ELEPHANT ALERT!

When we ask participants what percentage of leaders qualify as “great communicators,” we consistently hear 10-15%. How do you ensure you’re in that select group?

Do you find yourself in conversations full of friction? Where people are unaligned? And individuals walk away frustrated? Perhaps you suffer from “Snip Snip” Communication.

Here’s the elephant in the office: Countless people participate in conversations with the full-time job of adjusting other people’s comments to fit their own ideas. They listen with the intent of fixing the other person; their mind scurries for ways to persuade and convince the other person. They often state, “What you need to understand…” And when they say “The problem is…” what they’re really telling us is “What your limited and idiotic brain has failed to realize is…”

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

There’s a significant difference between using time proving what’s wrong with another person’s thoughts and attempting to tailor – snip snip – them to your own…versus spending time co-creating and exploring what will work. And of course the latter practically guarantees you get a better idea.

The most effective way to co-create and explore better ideas is to ask questions. The best leaders, when in a conversation with others, often ask:

• “Given what you’ve said, what would happen if…”
• “Okay then, how do we best…”
• “Here’s my perspective…how might we utilize both approaches?”
• “What else we might consider to take the next step?”

Business is a battle of wills – and that struggle should be restricted to our competition, while not including our teammates. Today, will you suffer “snip snip” communication and cut others’ ideas to shreds, or will you co-create your solutions?

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

With the tightening economy, organizations are forced to cut benefits provided to employees. The math is simple; things have become too expensive. Yet, most organizations are ignoring a proven formula as they do their arithmetic.

What is one of the most important benefits people seek?

Here’s the elephant in the office: The greatest predictor of job performance is how happy and engaged employees are while they’re at work. Yet, too many bosses have conditioned their employees to only be happy and engaged when they receive something. This motivate-through-rewards beast can never be fed enough, and it creates a gimmie, gimmie, gimmie crowd.

Ironically, there is a benefit that people will fight for that’s fail-proof at creating engagement – and it doesn’t cost a dime to provide.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

To be clear: Insurance and other benefits are incredibly important. They provide immeasurable peace of mind and certainly are a tool to inspire employee efforts and loyalty. Yet, what do we do when we’re forced to reduce those benefits?

The research is abundant: job satisfaction not only determines job performance, but also delivers healthier employees and work/life balance. So what drives job satisfaction? It begins with the relationships people have at work and continues with when a person feels they are valued and can deliver value.

The answer lies in your culture. “We are even more determined to build our Wellness Culture,” says a CEO on the east coast. “It’s the greatest benefit we can give our employees because it impacts all facets of their lives. When people love coming to work it also gives us a competitive edge.”

Is your culture an employee benefit? If so, what can you do today to: reinforce that? Advertise that? Leverage that?

If your culture is not an employee benefit, consider that no amount of spending will ever satisfy the “gimmie, gimmie, gimmie” crowd.

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

A team in Windsor, Canada is kicking butt. Faced with a significant challenge, they need to deliver more product, faster, with greater quality, while using fewer resources. Here’s why they’ll succeed.

As they launched their healthy culture initiative each person was asked to identify what strengths the person to their right possesses. As people spoke the confidence in the room went to an all-time high. That’s when Jeff summed it up.

“When you add up the qualities we just heard you have the complete list of what it takes to be a great leader.” He looked around the room. “This team has everything it needs to be a success.”

Few organizations function at this level.

Here’s the elephant in the office: Most organizations espouse the importance of teamwork…and then reward the individual. Teams don’t get promoted, individuals do; they don’t do performance reviews for teams, they do them for individuals; and endless conversations are had about the people who are “ruining it for everyone” versus having a dialogue around “how our culture lifts the standard of conduct for all.”

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

Take teamwork beyond rhetoric for your team today by using this exercise: collectively identify the greatest strengths each person on the team brings each day. Keep a master list. Then ask these questions:
1) How can we leverage the greatest strengths in each other?
2) What will it look like as each of us is free to live these strengths even more?
3) What outcomes are possible when we collectively approach the obstacles in front of us?

The greatest successes are achieved by those who discover and leverage the brilliance in each other.

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

The economy is not playing nice. Everyone is scrambling to adapt to rising costs and an increasingly skeptical customer. Which organizations will win?

Here’s the elephant in the office: You can count on this – most companies are cutting costs and their workforce, while increasing demands. For them, it’s all a numbers game. The result: fear, doubt and the politics of self-preservation spread like wildfire.

Pretty smart, wouldn’t you say? Because people are way more creative and bring their best efforts when they’re afraid and distracted, right?

Wrong. Such organizations compound their problems and accelerate their demise.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

There are some companies doing things differently. (You know who you are.) They went way out in front of these economic challenges and built healthy cultures – environments where fear and dread are replaced with confidence and courage. These organizations are ready; it’s show time, and they’re favored to win.

Is your team ready? Tap into the natural courage of others by asking questions like these:

• Where and how have we been successful in overcoming tough situations in the past?
• What strengths does our team possess that we want to focus on?
• How can we create a culture that allows us to be at our creative best even more?
• What small steps can we celebrate to generate more momentum?

It’s true: many companies have such toxic cultures that questions like these won’t help much. Which means these people have a choice: they can succumb – or they can begin to take a stand.

Accordingly, congratulations to the organizations who’ve prepared their cultures for this moment. Now it’s time to leverage that healthy culture by living your values even more.

It’s show time.

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

Changing behavior means doing something you didn’t do before. To be successful requires discipline and effective leadership tools. While we make these efforts, something else proves priceless: supportive people around us.

Few cultures like this exist.

Here’s the elephant in the office: It’s ironic: Everyone wants everyone else to change – and then when people attempt to change they are often criticized! Have you seen such bloodsuckers in your organization? They crawl around and say, “That person isn’t being authentic.” Or, “That person isn’t sincere in their efforts.”

Without blood, we die. In those cultures where sincerity bloodsuckers thrive, the weak quickly retreat. And nothing changes.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

I used to be a sincerity bloodsucker. That is, until I discovered I was telling the world “Anybody who does something I wouldn’t or does it in a way that doesn’t seem natural, isn’t sincere.” This is when I realized I’m not helping anything; in fact, I’m diminishing our prospects for greatness. Not very bright, especially when you consider that because we’re on the same team, my success is dependent on their success.

Perfecting new behaviors – change – takes practice. And logically initial efforts won’t seem natural at first. Yet, does this mean someone is not sincere?

A group in Ohio calls themselves The Rolling Along team. And rolling they are: their company is delivering unprecedented results. What is one of their keys for success? Instead of sucking the life out of each other’s change efforts, they, like select other teams, support each other. They coach each other. They believe that, like themselves, others want to be great. And thus, they are.

Look closely: today, who around you is stepping out and trying something new? And how will you respond?

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

A Microsoft survey revealed that over 17 hours each week are wasted in meetings. There are many causes for this gross and costly waste, but one stands out: people are serving and eating waffles!

To “waffle” means to speak in terms that are not direct; it means you are not clear in your communications.

Here’s the elephant in the office: Everyone has 100 #1 priorities to achieve. Ambiguity rules the day. Too many leaders are unable to help their teams decipher what is important – and why. This, of course, leaves little chance that effective execution can follow. Confusion reigns!

Do you want syrup or whip cream with your waffles?

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

We see it everywhere: individuals who occupy large portions of the clock to communicate an idea. This approach leaves everyone else in the room wandering aimlessly in daydreams, itching to use their Blackberries, and checking their watches. Waffles, waffles, waffles.

Of course, some people do use direct language – but in a way that tramples people. This approach is ultimately more distasteful and harmful than waffles.

There is a way to be direct and serve those around you:

1. Challenge yourself: use no more than two or three sentences to articulate a) background information and b) what is important to you.
2. In one sentence tell why the above is important to you.
3. Use one sentence to ask a specific question that allows others to explore how they will utilize the information you just provided.

Ironically, when we speak directly and to the point and people are still unclear…they’ll ask for more information, a second helping of what you’re serving! (Because they haven’t fallen asleep eating your waffles.)

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

I have a friend who suffers at his job “because of all the jerks” he has to work with. That he has to labor with such people does not make him unique. However, he fails twice: 1) his ability to bring his best – independent of what those around him are doing, and 2) the flawed approach he uses to creating change around him.

He fails because he suffers from “as soon as” syndrome. “As soon as they change,” he says, “then I will.”

Here’s the elephant in the office: Many teams endure sub-par performances because people allow others to determine their own behavior. “As soon as he stops being a jerk, I’ll treat him with respect.” Or, “As soon as she is accountable, then I’ll trust her.” Or, “As soon as they change their evils ways, then I’ll treat them with dignity.”

This approach is logically flawed. Yet, do you know anyone who suffers from this disorder?

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

Waiting for others to lead guarantees we’ll never realize our best. The “as soon as” syndrome reveals you’re not accountable to your own standards of conduct. And it allows you to predict the future: you will only be as good as the poorest-behaving person around you.

Leadership is often thought of as a grand act: when significant decisions are made or heroic actions taken, while we count the days until our image appears on a postage stamp. Yet, effective leadership begins with the seemingly unnoticeable but significant decisions to model the behaviors we know are right – whether others around us are able to do the same or not.

Whose despicable behavior will now evoke the best from you?

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?

ELEPHANT ALERT!

July 4th – Independence Day – is approaching in the United States. Besides being a holiday, we can also use this as a benchmark date for more effective leadership.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow said that people whose needs are met become independent of distractions around them. If you’ve visited the average workplace you’ve noticed there are some people who don’t have this independence. And when they don’t, watch out: fireworks!

Here’s the elephant in the office: Some organizations have cultures where distractions – fireworks – are the norm. Explosions of anger light up meetings; rockets of crisis blast off through emails; fire crackers detonate as people snipe and complain.

Fireworks don’t belong in the office.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

You may not be able to stop the explosions around you, but you can limit the “shows” you’re in.

Independence begins by not being attached to, or needing, people and outcomes to be different than they are in the moment. When we insist that events unfold the way we’ve envisioned them, we set ourselves up for debilitating disappointment.

When we are attached to our:

• idea being chosen,
• boss acting a certain way,
• colleagues being smarter than they are,
• children behaving “accordingly,”
• loved ones looking “right,” or
• results being perfect,

we are no longer independent. And when we are no longer independent, that means the circumstances in our life become more powerful than we are. This is when we launch fireworks.

The consequence, then, is that we can’t lead…which ironically means we’ve lost our ability to create the one thing we want: better results moving forward.

How will you celebrate your independence – so the real fireworks are left for the sky?

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?