Archive for the ‘Foundations’ Category

“What I do best is share my enthusiasm.”
– Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

“The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.”
– Malcolm S. Forbes 1919-1990 American Publisher, businessman

“When you’re comfortable in your own skin, you can do anything. You’re not worried about what somebody else has or what you don’t have. You like you. Not in a braggadocio way. You just like you.”
– Jack Welch, former CEO, GE

“If we’re to afraid to leap, we can’t expect to fly.”
– Anne Sweeney, co-chairman Disney Media Networks and President Disney ABC TV Group

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”
– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

“The two things that people want more than sex or money are recognition and praise.”
– Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Earlier this month, two University of Washington researchers released a study titled Rotten to the core: How workplace ‘bad apples’ spoil barrels of good employees. This interesting article validates what everyone experiences in the working world. “Bad apples” absolutely destroy trust and the performance of a team.

A negative atmosphere is contagious. People will react to a negative atmosphere in a number of ways, often unconscious, with a loss of trust and subsequently loss of high performance as the outcome. Because “bad apple” behavior is often not task related but more often subtly undermining of the team’s trust, it is very hard to identify and deal with especially in behavioral terms. It is hard to let someone go because they “make others feel bad”. Yet, this bad apple behavior is very costly for the functioning of a team. I once had two team members quit in the same week because they could no longer tolerate the “bad apple” of a senior, very talented team member.

So what can you do if you have a ”bad apple” on your team?

1. Pull the team together and as a group set “norms” for effective behaviors in the team. Discuss how you are going to hold each other accountable. This sets the baseline for what the “rules of engagement” for the team are. As a result, when those norms are violated (which is what “bad apples” are really doing), there is already an accountability mechanism set up. These norms also gives the boss concrete behaviors with which to coach the person.
2. Be careful not get caught in triangulation. The “Bad apple” can frustrate you so much that you commiserate with your other team mates. This kind of triangulation actually reduces trust even further and accomplishes nothing except allowing you to vent.
3. Try to understand where the person is coming from. Maybe there really is something you can do to help. Sometimes “bad apples” can act as a sort of “canary in the coal mine”, reacting to a real issues that should be dealt with.

If you boss is a bad apple, you still might try the norm setting technique. However, it is much harder for a team to hold a boss accountable for the “bad apple” behavior. Still, it is worth a try. No matter what, don’t get hooked into the bad apple behavior. Try to not respond or avoid it. Ultimately, you need to work for someone you trust. If your boss is a bad apple and you can’t trust that person you will need to find another job.

Technorati Tags: team-building, bad apples, leadership

We recently asked the Leader’s Studio team the following question: “In your experience, what is the most common mistake you see new leaders making?” Here are their responses:

Jodi Taylor’s response:
Not knowing how to delegate and build a team. New leaders are successful because they have performed well at their technical tasks. They are typically responsible and knowledgeable. However the minute, they become a leader, their real job changes. They need to learn how to get the task done by motivating, communicating and developing others. This is an entirely new set of skills that what has made them successful so far.

Not understanding that the role of a leader is different and their impact is different. Leaders need to learn how to put on the role of a leader, understand that their responses suddenly have a larger effect than when they were just a team member and that they have become a role model for the rest of the tram so that there are behaviors they can no longer engage in.

Fred Harburg’s response:
Failure to learn from mistakes and achievements. Most new leaders are so invested in appearing competent that they are blind to what they are doing that is just not working or that is working exceptionally well. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of learning from every experience and from every outcome, both good and bad. When learning stops so does growth.

Robert Ginnett’s response:
Jumping right into the task and not working on the team. Remember, most new leaders got selected for that position because they were good individual contributors at the task. But as a new leader, their job is not to do the work themselves. And this brings us to my definition of leadership: the leader’s job is to create the conditions for the team to be effective.

New leaders, often feeling anxious about their new position—and often without any organizational training or support—jump to the task because they know they are good at the task. But as a leader of others, it is their team’s job to get the task done and the leader’s job is to help them make that happen.

Marilyn Tam’s response:
Making decisions too quickly without the proper information - or - Not making decisions until it is too late. The common theme in this conundrum is that new leaders are not sure of how to deal with the elevated level of responsibility and they either jump to immediate conclusions based on insufficient data or wait until the issue becomes a crisis.

A way to move forward gracefully is to:

1. Ask Questions
2. Assess the situation
3. Gather information from the range of sources
4. Act and coordinate with all relevant parties.
5. Determine the right decision based on the mission and purpose of the company/division
6. Keep following up to ensure that the process is on track to attain the desired outcome

Most of all, new leaders should feel comfortable to know that every leader makes mistakes; just make sure that contingency plans are in place should a decision turns out to have undesired results and learn from your mistakes.

Technorati Tags: leadership mistakes, leadership, new leaders, teams

Before we talk about high performance teamwork, let’s talk about cars. I have always admired Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Mercedes provides an extraordinary driving experience. There is, however, a fairly significant obstacle to overcome in obtaining this extraordinary driving experience: cost. A Mercedes is expensive to buy and to maintain. But I really like the Mercedes driving experience.

So the other day, as I was driving through Motor City, I had an idea. Here’s what triggered my idea. At one of the used car lots, I noticed an ugly little car with a big SALE sign on it. Turns out the car was a Yugo. It wouldn’t start on its own, and when it did, it didn’t run well. It was uncomfortable to sit in and awkward to steer, and most of all it was horrible to drive. But it was really cheap. So I thought, “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll buy this little Yugo for next to nothing and I’ll have so much capital left over that I can put some serious money into beefing up the suspension system. Probably the steering, too. Oh yes, and even get some new seats. That way I’ll get my “Mercedes ride” without having to pay for a Mercedes.”

At this point you must be thinking, why in the world am I even reading an article written by this guy? First of all, he’s writing about cars in an article about obtaining high performance teamwork. But more importantly, he is obviously deranged. There is no way you could ever get a Yugo to drive like a Mercedes, I don’t care how much fix-up money you put into it. It would be like pouring money into a hole in the earth for all the good it would do you. And you would be right, at least about the last sentence!

So let me confess. I didn’t buy a Yugo and I didn’t seriously even contemplate putting money into such a vehicle in order to get the drive of my dreams. But I did invent the story because it occurred to me that the same sort of weird logic seems to explain the rationale used by many organizations today in attempting to obtain high performance teamwork. Let me explain the similarities in these two different situations.

Most traditional organizational structures are designed to control the activities of individuals in the workplace. While some variations have occurred since the heyday of the industrial revolution, the organizational structures, based upon underlying assumptions about individual work, are still largely in place today.

And this is at the root of the problems we find in organizations that are struggling to implement high performance teams. While there is, in almost every case, a genuine desire to reap the benefits of high performance teamwork, there seems to be tremendous reluctance to go back and redesign the structures that might actually result in teamwork as the natural outcome. In other words, we really like that Mercedes ride, but we just don’t want to put out the time, effort, and money to buy that Mercedes design and engineering.

The outcomes are similar in both situations. Having decided that teamwork is the best strategy to help us achieve our goals in the current environment, but having made at least an unconscious decision to leave our current organizational structures and systems intact, we find that teamwork is not happening very well, if at all, in our organization. So while still wishing for that Mercedes ride, we’ve essentially invested in a Yugo organizational structure. It just doesn’t work.

Enter the team consultants who advocate the need for corporate-wide team building workshops (at a very substantial fee). These guys are good—and they have access to high-ropes courses and river rafting and survival experiences and a host of other “team building” experiences. So off you and your teams go for a week in the woods and everybody comes back feeling good about themselves and good about their teams. But after a month back in the workplace, the magic of the outdoor week is gone and everyone is back into the patterns of before: individualism and competition have won out yet again over the forces of teamwork and collaboration.

Sound familiar? If you have had this or similar experiences, then I believe you may have dumped a lot of money into your organizational “Yugo” in hopes of improving a system that was never properly designed or engineered to give you organizational “Mercedes” performance. It is unlikely that you will get high performance teamwork from an organizational structure and organizational systems designed to manage and control individual performance. And while team building exercises have their place, it is futile to expect them to overcome inherent organizational design deficiencies. So if you really want high performance teamwork, don’t just wish for it—design for it.

Technorati Tags: leadership, teamwork, management, performance, business

As you journey on your path toward achieving career and life success, you’ll need the right tools to help you stay focused, support your progress and lead you toward a thriving, balanced and happy life. In my seminars at Leader’s Studio and in my postings here at Leader’s Notebook, I’ll help you develop those tools.

Before we dive in, though, I want to share with you a few basic ideas that are critical to ensuring that you get what you want out of your life. In my book, How to Use What You Got to Get What You Want, I outline four principles that will ease your way to achieving your dreams.

In work as in life, I live by these four simple principles. These principles keep me on course and facilitate every business and social interaction I have. They free me to be creative and productive. They enable me to see and take advantage of opportunities. They are the first thing I share with the management team in every company I’ve managed and consulted with, and they form the basis of our working relationships. When we follow these practical principles, the flow of communication is smooth; productivity and morale are high.

These four simple principles are the most powerful, readily adoptable tool I’ve used in my career and in my life. I want to share them with you now. (more…)