Respond when employees push back on feedback

Even if most of your employees welcome feedback, some may resist your efforts. Maybe they misunderstand what you’re trying to do, or they feel threatened by any type of criticism. Whatever their reasons, you should be prepared for a certain amount of pushback when you coach. Here are some of the most common forms of resistance you’re likely to encounter:

·        Comparisons. Joe’s response to your attempts to coach may be something like: “Why are you talking to me? I’m doing more work than Sarah is.” Don’t fall for this deflection. Respond with: “I’ll deal with Sarah myself if it’s necessary. Right now I want to focus on your performance.”

·        Jumping to conclusions. Dave may seem quick on the uptake: “Yes, I know that’s a problem, but don’t worry, I’ll fix that right away.” Or he may assume he’s in deep trouble when the situation is less serious: “Oh, no, are you going to fire me?!” Either way, resist the temptation to back off. You’ve got to make sure you and Dave agree on what the problem is, and on what the correct solution should be. “Let’s talk about what’s going on so we’re both on the same page.”

·        Minimizing the problem. When the facts are indisputable, some employees will try to dismiss their importance. Carla may say: “I know I made a mistake, but the customer didn’t get mad, so it’s not a big deal.” Don’t obsess about trivia, but do uphold your standards: “Even if the customer didn’t make an issue of it, Carla, someone else might—and in any event, preventing similar mistakes will save us time and money in the future.”

·        Denial. Be sure you’ve got the facts so the employee can’t claim you’re mistaken or misinformed. If Emma says, “I haven’t been more than a few minutes late in weeks,” you’d better have evidence to back up your position: “I’ve personally seen you come in 20 minutes or more late on two occasions. We need to talk about punctuality.”

All the success!

Peter Mclees

Engage Your Team by Answering 5 Questions

Want to ensure your rock star employee never leaves the company? Make sure he or she has answers to these questions.

It will be harder tomorrow than it is today to find great employees who not only have the knowledge, skills and abilities you want, but that spark that makes it all work.

Once you find a great employee, it is critical to invest time in conversations that focus on keeping this person on board. Below are some tips to help you retain great employees.

Employees want—and need—answers to five questions:

1. What is expected of me?

Tell your employees your business vision and goals, how their job fits in, and how they can actively participate in making the workplace successful. A purpose-driven employee is a powerful force in any organization.

2. How am I doing?

Employees want and need regular feedback, and the lack of it is one of the biggest reasons people find other jobs. Often, employees only hear from their bosses when they make a mistake.

When an employee does something that shows talent, initiative, problem solving, or success with a project or task, let him know. When you recognize and reinforce performance or behaviors, employees tend to repeat them.

It is also important for managers to promptly confront problems and provide the employee honest but respectful coaching.

3. Where do I stand?

Formally, and at least once a year, employees want you to sum up their performance. This is your opportunity to discuss an employee's accomplishments, opportunities for growth and improvement, and professional career development.

If he had some challenges during the year, you can review the progress he made and remind him of the points described in point No. 1. And remember: Don't save performance and behavior problems until the annual review meeting.

4. How can I improve?

Even your best employees want to know how they can do better. If you see a performance opportunity or a performance gap, work with the employee to develop an action plan. One small change can have a positive impact on an employee's overall performance.

5. How can I grow and challenge myself?

Employees can become bored over time and, without the opportunity to learn and grow, may lose their spark and focus.

Consider re-recruiting employees from time to time. Regain the excitement you both had on her first day of work. Remind her why you hired her over other candidates, and review the qualities you saw in her that are important to your organization. Then, together, you can outline a development plan and growth strategies for your "new hire."

Answering these five questions for employees is just one part of a solid retention strategy. Effective leaders who take a personal interest in their employees' growth and development and involve them in the decisions that affect them are on the way to creating a high-performing and highly-involved workplace. This leads to high-quality results, and a workplace where employees want to be.

All the success!

Peter Mclees

Five Classic Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

There are some classic mistakes business owners and managers make on a regular basis. Mistakes that mean they are not getting the results they want and need from their people.

Mistake 1: Only clarifying, and managing, ‘the numbers’

Leaders often tell us that they focus most of their attention on the ‘numbers’ part of their employee’s performance. They set objectives for producing the right amount of work on time, meeting a deadline, achieving the % increase in sales or the $ of savings. They monitor the numbers and, sometimes, they give feedback to their staff about their performance against those numbers. It makes good sense.

But what about the behaviors? What about; the way the employee manages their time, the way they build and maintain customer relationships, their ability to be solution focused, their ability to work in a team and so on? The difficulty is that managers often see these behaviors as subjective and unquantifiable meaning that they cannot be measured and managed.

But here’s the thing; Why manage behaviors? Behaviors are crucial to the success of your business. Can you be successful without your employees demonstrating the ability to manage their time, build and maintain effective relationships, develop practical solutions and so on?

Because managers also tell us they regularly judge their employees on their ‘attributes’ without being able to clearly define those attributes as behaviors. They say “he’s just not committed enough”’ or “she’s not a team player” or “he lacks creativity”. Without being able to define what ‘being an effective team player’ looks like in practice how can you help your employee improve in this area?

Identifying the Crucial Behaviors

The key questions to ask are:

· What are the behaviors that differentiate us from our competitors?

· What are the behaviors that contribute most to our success?

· What behaviors must a person demonstrate to be successful in this job?

· What do I want from the people I manage?

Of course you then need to share your descriptions of the behaviors you want and need with your employees – without making the next mistake.

Mistake 2: not helping employees to understand the bigger picture

We know from the research that employees want to ‘connect their efforts to the mission and purpose of the business’. In short, they want an answer to the question – ‘why am I doing this?’ The mistake owners and managers making is assuming that the answer to that question is obvious. Well maybe it should be, but often it isn’t.

Let’s take a look at how you can communicate objectives in a way that helps your

employees understand their importance to the business. Let’s begin with the objectives that relate to the quantifiable parts of the job – the numbers element. There’s a simple process you can use to frame the conversation.

Communicating quantifiable objectives:

·        WHAT – the objective is

·        WHY – it’s important

Communicating behavioral objectives.

When you are communicating behavioral objectives it’s always a good idea to explain the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ and to associate the ‘why and how’ with a business need. This is because most people can relate to doing something new or differently when they can see it’s to meet a business need. It just makes more sense to them.

So it’s about explaining WHY – why we need the new behaviors and HOW the new behaviors are going to meet the business needs.

Here’s an example of how these principles could apply to behavioral objective for

‘Teamwork’

Example of a performance objective for ‘Team Player’

I will consider you to be an effective team player when you;

·  Explain the team objectives and your role in meeting those objectives

·  Identify when your team members need help or assistance and offer that help

·  Fully participate in team meetings and events

·  Identify ways the team can work together more effectively

·  Gain feedback that you are an effective team worker

Example of how to communicate the ‘Team Player’ objective

WHY it's important

·  Major challenges facing the business - in the current economic climate we’ve got to retain more customers.

·  Challenge to us – to improve our efficiency in servicing our customer so they stay with us and refer their friends and family.

·  Challenge for us as individuals – to maintain or improve our job satisfaction during these challenging times.

HOW the new behaviors are going to meet the business needs.

·   If we work better as team we’ll improve our efficiency and customer experience

·   Working better as a team should improve our job satisfaction

In short, if we work better as a team we’ll keep more customers and enjoy work more!

It’s all about helping the employee see the importance of their work to the success of the business.

Mistake 3: giving meaningless praise

The research shows that ‘receiving positive feedback and recognition for work well done’ consistently ranks highly as a motivator in employee surveys. Yet research also shows that most people don’t feel they get enough praise. So what’s going on?

Putting aside the fact that it’s likely that some of our survey participants feel they should be praised for just turning up every morning, my view is that business owners and managers are sometimes reluctant to give praise because they’ve had experiences of being praised themselves in ways that, frankly, haven’t motivated them at all. And, of course, they’re not over keen on having the same effect on their employees. It’s actually quite easy to deliver praise badly - praise that is seen as patronizing or manipulative by the employee. But done well, its dynamite.

Here are five ways to do it well:

1. Prepare the praise

It’s interesting that many managers will spend some time preparing to give criticism, but only a matter of seconds (if at all) preparing to give praise. The result? A passing comment (literally) on the lines of ‘nice job Doug, keep it up’ Say what? Which job? The whole job? Keep what up? Not only is this type of praise confusing but, by and large, it’s not wildly motivating.

2. Be specific

Describe exactly what you are praising and why. Try the following method:

When you....

What happened was...

And the result is....

E.g. When I showed the client the research you had done on their business she said she was really impressed by the insights you had provided. The result is she wants us to make a proposal for a further piece of business. That’s a really good outcome for us so thank you and well done.

3. Show genuine interest

Ask questions to better understand what the employee did, for example, what preparation they did for a successful presentation, how they managed to design such effective presentation slides etc. Describe how you feel about what they’ve done e.g. pleased, impressed, excited (the hug and kiss might be slightly over doing it)

4. Let the praise stand alone

Don’t be tempted to mix the praise with criticism e.g. That was a great presentation.

If only your written work was as good. Deal with the written work issue at a different time.

5. Do it quickly and time it well

Give your praise as soon after the event as possible – it has far more impact. Be careful not to give the praise at a time when it will appear conditional or a ‘softening up’ process e.g. just before you delegate a task or ask for the person to work late

Public or Private?

There’s an old saying ‘praise in public, criticize in private’. Though we wholeheartedly agree with the latter we’re not totally convinced by the former. Of course the principle is sound. We want other employees to hear the praise and understand what we are praising because we hope that they will want to copy those behaviors or achievements. But not everyone is comfortable being singled out in this way and some people find accepting praise in front of their coworker embarrassing.

Try delivering the praise in private. You can then ask the employee if they are happy for you to share the praise with their coworkers – say in the next team meeting - and take it from there.

What if there’s no praise to give?

Of course employees find praise motivational, who wouldn’t? A challenge is when there is no praise to give because the employee is not performing effectively. The answer is to give regular feedback rather than praise.

The best way to motivate employees to improve their under performance is to give them what I call ‘positive criticism’ – criticism that’s easy to understand and easy to accept because it’s clear, objective and fair.

Mistake 4: avoiding talking to your employees about their job satisfaction

We know that showing a high level of interest and concern for our employees results in higher levels of motivation and performance. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to have a conversation specifically about how to maintain or improve their current level of job satisfaction/engagement.

After all, who wouldn’t feel motivated by having a supervisor who cares about our satisfaction at work and who is happy to spend the time talking to us about this subject which is so close to our hearts? Some managers, though, are reluctant to hold these conversations in case they result in ‘opening a can of worms’ – more specifically in case the employee comes to them with a list of wants and needs they cannot meet.

Good point.

 

Mistake 5: Neglecting to set high standards and hold others accountable

This denies employees the chance to learn and excel. Employees do not want to be told, “Let me make your life easier by enabling you not to learn and not to achieve anything new.  A balanced combination of uncompromising standards and confidence-building reassurances sends a very clear and consistent message to your team: “I believe in you and I want you to win as much as I want to win.”

There are two strategies for dealing with poor performance: One-minute reprimands and redirection. A reprimand works best with people who have “won’t do” or attitudinal problems. These people are winners and they know how to do it but for some reason they are not doing it. Redirection is appropriate for people with “can’t so” or experience problems.  There will be more need for redirection because things are changing so fast now in most fields that competencies to do a job is often short-lived.

Redirection

1.  Make sure they know that a problem exists. Be specific. Share what happened clearly and without blame

2.  The person being redirected needs to know the negative impact that the error caused

3.  If appropriate, the manager should accept responsibility for not making the task clear

4.  Go over the task in detail and make sure it is clearly understood

5.  Express your continuing trust and confidence in the person

Bottomline: Hold people accountable to high standards while allowing them to hold onto their dignity as human beings.

 

All the success!

Peter Mclees

11 Strategies for Dealing with Difficult People

By putting in just a little effort up-front, you can better deal with the difficult people in your life.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “The single most important ingredient of success is knowing how to get along with people.”

Of course, Roosevelt never met that annoying guy in accounting you have to deal with every week, did he? And he certainly didn’t have your in-laws.

Funny thing, it seems that even the folks we find particularly difficult to deal with have friends, spouses, and social lives. So it’s clear that someone is able to get along with them. Why not us? By putting in just a little effort up-front, by taking the high road, you can better deal with the difficult people in your life. Here’s how:

1.      Identify their difficult-ness

Just what is it about them that you find so “difficult?” Think back to the original situation when you officially classified them as such. Make sure that your assessment is the result of a pattern of demonstrated behavior, and not the result of a single interaction upon which you’ve been focusing. Once you’re sure there’s a pattern, come up with a few examples.

2.      Think about their overall goals

They may be difficult, but they’re still human. They have goals and objectives, and in most cases “being difficult” is not one of them. Consider what overall goals are driving their “difficult” behavior. Is that guy in accounting who annoyingly nags you for additional receipts just trying to drive you nuts, or does his pending promotion require that he collect flawlessly accurate documentation? Sometimes reflecting on the goals that affect a person’s “difficult” behavior can provide enough insight to make them tolerable.

3.      Consider their possible fears

We all have fears, even if we don’t realize what they are. Some folks fear not getting work done on time. Others fear criticism. Or they are afraid they’ll be taken advantage of. These fears impact our behavior, even to the point of being perceived as “difficult” to some folks. If you consider that your “difficult” person actually has some fears that drive them, you might just see that person in a different light.

4.      Observe their strengths

Perhaps the office assistant is “difficult” at times, but she’s a little easier to take when you realize that her natural affinity for details and organization actually makes your life easier in some ways. Or think about your “difficult” team leader whose confidence and assertiveness enables her to successfully negotiate a deadline extension on your behalf. What strengths does your “difficult” person bring to the table and how do those strengths provide value to the organization?

5.      Look at the “flip side” of those strengths

Our strengths are positive, right? Most of the time they are, but sometimes they can be over used—and an overextended strength can be at the root of your “difficult” person. For example, self-confidence is a desirable strength. But when it’s overdone, we see that same person as cocky. To better understand your “difficult” person, assess what is annoying you and look for the strength behind it.

6.      Figure out their motivators

As Dr. Phil might say, “What’s their currency?” Is maintaining a harmonious family top priority? Or are they mostly driven by career accomplishment? Does their competitiveness define them? Or is it most important to them that everyone just get along? Is what motivates them contributing to what you’re assessing as being difficult?

7.      Note their reaction to stress

Apply enough stress, and you’ll see a person’s behaviors change. Consider if the “difficult” behaviors you’re seeing are a result of stressful situations. Someone who inspires enthusiasm in others may become glib or appear superficial when under a lot of stress. Under stress, a supportive, dependable team player can become detached, inflexible, and even stubborn.

8.      See their perspective

Perform all of the steps above, and you’ll likely have a pretty good idea of that “difficult” person’s perspective on the world. And seeing that perspective brings some “aha” moments. “Oh, that’s why he got so worked up when I didn’t reply immediately….” Now, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still exhibiting difficult behaviors that you might need to address at some point, but you probably understand them better now.

9.      Consider your own behaviors

Now that you’ve dissected the “difficult” person, you must consider your own behaviors and how that person likely perceives them. It’s never fun to think that we might be contributing to the problem, but you must take a look at the possibility that perhaps they see you as “difficult.”

10.      Empathize

This step is easy if you’ve actually done each of the prior steps. Once you see things through another person’s perspective and understand their behaviors better, empathy seems to come more naturally.

11.  Speak their “language”

Armed with new insights about your “difficult” person, adapt your communication approach to better match their perspective on the world. If they value accuracy and high-standards, responding to them from that view shows respect to their feelings. Making this effort can help you head-off conflict and avoid triggering the “difficult” behaviors they’ve demonstrated in the past.

These 11 steps take a little effort. You may be questioning why you should have to do anything—after all, he’s the difficult one! Well, a very wise person—who I at one time considered particularly “difficult”—once told me that I had a choice: I could take the short-term pain or I could take the long-term pain.

There are three roads we can take when dealing with others. The low road, the middle road and the high road.

The Low road is treating others worse than they treat us.

The middle road is treating other the same as they treat us

The high road is treating others better than they treat us.

Take the high road because it’s the most fulfilling one.

All the success,

PM in the AM

Check your internal communication IQ

Maybe you can articulate a forward-thinking vision that wins over your customers and shareholders, but if you struggle with internal communication, you won’t get very far motivating your workforce to bring that vision to life. The key to getting your message across is understanding what’s important to your workforce.

Take this quiz to identify gaps that you’ll need to fill in order to communicate effectively:

·    Do employees feel you care about them as individuals? Get to know their career ambitions, outside interests, and personal history to show you don’t think of them as cogs in a great machine. Let them know you want to see them achieve their personal goals, not just company objectives.

·    Are you part of the team? Employees shouldn’t feel that they’re held to a higher standard of behavior and performance than their managers. Set the right example, and pitch in to help as necessary to show that your commitment is just as strong as theirs.

·    Do you communicate respect? Consider your employees’ feelings when you speak to them, write emails, or otherwise communicate with your workforce. Take their ideas and opinions seriously—don’t belittle them or act as if you’re the only person capable of understanding priorities.

·    Do you give effective feedback? Your goal when giving feedback should always be to help employees improve their performance. Explain how feedback benefits them, and don’t give the impression that you’re just reminding them that you’re the boss.

·    Does your behavior support a positive goal? You won’t win the trust and support of your people with constant criticism or micro-management. Consider every action you take in the context of your desire to improve performance, the workplace, and your organization’s goals.

All the success!

PM in the AM

Ten Ways to Cure A Bad Day

.     

 

1.  Give The Matter The Attention It Deserves. Whenever nonsense shows its face in my life I won’t spend time thinking about it or dwelling on it . . . I simply move on. Granted there are some things that you can’t dismiss and that’s where items 2-10 will come in handy!

2.  Try To Find Humor . . . in either the event or just think about something funny to get you laughing. Can’t think of something? Why not listen to some comedy and while you’re at it, have a comedy playlist on your i-pod for those “Momma said there would be days like this” moments!

3.  Try Doing an Activity That Requires A High Level Of Focus: My Grandfather did silver engraving. The focus took the focus off the bad day.

4.   Move! Motion creates emotion because certain types of movement release endorphins which create that “runners high”. You can walk, exercise, pace or moonwalk as I often do in the offices of Smart Development, inc.

5.   Engage Your Spiritual GPS! Certain things are simply beyond us and we need all the help we can get.

6.   Say “Thank You” I’ll preface this one with a firm “I know how difficult it can be to do this” We’re saying thank you because we are about to receive a lesson in something. Whether it be in dealing with a Grade A Jerk or a lesson in keeping ourselves calm, cool and collated as our printers at Staples like to say!

7.    Go through a “Gratitude Inventory” Many of us have the bad habit of taking a “Screw You” inventory of everything that stinks in our life. A gratitude inventory gets you in into a frenzy of positivity!

8.    Talk With Someone! Vent and then shift the conversation to solutions!

9.    Ask Yourself Problem Solving Questions Such As “In what ways can I _______________?” “How can I turn this around?” “Who do I know that could help or offer advice?”

10. Think And Use The Old “Start, Stop Continue” Framework! Ask yourself “What do I need to start doing to fix this?” “What do I need to stop doing to fix this?” “What should I continue doing to fix this?”

All the success!

PM In the AM

Stuck in a Rut? 4 Simple Tricks to Break Free!

Feeling like you're (or the team you lead) just running through the motions every day? Doing the same old things that you've always done?

Get up, go to work, eat, sleep, repeat...Don't feel bad, you're not alone. Most people get sucked into letting routine run the show.

And it's easy to see why. It's not that everyone is lazy; routine is very, very strong, and even the best of us get trapped by it. Fortunately, there's a quick and easy way to beating this problem.

The simple tips below will help you break free of habit and kick start an exciting and successful comeback.

1.      Don't Believe This

Despite what you may have heard, you're never too old to change. If you're alive and kicking, you're more than welcome to go for it. There's no rule book on enjoying life. Any age is the perfect age to go for it.

We have read too many stories about people who were supposed to be too old to do this or that - and they did it. It always has been, and always will be, a state of mind.

So make sure your state of mind is clear about one thing - the right time is now. You, yes you, are the perfect age to do what you want to do.

Check out our post about Ray Kroc: http://is.gd/Okg9Uq

After you've got the age issue in check, it's time to beef up on your imagineering skills...

2.      Can You See the Picture?

Life is a blank slate waiting for you to fill it up with your own thoughts, hopes, and ambitions. That's why it's important to master the art of imagination.

The better you are at creating exciting and motivating pictures of your future, the more excited and motivated you will be to make them happen. Let's say you want to refine your leadership style but can't seem to find the motivation you need to get things moving.

Here's what you do. Imagine everything going exactly the way you want it from very first next day at work.

Picture yourself coming to work with a smile, making new connections with your people, and enabling others to do their jobs better.  Everything you want to do or become should have an exciting mental picture to go with it. Have you been using your imagination as often as you should be?

3.      I Can Do That Too

One of the best ways to get excited about changing your own life is to learn about the life of someone else. Many of the great men and women we learn about in history class found their inspiration through the stories of those who came before them. They scratched their heads thinking, 'If one person could do all that, couldn't I do the things I want to do?'

Yes. Consider the things you want to do with your life and then get out there and learn about people who followed a similar path. Better yet, uncover the stories of people who went much farther than you are planning on going. It will motivate you to think about a bigger and better picture of tomorrow.

Just one more step...

4.      I'm Not Afraid Anymore

You may not want to admit it, but you're not doing the things you really want to do because a small - or large - part of you is afraid. It's okay. We're all afraid of leaving our comfort zone.

It's universal. But that doesn't mean you have to let it beat you. You can work through the fear and get what you want.

The first key is focus. You need to know what you're afraid of instead of avoiding it like most people do. You know you can't fix a problem you can't even see. That's why you need to get clear about what's going on in your head.

When you do, you'll be amazed at what happens.

Fears that linger beneath the surface take on a size that is much larger than reality. In other words, when you don't know what you're afraid of, it can feel like the fear is an enormous, overwhelming thing. But when you shine light on it, you see it for what it really is - a much smaller matter than you thought it was.

Check out our post about Why Discomfort is Good for Us: http://is.gd/VH7klK

All the success!

Peter McLees

SMART DEVELOPMENT, inc.