Transform Your Team's Performance with the 1% Better Rule

 

How Small And Simple Actions Everyday Lead to Big Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Inches Make the Champion.”   

                           —Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame Football Coach

When water is at 211 degrees, it is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. And with water boiling comes steam…and with steam you can power a train.

Applying one percent, or in this case one extra degree, of temperature to water means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine—a beautifully uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed our every endeavor—consistently pushing us to give the 1% extra effort in every task, and action we undertake.

Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal distributions when repeated over time. The people and organizations that can do the right things, more consistently are more likely to maintain a slight edge and accumulate disproportionate rewards over time.

You only need to be slightly better than your competition, but if you are able to maintain a slight edge today and tomorrow and the day after that, then you can repeat the process of winning by just a little bit over and over again.

This is called the 1% Better Rule. The 1% Better Rule states that over time the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives. You don't need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that embodies the 1% Better Rule. Kaizen translated into English means good change. In the 1960’s, products made in Japan were considered junk. The Kaizen philosophy helped Japanese companies learn to  manufacture some of the best products in the world. This resulted in the Japanese gaining significant market share of vehicles and electronics.

The 1% Better Rule is not merely a reference to the fact that small differences accumulate into significant advantages, but also to the idea that those who are 1% better rule their respective fields and reap the rewards.

Here are some amazing examples from the field of sports:

Golf

·         2.28—the average margin of victory in strokes at the Masters (.57 strokes per day)

·         76%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at the Masters.

Horse Racing

·         4.55—average margin of victory in lengths at the Kentucky Derby.

·         260%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at the Kentucky Derby.

Auto Racing

·         0.082—average margin of victory in seconds at the Daytona 500.

·         53%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at Daytona.

Many years ago when asked what the most powerful force in the universe was, Albert Einstein said, “compound interest.” There’s a force at work in all of us that’s  just as powerful. Just as compound interest allows your money to grow on itself,  Incremental improvement allows your skills and productivity to grow on themselves.

In short, if you want to improve your skills, it’s not about some one-time transformative event or conference. No, your best approach is to get a little bit better everyday. You can’t make quantum leap improvements each day (there are certainly situations where a new idea, technique or approach may in a short time drastically improve your skills or abilities, but you can’t rely on these occurring regularly.) If you want to get 10% better at a particular leadership skill in the next 30 days, that might seem daunting.  But can you get 1% better every day for a month? That seems easier and more realistic. We can all get 1% better each day.

So let’s do the math. We’ll just use the working days and assume 20 working days in the next thirty (even though there are plenty of ways to work on leadership development every day).  At the end of our 30 days, we will have improved by: 20.81%. This is certainly a powerful concept for us personally and should cause you to be excited and ready to start learning, but this is just the start.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The power of incremental improvement is perhaps the most when considered as an organizational leadership development idea. Ask yourself this question: What would happen to productivity, operational excellence and results overall if everyone on my team improved by 1% each day? Now you don’t have one person improving 20.81% in a month, but EVERYONE improving by that amount!

And this is just month one.

Want a strategic leadership initiative? Recent research has revealed that leadership is a set of 22 core skills. Build a process, tools and expectations to help everyone in your organization work on a single skill each month, with the goal of getting 1% better each day. Then, move to another skill next month. 

Here's a 1% better action leaders can take right now: Thank someone or "catch someone doing something right" once more each business day and that will equal 200 more times each year. In the book, "How Full is Your Bucket," the authors reveal how 1% better actions like a 30-second praise can positively affect your relationships, productivity, and health. Click here to download the 6-page book summary.

The 1% better rule is not only a message of action--it's a message of persistence and additional action--the continual application of effort to whatever task or activity you undertake in order to achieve not only the primary objective you seek, but reap the exponential rewards that are possible with the 1% extra effort.

Small positive change can add up to big bucks as the examples from golf, horse racing and auto racing so clearly illustrate.

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 culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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.

 

7 Leadership Lessons From Great Basketball Coaches

 

 

 

 

 

 

March madness is sweeping the country. The NCAA basketball tournament is a welcome diversion for many of us during these challenging times.

When I was a young blade the first thing I remember purchasing with my own money that I earned was a basketball. I've always loved the game. I know longer  play but I do enjoy watching, especially college games. 

Time spent watching and really observing these exciting games has gotten me thinking about the lessons we all can take from the paid leaders of these teams - the head coaches. Even if you're not a basketball fan, I encourage you to read on because the lessons are powerful for everyone - fan and non-fan alike. 

These seven lessons are reinforced for me by the best basketball coaches. Look for the lessons you can apply today.

1) Great coaches flex their system, but not their philosophy. All great coaches have a coaching philosophy. They know it takes skill in all phases of the game, but it's their philosophy that informs their focus. Some coaches always have great rebounding teams; some focus on a fast break offense; some are defensive minded. Yet, if their current lineup gives them different strengths, they may flex their system or make adjustments to best take advantage of the current talent. 

Non-basketball leaders can do the same thing - focus on your core philosophy, yet be flexible in implementation based on the circumstances and talent on your team.

2) Great coaches measure performance. Of course, wins and losses are measured, but the best coaches measure far deeper than that. Assist to turnover ratios, number of offensive rebounds, number of steals, and free throw percentage in the last five minutes of games are just a few examples. What they can measure in their context is almost endless. Coaches who focus on rebounding will have deeper and more extensive rebounding measures that they follow. Those measures inform them on progress, development needs and more. 

The important lesson for us is that they measure those things that are important to winning, based on their philosophy. We must do the same if we want to achieve top performance. 

3) Great coaches practice everything (in a variety of ways). Supervised practice for college basketball teams begins several weeks before games. And once the season begins teams still practice most every day (including having walk throughs and film sessions on game day). They practice fundamentals and simulate particular game situations, so players are prepared for every situation on the floor. Most leaders in organizations fall far short in this area. 

Are you taking or allowing time for walk throughs, practice and review of results? Are you allowing and helping people prepare for the tough situations that may occur on their jobs? If not, this is an opportunity area for you and those you lead. 

4) Great coaches recognize and utilize passion and enthusiasm. Have you ever seen a really disengaged basketball coach? Like non-athletic leaders, different coaches have different personalities, and therefore their passions and enthusiasm may manifest differently, but they all show passion - typically so plainly that even the last person in the arena knows how the coach feels from moment to moment. They all are enthusiastic, and they all support and extend the passion and enthusiasm of their teams. 

Are you doing the same? If not, try the "Act As If" principle. Act enthusiastic and you'll be enthusiastic!

5) Great coaches are products of their coaches. Watch college basketball for long and you will hear about "coaching trees." This coach coached under that guy, who actually played for coach X. Coaches obviously benefit from a network of past bosses (a lesson for us), but the best also regularly credit their former coaches and mentors in helping to develop their skills and philosophies. Generally speaking, I'm not sure most leaders are as consciously aware of what they have learned from their former bosses. 

There are two lessons here. Make it a priority to learn from the best, and reflect and recognize what lessons and principles you have learned from others that you can apply for yourself as a leader. And, give credit to your coaches as often as you can!) 

6) Great coaches define their team broadly. The best coaches want their players to succeed both on and off the court. The best coaches start or extend these "coaching trees" by developing their assistant coaches. The best college coaches recognize the role they play as a part of the larger organization (the college or university in their cases). 

Leaders can learn from this example as well. When you define your role broadly you allow yourself to have greater impact and more overall success. 

7) Great coaches coach! They aren't just managers or leaders. They actually coach! They recognize that an important part of their job is to develop others and help them reach their potential. Perhaps they have an advantage because their job title is coach. 

Your title may not remind you of this priority every day (and you may say you have other priorities). However, if you look closely at the other everyday tasks of a head coach you will find many of the same tasks and distractions you face. Yet the best "coaches" don't stop coaching.  

The best "leaders" shouldn't either.

Click here to read a related post:  You Can't Be A Great Leader If You're Not Coaching Your Team

Stay hungry and humble,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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.

Curiosity: An Essential Attitude for Leaders During Rapid Change

 

If you’re a leader, a business owner, an investor, a manager, a salesperson, or a problem-solver, one of the greatest assets you can have for thriving during rapid change is your thirst for answers—your curiosity.

The Curious Thing About Curiosity

All of us have untold potential. Yet it’s easy to fall into behaviors that prevent us from reaching what we are capable of. These behaviors are almost always the result of self-limiting beliefs. There are millions of them:

I can’t lose control because the world will spin apart.
I can’t love because I’ll be hurt.
I can’t speak up because I’ll be put down.
I can’t challenge the status quo because I’ll be punished.
I can’t try because I’ll fail.

Although none of these things may be true, many people act as though they are. And limit themselves as a result.

Each of these beliefs is personal. It’s easy to see how they might affect a person's behavior, happiness, or chances for success. But underlying them all is another limiting belief—one that is more insidious and in many ways harder to deal with than any of the others. It is the belief that the way things ‘are’ is permanent.

“It is what it is” may be true.
“It will always be what it is” couldn’t be further from the truth.

Nothing is permanent. Your body and your mind change from moment to moment. Eventually, those changes (we call them aging) become so profound that you wear out: you cease to exist.

Even though we see the impermanence of life almost daily, we often cling to the belief that certain other things are permanent. Knowledge, for example, is permanent, isn't it?

Not at all. The history of science is the story of human beings converting what we know into what we thought we knew. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy thought the earth was the center of the universe with the sun and stars revolving around it. Today we know that our earth is a small planet on the outer edge of a remote galaxy billions of lightyears from the center of the universe.

And some time in the future even this sophisticated concept of the way things are will prove to be faulty. It will become as obsolete as Ptolemy’s.

Many people find the idea of impermanence unsettling. But there’s another way to look at it. Impermanence can actually be empowering.

If we can accept that everything is changing, and that even what we ‘know’ is not stable, we can actually exercise enormous influence over our lives. Far from making us helpless, this belief actually gives us leverage.

If Nothing Is Permanent, Curiosity Becomes A Source Of Power

Think of it this way: If what you ‘know’ to be true has become no longer true, and you act as though it still is true, you are probably limiting your options.

Here’s a story that illustrates this point: In traditional South Asian societies, elephants were trained as beasts of burden. If you owned an elephant, you were wealthy. But you had to invest in your asset. Not only did you have to feed and care for it, you also had to make sure it didn’t wander off, get into your neighbor’s garden, or accidentally knock over the outhouse.

How do you keep an elephant in place? If you don’t have easy access to metals and forges with which to make chains, it’s not easy. Elephants are strong.

But Indian mahouts discovered a simple and reliable method. Soon after a calf was born, it was tethered by a heavy rope to a tree or stake pounded into the ground. The rope was tied around the animal’s leg with a slip knot. If the calf pulled, the rope tightened painfully. Over time, even the slightest pressure from the rope would warn the baby elephant to back off.

Adult elephants are kept in place with a much lighter rope. They can easily break it. But they don’t. Because they assume things haven’t changed and the rope will still cause them pain. As smart as they are, the elephants aren’t curious enough to question whether what they once knew to be true still is.

Most of us have elephant’s tethers of our own. We repeat the same behaviors over and over, simply because “that’s the way things are”.

One simple way out of this mess is to be curious. Pull at the rope. See what happens. You never know, you might find there’s a whole world out there waiting for you to explore.

Curiosity To The Rescue

Curiosity—combined with courage—is the root of every major advance human beings have ever made. So how can leaders, managers, salespeople, and problem-solvers use curiosity to their advantage?

By harnessing the power of questions. From simple, informational questions to complex, probing ones, questions are the key. There’s nothing new in this. Socrates discovered the power of questions 2,500 years ago, and the world’s most successful leaders, thinkers, humanitarians, inventors, investors, and artists have been using it ever since.

The most basic questions are informational: who, what, where, when, how long, how much, and so on. When you meet a new person, you can use these basic questions to open up areas for mutual discovery. You can find commonalities and connections, you can give yourself the chance learn another person's perspectives.

The next level is the complex, often difficult question that relentlessly probes for causes, reasons, and speculations. This is where you begin to discover what’s working for other people—and what isn’t. What they hope for and what they fear. These questions open worlds of problems and opportunities and challenges and solutions.

Finally, there are the questions that have no answer. These are the ones that create the new—that move us both individually and as a species to the next level.

Questions—the basic tool of curiosity—activate a very different part of the brain than mere statements. Questions literally energize the brain.

A Simple Experiment

See for yourself. Here’s a quick thought experiment. Look at the following sentence and notice what happens in your mind when you read it:

New technologies will change the way we live.

Now look at the next sentence. Notice what goes on in your mind as you read it:

How might new technologies change the way we live?

If you’re like most people, you didn’t react much to the first sentence—the statement. It probably just sat there.

But the second sentence—the question—activated your mind. You may have imagined possible futures, or thought about how technology has already changed the way you live or do business. In other words, something happened when your curiosity was triggered. It’s almost as though you can’t help yourself. Once you encounter a question, your mind jumps to try to answer it.

Curiosity Generates Energy!

Curiosity is the way we build both knowledge about the world and connection with the people around us. It’s also how we discover the new.

Mutual curiosity is a kind of two-way street that carries the traffic of human thought, feeling, commerce, connection, and possibility.

Stay hungry and humble,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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 never really graduate from the school of leadership because...

 

“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.

I believe this is the central learning challenge for every leader. 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 the 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

Stay hungry and humble,

How to Be A Leader Who Personifies 'Grace Under Fire'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s no question about it: today’s workplace during a pandemic and economic disruption can be stressful. The long work hours, the endless flow of information, the competing demands on our attention, the rapid changes and uncertainty they bring—all of these factors and too many others to list can make us feel perpetually overwhelmed and out of control if not managed well.

Yet the conditions that lead to stress are not “bad.” They’re just reality. Every time in history has had its own set of stressors. And if you are a productive person your plate is always going to be full. When the conditions are managed well, they create incredibly fulfilling work. We can be grateful for that while also acknowledging that it’s not easy. But I always like to come back to what Scott Peck said in he Road Less Traveled : “Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult.”
 

It’s the leader’s job to deal with the conditions and problems that lead to stress in a way that keeps everyone on track. (Think about it this way: if things always went well we wouldn’t even need leaders!) And middle managers face even more of a challenge because they have to balance the needs (and stress) of their team with the expectations (and stress) of their leaders.

All that said, how we manage ourselves in the middle of the storm is everything. Relationships are defined by how we behave under stress. Difficult, busy times can put strain on relationships, but they can also forge stronger bonds if handled the right way. It all comes down to your ability to show grace under fire. When your team sees you pull things together and navigate them out of a tricky situation, it can be a huge credibility builder. Conversely, when they see you fall apart, it can create a trust deficit that is hard to recover from, even when things settle down.
 

How you behave when times are bad truly defines you as a leader and sets the tone for how others manage the situation. If you create a culture where people fall to pieces when things get tough, it will be too stressful for employees (and they will likely leave), productivity will suffer, and all this ultimately will make your job harder.

A few suggestions for managing yourself with grace under pressure :

First, eliminate as much stress as you can by being a well-run organization. Work to create a best odds environment for eliminating problems. Things will go wrong from time to time. You can’t control everything. However, there are lots of things you can control. Make sure you have good processes and procedures in place for eliminating avoidable headaches. For example:

+ Plan for disaster by learning from mistakes and fixing the culprits.

+ Identify stress points and think critically about who they impact. What is causing increased workloads? Use this evaluation to decide where to delegate work, and identify team members who might need additional support. (Don’t lower expectations. This will only breed excuses and erode performance over time.)

+ Say no (Or not yet) to some requests. This way you don’t have to scurry around trying to do them and then later explain why you didn’t get them done. 

+ Learn to prioritize (and teach others to as well.) Everyone is busy and they should be. Just use a prioritized list to work in a sensible order (evaluating daily what is most important). Often we try to close out small tasks to make room for bigger ones, when what we should be doing is prioritizing our to-do list and staying focused on the things that really matter. Just “getting things done” may feel good in the moment but what really matters is getting the big things done.
 

+ Simplify when things get stressful. Bring order and clear thinking o chaotic situations. Keep an eye on what really matters, and what can be cut away. A good leader can make a potentially crushing workload feel manageable. By taking a cool and methodical approach, you can make a huge difference in helping others stay focused and productive and keep their stress reactions in check.

Create a culture of focus and calm. Be sensitive to the messages you’re sending out. Model focus and calmness when things are chaotic. You teach your employees how to behave based on how you behave. The things leaders do, both positive and negative, get mirrored. And research shows that the ripple effect of negative emotions is considerably more intense than that of positive emotions. If employees see you panicking, they are likely to panic. If they see you staying calm and focused on solutions, they will mimic this behavior as well.

Also, try not to show physical signs of stress. Wringing your hands and pacing around anxiously will not make things better. In fact, it will likely make your employees  worried and stressed out, negatively impacting their performance.
Don’t blow things out of proportion. 

Do everything you can to keep a level head Sometimes our tempers flare when things are stressful. Try to avoid letting little things turn into big problems. When leaders lose their cool, problems only escalate. People get upset and their productivity plummets. Plus, explosions can cause long-term damage and tank a leader’s credibility. In the end, all of this means more time fixing avoidable problems.

Be careful about the words you use and the stories you tell. Avoid using words like “slammed” or “overwhelmed.” There is nothing wrong with stating that you are busy, but how you talk about being busy and carry yourself impacts others. It has a ripple effect. Just because you are stressed doesn’t mean everyone else has to be. Don’t bring your stress to the people.

Keep the past in its place Leaders can generate lot of stress for themselves and others by rehashing mistakes and misses. Yes, frame these mistakes as learning experiences but don’t keep talking about them over and over and telling the story. It just becomes gossip at that point. Instead of focusing on past challenges, look for what’s right and constantly celebrate bright spots. This shifts the focus inside the organization.

Don’t pretend to be fearless. A common mistake leaders make is to pretend that everything is fine when it clearly isn’t. Sometimes acknowledging that a situation or negative circumstances real, and possibly even scary, is the best way to build trust with your team and get them to invest 110 percent on solving the problem. This is not the same thing as getting bent out of shape. You can be honest and calm at the same time.

Put some ground rules in place to help others manage stress. Busy, stressful times are when you need cooperation and engagement the most. Yet it’s during these times that tension builds, emotions run hot, and people explode or otherwise behave badly. Recognize this and put a plan into place to help people deal with frustrations and conflict in a way that won’t harm the team’s ability to perform. For example, you might ask everyone to be mindful of their tone when communicating while under pressure. You might also ask others to jump in and help when they see a coworker getting overwhelmed. As a leader, you not only need to manage your own stress but also help others manage theirs as well.
 

Master a few tactics for calming yourself down and teach others to do the same If you feel yourself starting to get overwhelmed by stress, here are a few ways you can calm yourself down quickly:

+ Control your body. Don’t let it control you.

+ Walk away. Take a 20-minute break. Sometimes you have to do this.

+ Go for a walk. Physical activity is a great stress reliever. It can help you calm your mind and get some much-needed clarity around what needs to happen next. Little breaks like this are a great opportunity to plug in your headphones and listen to a quick song or audio file that might help relax you. Even better if you can get outside, even for just a moment. Most of the time, a little natural sunlight can make a big difference in our mood.

+ Open up your body and take a few deep breaths. Put your shoulders back, head up, and stand tall. Try to intentionally quiet your mind. This is a technique professional athletes have known and used for years to manage stress before a big game. Opening up the body allows for better blood flow, and deep breathing puts more oxygen in the blood and can help minimize the impact of cortisol (the stress hormone).

+ Count backward from 10. Do it twice if you have to. Shifting your focus from the problem at hand to a relatively simple task can help you come back to your work with a fresh set of eyes. It also helps your brain reset and refocus. Moving the focus away from your problem and onto an abstract thought, even one as simple as counting from 10, will also help you calm down, and control your emotional response. It forces you to use a different part of the brain.
 

Create a best odds plan for staying healthy. This gives you the stamina you need—both physical and mental—to cope with stress and keep going. Sleep well, eat well, stay hydrated, and generally take good care of your body so you’ll be in tip-top shape mentally. This requires discipline and planning, but health and well-being are too important to leave to chance. 

Good habits fall to the wayside during busy times. You may be tempted to skip lunch because you’re too busy to eat or you stayed up till 1 a.m. working. Remind yourself that this is counterproductive. You can’t perform if you are sleep-deprived and sugar-crashing because you didn’t take time to pack a nutritious lunch and ate from the vending machine instead. If you aren’t healthy you won’t be able to cope when tress levels kick into overdrive.

Be resilient/learn to reset Setbacks will happen. Leaders must be able to bounce back quickly and continue to move forward even when things appear to be falling apart. Resiliency is essential as leaders need to have the mental wherewithal to offer support and continue to direct their teams. Being resilient comes from having good coping skills, supportive environments with a lot of psychological safety, a strong sense of optimism, grit, and having the mental and physical stamina to sustain and move through stressful situations. Work on all of these factors but also know that resiliency also comes with growth.

As with everything else, experience counts for a lot. The more seasoned leaders will be better at handling stress just because they have had so many years to learn to cope. They’ve seen what can hap- pen when they don’t handle stress well and they are more motivated to change. If you are a new leader, know that this is a skill you build just like everything else. Use the tools and tactics discussed earlier and know that it gets easier every day.

As Paul Harvey once said, “In times like these it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.”

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 culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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.

 

 

The Enormous Cost of Unclear Communication--And What To Do About It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Unclear Communications” that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of unclear communication to and between employees. Debra Hamilton asserted, in her article “Top Ten Email Blunders that Cost Companies Money,” that miscommunication cost even smaller companies of 100 employees an average of $420,000 per year. 

Communication is hard. Cascading communication – getting a clear and consistent message shared – is harder. Doing it remotely? That brings another level of complication. The good news is that, while hard, there are things you can do to improve the chances that everyone hears and understands your messages, no matter how many layers or how many total people there are in your organization

Consider the telephone game you played as a kid – the one you played without phones.  One person started by whispering something to someone, who whispered it to someone else, who whispered it again.  Then the last person shared what they heard… and everyone laughed since it (mostly) wasn’t what they heard, and thought they told.  This is the corollary to what happens (without the whispering) when leaders are cascading communication.  Unfortunately, organizationally, it isn’t always a game and miscommunication can be more costly than humorous.

Here are four strategies you can use to improve the chances that the message sent by the first person are preserved and understood by the last receiver.

Start with the Big Idea

Recently a spontaneous game of telephone happened at a family gathering.  A message survived almost perfectly intact through seven people. The key?

A five-word message.

There is no chance people are going to remember everything in your 22 (or 122) slide presentation deck. Most organizations will have fewer cascades than seven, but nearly always a far more complex message.

If you are initiating the message, make sure you can write the big idea and key points on an envelope.  If you can’t, chances that any of it survives several telling’s are low. Know that big idea before you start creating those PowerPoint slides, and only include what is needed to support the big idea.

If you are in the middle of the communication cascade and you aren’t clear, ask for some clarification before you retell it and inadvertently make the message further muddled.

Put the Communication in Context

I know, your message is more than five words, and the details matter.  When the big idea is clear, and it is connected to your goals, and objectives, people have something to hold on to and it allows them to understand and remember the details far better.  Help people see the big picture in connection with everything else that is happening in the organization.

Make sure you answer the question are thinking even if they don’t ask – why are we doing this?

In short – when cascading communications always make sure you are connecting the dots between this new communication and people realities, projects, and interests.

Create Feedback Loops

In the telephone game, there is no chance to ask questions to clarify what you heard before you passed on the message – that is part of the game.  Too often organizational communication is treated the same way, even though it isn’t a game at all. Check for understanding at each level. If you are initiating the communication, make sure those who will share it first are crystal clear on that message, and encourage them to create similar feedback loops.

In addition, create ways for information to flow back upward towards the original communicators to improve alignment of the intended message.

Use Multiple Mediums

If one telling always worked our lives (and cascading communication) would be much simpler. Communication is too important to be left to one pronouncement. Yet to get communication to be received effectively – especially through several layers, and even more so when doing it remotely – it must be repeated.

Repetition supports understanding and memory.

Yet as communicators, we don’t want to be repetitious.

This conundrum can be overcome in a remote workplace by sharing the message in different ways using different communication mediums.  We can’t rely on face-to-face communication, but we can share slide decks (after the big idea is clear), send emails, shoot videos, discuss in team meetings.

Same message, different mediums.

Your goal?  To create repetition (and therefore understanding and memory) without being repetitious.

Putting it Together

Cascading communication is hard, but when you plan and apply these four ideas, your chance for success will rise rapidly.  Be patient with the message and the recipients because what you are communicating is too important to leave to chance.

Click here to read a related post. The # 1 Communication Error (2 min read)

To your greater success and fulfillment,

 

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business imperatives. 

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, title companies, wealth management firms, design and build companies, third-party maintenance companies, 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.

The # 1 Communication Error

 

 

The number one communication error is called the "usual error."

The usual error  is assuming that other people are just like you.

Assuming that others think like you, would react to a certain situation like you would, or value the same things you do — all of these are examples of the usual error. Psychologists call it false consensus bias: we project our own perceptions, opinions, and emotions onto another person, as if our experiences were theirs. We all do this. We do it all the time; that’s why it’s called the usual error. Making the usual error isn’t something to fear, it’s something to notice. In our experience, most miscommunications stem from the usual error. When you learn to recognize that it’s happening, you can turn arguments into opportunities for understanding.

The usual error manifests in many forms, often subtly. We assume that others’ boundaries are the same as ours. We assume that others’ communication styles and personality types are the same as ours. We assume that others can know what we’re thinking and know what we need without us having to ask. We assume that others’ definitions for words are the same as ours and we judge the intent behind their words based on our own assumptions. We assume that others’ memories of shared events are the same as ours. We assume that others value the same things we do and fear the same things we do. We assume that others’ bodies have the same physical limitations and thresholds as ours. We assume all kinds of things about other people all the time.

Everyone does this. It’s not bad or wrong; it’s part of being human. The usual error is something that happens behind the scenes, in the subconscious mind.

One way to reduce the frequency of the usual error is to do regular clarity checks with the people you are communicating with. Rather than just assuming that the message you're receiving (or sending) has the same meaning as the other person--stop and confirm that it actually does. It's a simple practice but one that will prevent unnecessary misunderstandings and all the consequences (both major and minor) that go with them.

We've probably made the usual error in writing this blog by assuming that the reader will relate to the examples in the same way we've intended them.

And so it goes...

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 culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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.