking, creative insight, and problem solving,” Rock writes in Managing with the Brain in Mind.

And while it’s true that most of us have learned to cope with some level of negative feedback, there is the real danger of becoming disengaged in response.

Getting It Right

The benefits of getting feedback right are significant:
• More accurate feedback
• Better performance, including more successful teams
• Increased retention

Getting it right doesn’t just mean avoiding a threat response; it triggers a reward response. Everyone becomes “more effective, more open to ideas, and more creative” because we’re able to take in things we can’t if we’re feeling resentful or afraid.

Higher-quality conversations drive trust and engagement, key to the efficiency gains, better knowledge sharing, and growth potential that are key in agile organizations.

To your greater success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Organizational Facilitator

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.