Did you hear they are considering a new competition for future Olympics? This sport – one that occurs in offices around the world – has become so fashionable that the Olympic Committee can no longer refute its popularity: Communication Competition.

Colossal communication collapses take place every day due to one primary reason: People enter into conversations with the objective of winning, as if the person they are communicating with is their opponent. Communications become a sport – and quite dysfunctional – as participants in dialogues place an extra effort on proving they are superior.

Here are the tell-tale signs of communication competition:

1. When one person is more interested in proving the other wrong…rather than working together to evolve a mutually identified idea.
2. When people have a tone or use words that communicate to others “You’re an idiot”…rather than operating with the wisdom that no perspective (even their own) is ever complete.
3. When the mantra of “the customer is first” means we must bludgeon each other with commands…versus ensuring we are serving each other and making our team stronger – so that we can serve the customer in extraordinary ways.
4. When we fool ourselves by sending emails thinking the electronic format provides a defense from which we can fire missiles…rather than picking up the phone or walking down the hallway to demonstrate our maturity.
5. When we split the room in two while arguing with one-another by using words like “I disagree/agree”…instead of using words like, “from our perspective,” or “let’s continue to explore this thought,” to debate an idea and achieve alignment.

When you communicate, what are you saying about yourself? What are you telling others is your highest priority?

Wellness Culture leaders, those who lead high-performing workplaces, are only interested in winning as an organization. Their words and emails consistently inform the team: We want the same thing – success. Therefore, communications need not be competitions, but the primary vehicle to move people and results forward faster.

I asked him, “Why not?”

“Because they never work.”

Did you catch it? This man is at risk of making a crucial error in judgment – and it may cost him dearly in the year ahead. The error isn’t that he didn’t create a New Year’s resolution; his error is that he doesn’t believe he can change.

Immeasurable human potential will be lost in 2010 because too many people won’t even try to change. How will you ensure that 2010 is not a repeat of 2009 for you? Beware of these three obstacles, and when you encounter them blow through them.

1. The “Mis-Identification” Obstacle: Too many people identify themselves with the results they create. This ensures future paralysis as you eventually will deliver sub-par performance – meaning YOU are sub-par. (Really? - Not.) Dissolve this obstacle by positioning all outcomes as fodder for the hungry person you are.
2. The “I Don’t Really Care” Obstacle: This is a silly game we all play with ourselves. When you try something new and don’t succeed your defense is to fool yourself into believing you don’t care. Dissolve this obstacle by memorizing this question – and answering it frequently: Why do I care?
3. The “Query Quandary” Obstacle: It’s a fact that questions trigger the mind. Yet, when most people trip while attempting to achieve, they ask the wrong question: “What am I doing wrong?” This puts them in a quandary: by answering this question they become experts at failure. (And thus, fail more.) Dissolve this obstacle by asking forward focus questions such as, “What will I do better next time?”

Don’t kill the messenger: A new year is here. Change efforts – be it resolutions or otherwise – do work if the change technology you’re using is effective.

Here’s to blowing through obstacles in the months ahead.

What’s in Your Tool Belt…That Will Move Your Team Forward?

A leader once told us: “Before the Pathways to Leadership process, the only leadership tools I had in my belt for working with others was a hammer and a screwdriver.” This resonates with many people – and recently a man named Charlie added, “You missed the third tool a lot of leaders have in their leadership tool belt.”

What is that?

“Duct tape. With all the re-structuring, leaders need tape to keep teams together.”

We laughed – and the point was made: When it comes to ensuring teams are aligned and operating with trust, most organizations use “wish management.” A few teams get to play on ropes, and thus feel inspired for a couple of weeks; but painfully, not many teams acquire tools they can use to ensure a fusion, a strength of bond, that grows tighter each business day.

What tools are you using today to ensure your team becomes stronger as it works? Your competition may just be applying a screwdriver and “screwing” things up by focusing on all the ways the team is not performing well. Consequently, this inappropriate use of focus only ensures the team has its weaknesses reinforced and its confidence diminished.

By studying your failures you become an expert at failure – not success. Accordingly, this approach means the team will require duct tape in the days ahead.

The 3 Mind Factors (page 139 in Stomp the Elephant in the Office) is a powerful tool many readers know that, appropriately applied, can have a profound effect at ensuring teams perform at higher levels. The Mind Factors are: 1) You can only focus on one thought at a time. 2) You can’t avoid a ‘don’t.’ And 3) You go toward your focus.

Apply this tool today with your team by focusing on and acknowledging where your team is doing well, where it is performing with excellence. And, as proven by thousands of teams around the world, you will guarantee that your team improves even more in those areas.

What’s in your tool belt?

Halloween is Over, Right? Beware the Lingering Leadership Ghosts

In the U.S., Halloween has come and gone. The masks and witch brooms are back in storage. Fright-night is over, right?

Not so fast. There are ghosts still floating wild and haunting teams across the land. Does your business require a ghost buster?

Spend casual time with the average employee…and listen closely…and you may just hear ghost stories. These chilling tales take various forms:

• In some companies, make a mistake, and you’re a villain forever. Like demon spirit, your reputation floats far in front of you and lingers after you’ve left the room. You could have the potential to be the most effective leader in the land…but people will never know it. Your ghost lives on, and your company pays the price: How ironic: We want people to improve, but we tie them to the past.
• Additionally, too many teams routinely tell ghost stories about events of the past. They sound like this: “Do you remember how bad that leader was…” And “One of the worst decisions we ever made was…” And “We never seem to have the time to do things right the first time, but we always have the time to do things twice…” Unwittingly, by retelling (and retelling, and retelling) the same scary stories people ensure that past mistakes continue to cost them countless more dollars far into the future.

Understanding the horrific moments in our past is not a mistake, but allowing leadership ghosts to linger, is costly. Conduct a ghost-busting exercise today by asking these questions:

1. What are the most important lessons we can gain from this experience?
2. How can we further leverage this moment as a resource?
3. If we continue to re-tell this story, how would it hurt progress?
4. Why is it important that we put this experience behind us?

The haunted house is closed. It’s time to move forward.

End the Fireworks: How to Develop Truth-Tellers Around You (Part 2)

 

Would you like a bullet-proof, sure-fire, guaranteed way to ensure people lie to you? Do this:

• Whenever someone tells you something, judge the information as good or bad;
• Or shake your head and tell them they’re wrong;
• Or laugh at them and let them know how stupid they are.

And if you want to ensure your children lie to you, after they tell you something, ask interrogation questions, such as “Why did you do that?” and “What were you thinking?”

Those leaders who develop truth tellers around them welcome all information. And they know that how they respond to the information determines what type of information they’ll receive in the future. Treating the information as neutral (it is only information, and your judgment is the only thing that makes it good or bad) allows people and teams to move an issue forward faster…because no one has to navigate your issues.

Try this experiment: Withhold value judgments on the information you receive. In response to what you are told, simply acknowledge you heard it – “thank you” – and then ask a question that launches the process of moving the situation forward. As you do this, observe what happens to the depth and detail of conversations as people realize that they’re not playing with fire when they approach you.

Be prepared: If you attempt this experiment be prepared for this: higher quality decision making is on the horizon as full information will increase.

In our next blog we’ll cover strategies to assist those who want to tell the truth to others – and live to tell about it!

This is a true story, but the names have been changed.  I went hiking with my friend Dale this morning.  He is a mid level manager in a medium sized firm.  He mentioned that their long term Chief Operations Officer had recently left the organization.  After a few more steps up the trail, I asked him what difference that had made.  He considered his answer carefully and with a little grin said, “Productivity has gone up in every department by 20% or more.”

There is a huge elephant that is limiting productivity in many organizations, and it’s called Frank… or Jim… or Mary… or Cynthia… or whoever it is in your organization that fits the description of Frank below.

I asked Dale what happened after Frank left the organization.  Again, he considered his answer carefully.  “It wasn’t what happened after Frank left.  It was mostly what didn’t happen while he was there.”  

We stopped hiking and I pulled out my 3×5 card and pen.  

“With Frank, we lost interest.  We just did what we had to do to get our paychecks.” 

“But why?”

Dale frowned and proceeded slowly.  “I got to the point where I didn’t really care anymore.   I was never good enough for him… and it always felt like he was either scolding me or telling me what to do.  In fact, now that I think about it, I didn’t really feel like I was a human being.  I just felt like I was a cog in a machine that he was using to get HIS job done.”

“So who has taken his place?”

“Well that’s the funny thing.  We don’t have a permanent replacement yet, but I guess we have to credit Jean.   The CEO brought her out of retirement until we hire a new COO.”   Dale started to shake his head.   “No, it’s more than Jean.  It’s really us. It’s like we’re all new again, like we all have a new job.  We no longer have Frank breathing down our back and we’re free to do a good job.”

“But surely you still need a boss, someone to direct you.”

“Well that’s just it.  Jean doesn’t direct us.   She sort of lets us direct ourselves.”  

“Dale, I’d really appreciate it if you’d be specific here.  This might be helpful for us to share with other leaders.”

“Ok. You know, the first thing she did really surprised me.  She didn’t seem to need to impress us.  She didn’t pretend that she knew how to do our jobs.   In fact, the first thing she did was ask each of us to tell her about our departments and what is working well.”  A big smile spread across Dale’s face.   “And then she listened – I mean really listened.   Then later she asked us for our vision and how we wanted to upgrade our departments and how we planned on getting that done.”   

Dale started to ascend the trail, but then he stopped.  “Here’s the thing.  Jean treated me like I was remarkable, and I don’t know what it is, but when she treats me that way, I’m going to be that way.”

It’s true: The people around you are just like you and me.  They simply want to contribute and do a good job.  They truly want to be great. 

What will  you do today to allow and help the people around you be great?  Are there any Frank’s that you need to re-assign or re-train today?

There are a lot of people dreaming right now. January marks the point for setting a course in the New Year. What is it you want to achieve? What do you want to do? Become?

Here’s some important advice: Don’t follow your dreams. 

Last year a big, hairy elephant stood in the way of millions of dreams. And he’s ready to trample your dreams for 2009 if you’re not careful. There is a better way.

Don’t follow your dreams – because following anything doesn’t guarantee you’ll get there. How many people set lofty aspirations – only to become sidetracked or disillusioned? “It wasn’t what I really wanted to do anyway,” they rationalized. Or, “That dream was ridiculous. Did you hear what would have been expected of me?”

So they go back to living the life they lived before. And there’s nothing wrong with that…unless you want to improve the life you lived before.

If you’re serious about achieving anything in 2009 don’t follow your dreams – drive your dreams. Bring a level of determination and control and commitment and passion and excitement that leaves little doubt change is what you’re about. 

Drive. Don’t follow.

Following dreams relegates people to never-ending analysis and the search for the perfect plan or method to achieving dreams. And because they follow dreams, they’re susceptible to following the next good idea that comes along. And the next. And the next…which gets them nowhere.

This year, ensure success by: 

1. Setting the vision/dream;
2. Choosing the strategy;
3. Then driving the strategy – consistently.

There is no secret strategy, no hidden code that creates success for some – while others languish in dream purgatory. The difference lies in the execution, in choosing to follow a dream – or drive it. 

2009 is here. Will it be a year of sorrow and loss? Or a year of joy and success? Nearly everyone reading this knows that it’s not what happens in the New Year that determines what sort of year it will be – but rather how we respond to what happens that makes the difference.

Standing between knowing this and living this understanding is one, big hairy elephant.

Take the current financial meltdown, for example. Does anyone know how long it will last? Can someone say with certainty what actions are necessary to ensure security? Of course not. Which means only one thing: It’s you. In 2009 you get to decide how you will live and play out each moment. Only you will create the excellence you get to experience.

Is it possible that we make excellence more difficult to achieve than necessary? M. Morgan once said, “Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other a matter of time.”

Whether or not you adopt resolutions in the New Year, Morgan’s counsel may hold a key to your success. Imagine if you created a plan over the next twelve months that assisted you in:

A) Being the highest QUALITY person possible in 24-hour stretches, and then
B) PERSISTENTLY living the discipline of demonstrating that quality.

Quality and persistence – your company promises these qualities to its customers. They also ask you to deliver the same in the workplace. What would 2009 look like if YOU were to require the same of yourself? What would happen if each day you woke up and committed to making the highest quality decisions you could make – and then did the same thing the next day and the next?

Do you care to make any predictions about the New Year? With this ‘quality and persistence’ formula, objectives can become certainties.

Best wishes to you and yours in the exciting year ahead!

ELEPHANT ALERT!

The American auto industry has been told by the U.S. government that, in order to receive financial assistance, they must prove they can “reinvent themselves.” This is easier said than done.

Here’s the elephant in the office: There’s abundant research proving that as most people expand their careers, their ability to try new methods and expand their knowledge grinds to a halt. They begin to rely on the tired skills and behaviors that brought them early successes – even when those skills and behaviors won’t deliver successes tomorrow.

This creates a dark future with one of two things happening: 1) The death of a career, or 2) The need to make dramatic “inventions” just to survive.

It doesn’t have to be this difficult.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

Some of the finest, most effective leaders we know work for auto companies. Yet, the overall culture of an organization will always dwarf the efforts of those in the minority. Thus, the consensus – or at least perception – persists: The US auto companies didn’t change as fast as the marketplace.

What can we learn from this? Answer: The most effective leaders and organizations reinvent themselves every day.

Most organizations fall short when reinventing themselves because:

1. They focus on their failures, which creates a culture of blame and defensiveness – which means they’re unable to generate the creative solutions needed. And,
2. They see reinventing themselves as an event, which means it won’t happen often enough to ensure success.

Use this proven formula to ensure that “reinvention” becomes a process, a way of life:

1. Focus on what’s working.
2. Consistently ask, “What can we do even better, more of, or differently to create greater results?”
3. Celebrate even the small advances.

This formula will deliver your most important invention: a “you” that succeeds.

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

ELEPHANT ALERT!

With the current economic crisis, and subsequent scramble in the marketplace, uncertainty reigns. Will you respond accordingly? What are you willing to do? What can you do?

With the seismic shifts in consumer buying patterns, one thing is clear: If you continue to do things the way you did them before, you’ll lose. The call to “change” has never been this strong.

Here’s the elephant in the office: Even with the logic that we must function differently, there are masses of people dragging their feet. They want to do the same work, the same way they did it before, and get paid the same amount for getting the job done. And, with their free time, they choose to discuss everything that’s not working, who’s to blame, and how bad things are.

This belligerent behavior borders insubordination. Not necessarily a defiance of senior leadership, but a noncompliance with personal integrity.

It’s time to show what we are made of.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

One of our world-class facilitators, Steve Drury, shared that his grandpa was fond of saying, “If you’ll do the things others will not, you will achieve things they cannot.” Never has Steve’s grandpa been more correct.

Despite the stagnant market, there are ample opportunities out there. Some of these opportunities require you to do the things others will not.

However, consider that Steve’s grandpa wasn’t just talking about labor. In this time of difficulty the vast majority of people will move away from their optimism, their hope, and their belief that they can change outcomes.

If you are willing to step up today and tell others “I know we can do this,” and if you’re able to express your belief in and of others, you will certainly achieve things others cannot.

The reward is in there.

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