Marjorie's Blog

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Being There For the Unexpected

I had something unusual happen while at the doctor’s office last week for my annual physical.  You know how the nurse comes in first and takes down all the basic information?  It was no different this time—until she started crying.  I thought, “Well this can’t be good!” My typical response to uncertain news is to turn it into a joke, if possible.  I sat there dumbfounded while tears rolled down her cheeks, and realized the situation was not about me at all.  The nurse’s sister had passed away in May, and the day of my appointment marked a special date for that family.  Her emotions were simply too close to the surface.  All I could offer was a hug and a listening ear.

Sometime in your career you will be faced with a team member who is emotional.  These emotional outbursts could be sadness, frustration, anger, happiness - whatever.  You need to show the right amount of care and concern with that employee, but also remain professional in your response.  Here are some thoughts on how to respond:

Tips for Handling Employee Emotions
* Listen, just listen.  Hear ‘between the lines’ to what is really going on.

* Be empathetic.  Use the tone of your voice and body language to show you care.

* Don’t offer advice.  Unless the employee asks, don’t offer.  They may just need to vent before solving the problem on their own.

* Offer privacy.  Allow the employee time to compose themself out of the public eye.

* If you feel the employee will harm themself, someone else, or the company, seek the advice of your Human Resources department.  Some situations may require a specialized intervention which is outside your expertise.

In your role as leader, you are responsible to the team member but not responsible for them.  Showing empathy is being responsible to the person.  However, that individual has to make their own decisions and be responsible for those choices.

Until next time...live like you mean it!
Marjorie

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Trying Something New

Some people call it ‘taking a risk,’ but I prefer to think of the unknown as simply, ‘trying something new.’ It just seems less scary; less intimidating.  By re-framing your thinking you can turn ‘fear of failure’ (commonly played out in your head as you are a failure) into ‘that didn’t work’ or ‘I didn’t like that and choose not to do it again’ (focusing on the task, not the person).

I’m looking at my August calendar and trying something new—no client bookings setup months in advance and taking the last week as a vacation.  As an independent consultant, this is the scary part.  How will I pay bills if I have no clients booked?  Will clients remember my services when I start up again in September?  What do I do with my time now?

The big question is:  Why?!  I firmly believe that if you want to attain remarkable results in your business, you must get out of your own way and “do” things differently.  In a work environment, here are some techniques to try:

* Conduct cross-department or customer focus groups.

* Create a mastermind group with other managers who have skills different than you.  Meet weekly to share best practices and resources.

* Brainstorm ideas using colleagues outside your industry.  Work off 1 clear statement - for example, “How can we make our service better for the first-time customer?”

* Dig up some data.  How recently have you conducted research around your demographics?  Product?  Customer trends?  Obtaining current information and sharing it with your team is a great way to take the guesswork out, and make decisions in the present.

Getting a completely different perspective on your situation - in the team, department, or organization - opens up a whole new world of possibility.  The possibility of deepening team relationships, designing additional products or services, seeing a new customer target market.  Be open; be intentional; be conscious.

I got an unexpected phone call and decided to hop a plane to Tucson tomorrow—never been in that city, know little about the potential client, and their current state is somewhat desparate.  I’m trying something new and the possibities are endless.

Until next time...live like you mean it!
Marjorie

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

What’s In It For Me?

There is an acronym—WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)—that has been around for years.  As leaders, we need to continually remember WIIFM when motivating either team members or customers.  People are really only interested in doing something when they know what’s in it for them.  What are the benefits to them personally if they participated?

In the book, Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction, Bob Boylan segments BENEFITS into two forms:  logical and emotional.

Here is what each of these benefit categories address --

LOGICAL BENEFITS:
* Money
* Time
* Productivity
* Efficiency
* Safety

EMOTIONAL BENEFITS:
* Recognition
* Security
* Pleasure
* Achievement

If you want your team to embrace your vision, talk about the emotional benefits to them because these benefits are more powerful.  Emotional benefits will make your vision tangible, and people are willing to follow if they are made to believe that following is in their best interest.

Until next time...live like you mean it!
Marjorie

Friday, July 25, 2008

You Can’t Lead Through Email

I had a boss once who rarely left his office. He communicated his wishes via email; sometimes by voicemail—never face-to-face with you unless he wanted a favor. He made an early attempt at a monthly department meeting which ended up being a waste of time. There was no agenda, few goals, sporadic recognition and was more of an exercise in trying to get 9 people into a tiny office. This was abandoned after a few months. In fact, everyone stayed in there office and rarely interacted with the rest of the organization. Very ineffective for a Human Resources department.

What are the consequences of this kind of behavior? It led to the following:

* Low trust among the HR department staff (not to mention the organization in general).

* Individual development plans were non-existent and annual performance reviews written without input. (He also gave everyone the same merit increase percentage regardless of performance evidence.)

* Conflict was ignored and, therefore, unresolved leading to assumptions and judgments.

* Favoritism ran rampant so overall morale was low.

* Inappropriate use of company time was tolerated. (He’s probably still playing hours of Solitaire.)

The key to being a leader is to find out exactly what motivates each person on your team. You need to discover what benefits are important to them (both logical and emotional) for them to further your vision. This requires you getting out from behind your desk and actively pursuing an honest relationship with each individual. It can be as simple as:

* Having coffee together from time to time
* Dropping by their office with the day’s mail and chatting a few minutes
* Going on a customer call together
* Observing them in a customer conversation and giving them immediate feedback
* Acknowledging their birthday and work anniversary dates
* Having them sit in on one of your high-level meetings
* Rotating responsibility in setting the staff meeting agenda
* Impromptu stretch breaks during the afternoon slump

If you’ve been leading by walking around and talking with your team—Congratulations! If this is new for you, start out slowly and begin incorporating a new behavior weekly. The last thing you want to do is take these suggestions and implement them all at once. That would only create suspicion among your team members. Your goal is to increase trust levels.

Until next time...live like you mean it!
Marjorie

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Old Habits Worth Reviving

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wonder why I stopped doing that thing?” This thought came to me on a recent hot day and I revived a habit from childhood—swimming every day.  Can’t remember when I stopped swimming regularly, and forgot about all the great benefits of the activity.  Aside from the physical well-being, swimming gives me a sense of freedom and peace...plus it’s a lot of fun.

If you’ve been in the workplace for any amount of time, you have had the opportunity of seeing different programs come and go.  I’ve heard some organizations call these programs “Flavor of the Month”—in other words, the hype will only last for a short time and be replaced by another program next month.

Reflecting back in my career, here are some of the leadership habits I learned from various training programs:

* Use a time management system and know the night before what your tasks are for the next day.

* Don’t be caught off-guard in a down economy.  Consistently ask yourself (and the team) “What if we...?” when discussing your products, services, and customers.

* Give each member of your team weekly feedback and have a system for recording the information.

* Never neglect networking regardless of how busy you are.

Today, more than ever, there are some good leadership habits to revive regardless of current trends.  What good habits do you need to resurrect that brought you early success in your career?  Taking a few minutes and searching your memory for these gems may be exactly what your team needs.

Until next time...live like you mean it!
Marjorie