As this is my last blog of 2024, I thought that I might share some ‘short reflections’ on my favourite training workshops that I delivered this past year.
And surprise surprise, they fit the acronym of Christmas!
C - Critical thinking
“The quality of your decisions is directly related to the quality of your thoughts. The quality of your thoughts is directly related to the quality of your information”.
Shane Parrish
During the year I have delivered quite a few sessions on the subject of ‘Critical Thinking’. It’s a fascinating topic and a key professional skill, especially in this age of information overload.
To paraphrase the words of Shane Parrish above, it’s a question of ‘garbage in, garbage out’. We can’t expect to produce good decisions out of our head, if we don’t critique the source of the information going into it.
Here are four key questions to ask yourself before you allow information into your brain for processing:
1. What is the source of this information, who is saying this?
2. What is their motivation or purpose in sharing this information?
3. How can it help me?
4. What specifically should I focus on, that is useful for me?
Critical thinking is a skill that can be learned. The more you use it the more it becomes a habit.
H - Helping others through feedback
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions”.
Boris Becker
When the great tennis player Boris Becker was asked in an interview for the secret to his success, he replied ‘feedback’. The ability and willingness to take constant feedback from your coach, to grow and improve.
From running feedback sessions during the years, I notice that there is an irony in the fact that feedback at work is something that we all crave, and yet most of us find it difficult to give.
Maybe not so surprising when we consider the basic human dilemma between (i) wanting to grow and develop and (ii) wanting to be accepted for who we are.
Here are four top tips for giving effective feedback to someone in your team:
1. Ask yourself, how can this feedback help the other person? If you can’t answer this, you might just be on a rant.
2. Focus on the behaviour not the person, be specific. Help them see what ‘good’ looks like.
3. Own your own emotions. eg ‘I feel frustrated when you ….’ vs ‘you make me mad when you…’
4. Work on the solution together. Two useful questions for the end of the conversation:
What are you going to do?
How can I help?
Giving feedback does not assume that the ‘giver’ is right and that the ‘receiver’ is wrong. It is just an invitation to talk.
R - Relationship building.
‘Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself’.
Well, actually, no.
Treat others as they would like to be treated.
Basically, we all have four motivational drivers within us which drive our personality and communication style. We all have a mixture of these drivers, but some show up more than others. I wrote about this in more detail in an earlier blog (Knowing me, knowing you).
But to summarise here, these motivational drivers show up in the extreme in the following characters, and how they might contribute to the Christmas Party:
The bossy one – they like pace and giving direction to others.
They will decide who does what and make sure that everyone does it.
The people person – they like to have a chat, a cup of tea and value the consideration of others.
They will make sure that everyone can get to the party, get home from the party and has someone to talk to at the party.
The details person – they take their time, plan and like to get things right.
They provide a great detailed plan of what needs to be done, by when and by who, covering all contingencies.
The party person – they like to be involved, work at pace and keep everyone excited by the project.
They are so excited about the party. While not always a great help in the organisation, they will persuade everyone to go, to get dressed up and to have fun.
Ok, so the above one liner examples are a bit facetious. But the principle is solid. We think that people want to be treated as we want to be treated, but that’s often not the case. To build good relationships at work (and home) we need to be like the great willow tree – strong in our own roots but able and willing to bend to communicate and act in the style of others.
I - Inclusive leadership
“Look to do the small things that you can do to be more inclusive”.
A short, but very personal reflection on this one.
My sessions on inclusive leadership were some of the most challenging to deliver. In a world of political correctness, defensiveness and challenging biases, it can be a contentious subject. But it is a hugely important topic and one on which I am continually called upon to develop my own skills in this area.
My one tip would be this:
Look to do small things that help others feel included rather than worry about all you do that might make others feel excluded. This might be a small change to the language you use, the actions that you take or simply making an effort to spend more time at work with those people least like you.
S- Strengthening team motivation.
“There is no ME in team”.
Actually, there is – TEAM.
Team engagement and motivation is another session that I very much enjoyed delivering this year.
I have a personal take on this. Teams come together and perform as a team when we can answer two simple questions:
1. What are we trying to achieve as a team?
2. What is my role in this?
We will look a little more closely at the first question when we talk about Setting Direction later in the blog.
The answer to question 2 lies in understanding the ME in Team. Dan Pink does great work on this in his book ‘Drive – the surprising truth about what motivates us’. He talks about three things that managers can do to help motivate their team member:
Purpose – help me understand and buy into why I do the job that I do.
Mastery – let me use my key skills and help me develop them in the job.
Autonomy- give me a sense of control and efficacy over my own work.
And of course, let me know how I am doing. Which is why feedback, as mentioned earlier, is so important. You can catch more on the topic of motivation in this earlier blog (Putting the move into motivation).
T - Trust
“From an employee perspective you should be able to trust the people that you work for, have pride in what you do and enjoy the people that you work with. Trust, pride and camaraderie are really important. But far and away the most important of these three is trust”.
Bob Lee – Great Places to Work
The working environment is nothing without trust. It is absolutely the foundation stone of any relationship. It is a huge topic and no time to do it justice in a few lines.
But here’s my top liner:
There are two aspects to trust – likeability and credibility.
Likeability trust is based on relationship building. I trust you because I know you, I like you, and we get on well together.
Credibility trust is based on expertise or past performance. You delivered for me before, so I expect you will again. Often based on a person’s credibility rather than likeability. E.g. I trust my doctor, even though I barely know her, because she is qualified and knowledgeable. I trust Amazon. I have never spoken to a person in that company, but they have always delivered on time and handled my complaints well.
Of course, the two are closely linked, and we need both to build psychological safety and trust in the work environment.
This is important, especially for new managers. It takes time to build likeability trust. But credibility trust can be demonstrated quickly by delivering on what we say we will deliver on. By being dependable as a boss, and by demonstrating our expertise.
M - Making meetings matter.
Or maybe more appropriately, making meeting go away!
The majority of participants on my sessions feel that they attend too many meetings and that many meetings are a waste of time.
Most meetings are called to do one of three things:
(i) Gather information from others.
(ii) Share information with others.
(iii) Make a decision.
Honestly – we probably only really need a meeting if our purpose is (iii) to make a decision. There are usually much better ways to do (i) and (ii).
Before you next set up a meeting, or agree to join one, ask the following questions:
· What is the purpose of the meeting? (i.e. what will a successful outcome look like?)
· Why am I being asked?
· What do I have to do in/before the meeting?
· How is this going to help me and my work?
· Do I really need to go?
A - A better way to set goals
“The journey is as important as the destination. The process is as important as the outcome”.
Goal setting is another session that I love to deliver. Hence two earlier blogs on the subject (Goal Setting and Goals are great, but there are not the whole story).
But my top tip is as follows:
There are two types of goal – process goal and outcome goal.
The outcome goal is the end result. E.g. this year we will increase sales by 17%.
Process goals are how we get there. E.g. We will target three new markets. We will increase our product offering to existing clients. We will introduce a customer loyalty scheme.
Outcome goals are not always under our control (e.g. a major client may leave the market). Process goals are almost always under our control. Process goals allow us to make progress, even if we don’t get the outcome we hoped for.
My advice – have the outcome goal for motivation but focus on the process goals for action.
And finally Santa….
S - Setting direction
“Direction is the far-away destination to which you are heading and directions are the route you will take to get there. As managers, we often forget the distinction. We give directions when we should be giving direction”.
Simon Sinek
Setting direction allows people to get on with it, without constant monitoring and micromanaging, so that everyone is playing the long game.
Google ran research some years ago asking the question ‘do we really need managers?’. Thankfully the answer was yes, and one of the main reasons was that managers play a key role in defining and communicating vision for their teams.
Defining a vision is not about articulating a big complicated ‘mission statement’, but rather it is a meaningful blueprint about ‘what we are trying to do around here, and why it might matter’.
Let your team have clear expectations of what they are trying to do as a team, and then let them get on with it.
That’s it for this year. Have a good festive season!
Thanks for reading.
Susan
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