Hello and welcome back to our series; constant change requires leaders to excel in the basics.
Today we continue our discussion about team and employee feedback by looking closer at turning the traditional approach of the annual performance appraisal on its head and offering achievement reviews instead.
It’s a logical step if you have already adopted the learnings from the previous five leadership basics. And by now, your team would be motivated and heavily engaged while working on their assigned and chosen tasks. They will be able to see and share their progress & at the same time receive ongoing & immediate feedback.
Hence, the need to conduct that one-off annual performance review is greatly diminished. Instead, we turn this event into an opportunity to celebrate the success each employee is experiencing. Given that we’re at the halfway juncture of this series, however, and before plunging headlong into this topic, let’s quickly recap what we have covered in the first five episodes.
Topic 1: Understanding your place in the team – looking at nine key stakeholders and managing and setting expectations.
Topic 2: Motivating your future team – turning our focus to one of the key stakeholders and learning about seven primary considerations to achieving positive and sustainable motivation.
Topic 3: Creative delegation techniques – introducing task prioritization & the correct assignment of those tasks, but incorporating Activities of choice, showcasing progress & team collaboration.
Topic 4: SMART rules and reward goals – modernizing the traditional SMART goal setting tool by adopting an online gamers mindset to enable immediate gratitude and feedback (at least weekly)
And last topic 5: Feedback strategies – where we looked at the importance of everyone soliciting feedback, whether informal and formal and for the leaders, we offered several tools to improve their ability to prepare and deliver.
And one last item before we start our discussion on replacing the traditional performance review with our Topic 6 alternative, called Achievement reviews.
First, the technology uses web and mobile-based applications that offer instant real-time feedback to employees and leaders alike. In addition, many of these applications provide a modern version of the 360-degree employee assessment.
More and more organizations are adopting this approach from start-ups thru to Fortune 500 companies. Awareness of this practice was recently showcased by Tony Robbins and his interview with Ray Dalio (one of the greatest Hedge Fund managers of our time). Dalio explains the process adopted within his company Bridgewater and the tremendous value the use of this feedback application has bought to the employees and company alike. Essentially during any given period (meeting or at any time when the system is open), an employee or leader can provide feedback to other team members. The receiving team member can receive this feedback immediately and react or adjust accordingly.
So, we’re now ready to tackle our feature topic by throwing out tradition and the annual performance review process and replacing it with our approach, which focuses on the successes rather than the improvement gaps or failures.
To kick start this, we begin with a long-standing motivational theory. How many of you recall in topic two that we spoke about several motivational theories? One of these was the Needs theory or Acquired Needs theory from David McClelland.
From his research, he concluded that people have motivating drivers that are directly linked to needs, regardless of age, gender, culture, or race. He identified 4 of these needs as achievement, affiliation, power & avoidance.
McClelland also developed his version of the iceberg model, using the same Needs Theory. The Iceberg model looks at a person’s visible behavior, knowledge, and skills plus the underlying, unexpressed and unconscious HIDDEN deeper layers.
It provides an insight into the (learned) needs of someone based on his Acquired Needs Theory and links this to what the person does (i.e., what’s visible above water level) and what they think and want (which are hidden and below the water level).
In short, we want to utilize the learnings from this theory and model to understand how we can maintain our employee’s motivation during this dreaded once or twice a year event. Ensuring that we focus on achievement, affiliation, and power while being careful not to trigger any hidden (below the water) reaction in the minds of our team.
Rather than go cold turkey and turn off the performance evaluation mentality all at once, we’re going to provide here a soft transition. By offering an interim step, we hope to make everyone feel more comfortable doing this gradually. Therefore we discuss first a practice that has become quite popular in recent years, and that is the use of 360-degree feedback.
The traditional method of 360-degree assessment has always been quite costly to perform, particularly with a large volume of participants. Therefore these assessments are conducted less frequently and for special occasions, such as Leadership or talent development, and perhaps with some coaching scenarios.
Fortunately, the evolution in technology has also impacted many of these HR assessment platforms, and with it, we can find relatively lower-cost 360-degree assessment options for businesses.
The concept, however, remains similar. The person seeking feedback will request input via a questionnaire related to their performance. Typically, in addition to rating themselves, they seek this input from peers, direct reports, and their immediate boss. Still, from time to time, the clustering may be broader and involve customers or suppliers, depending on the circumstance.
There’s considerable advantage in this approach over and above the one-on-one performance review. The cross-section of respondents provides a balanced means of comparative feedback, which is easier for the employee to accept and often offers insights which the leader may not have known existed.
However, the real challenge is to ensure that the results are interrupted correctly and the feedback coupled with concrete actions as an outcome.
The downside to the 360-degree assessment process is that it is seldom specific to the individual’s role or tasks and, more so, around personalities.
Therefore, the final method addresses that issue and is our preferred concept for all semi-annual or annual reviews – we call it the Achievement Review (remember the McClelland Needs Theory).
As the name implies, leaders will meet with the employee to acknowledge their successes during the past 6 or 12 months. If this leader has adopted our methods from topics 1- 5, this will be a consolidation activity. All the tasks or projects having already been discussed weekly throughout the year.
The initial acknowledgment meeting will still be in private one on one.
And then, continuing from our earlier online gaming phenomenon, each employee’s project results will already be known. The consolidated results can be made visible to the other team members, thus creating a form of competition,
But they are also offering the opportunity for continued, immediate gratitude and feedback from all. (again, remember McClelland’s theory and the need for Affiliation and Power).
Through this method, you skillfully satisfy all three motivational needs based on visible behaviors (i.e., above water actions) while also shaping the deeper & hidden thoughts and wants.
The outcome is a reinforcement of great performance, which becomes somewhat self-perpetuating for the employee and a sustainable, results-driven team.
Hopefully, you’re able to see how each of these six topics feeds into and supports each other. It’s not a linear approach but a truly powerful combination of parallel skills and activities. In short, an excellent way to the end of topic six and our focus on feedback. Well, almost – in topic 7, we acknowledge that even the best leaders and their teams have their moments, where not everything goes as scripted. There are those times when individuals express or demonstrate their disapproval about a situation. It’s human nature and a part of our DNA.
Suppose you remember the learnings from the SCARF model. In that case, you’ll recall that we each have our own unique personal behavior preferences, which ensures we can perceive situations as a threat just as easily as we can a reward.
It’s therefore not likely that every member of the team will always agree with everything the leader wants or needs to do.
So, in the next episode, we look at this reality and explore ways to deal with it – from handling conflict to turning the situation into a problem-solving exercise where everyone can learn and grow.
We hope you are enjoying this series so far and have already subscribed to our video channel Mentors Rant and our podcast channel couchTALK. If not, we’d love to have you join us and receive your feedback and thoughts about these episodes, so please take a moment and leave a comment below. Here’s hoping that your day as an elevator-escalator tribe executive is productive, fruitful, and safe. Bye for now.
“Constant change requires leaders to excel in the basics.”
10 team skills at the heart of every leader’s arsenal.
transcript written by Wayne Brown
Welcome to CHANGE or at least the “Necessity for Change.” As you can see from my appearance, we leave no stone unturned to re-enforce this message – visually and informatively.
We plan to paint a convincing picture of why your relationship with change is such a formative part of your Leadership credentials during this video. And how you can help others understand and follow your lead during what can be a highly dynamic and, therefore, challenging process to fulfill at work.
We have already aligned your chances for success in advance through the earlier topics introduced, so this exercise is just an extension of those learnings. While you may not realize it, we are living a life of constant daily change.
The only difference between change at work and change in your private life is that we may not always be in control of making the change at work, and therefore we become concerned by the uncertainty & potential impact. Let’s take a closer look at this concept as we launch into the topic.
What age are you now? – in my case, I’m nearing 60, and as I cast my mind back to the earliest times I can recall – maybe around 3 or 4 years of age, I can see that things were quite different then compared to just five years later when I started playing competitive sport.
During those five years, of course, there was constant change as I developed and learned exponentially. Then the next ten years, moving from primary to high school (freedom!) These first 15 or so years were so formative, influencing my thoughts, my values and offering experiences that created my beliefs and shaped my behaviors. Ah, the memories …. But of course, it didn’t stop there; change continued during the next ten years – experiencing girls, cars, the beach, sport and introducing this thing called a job. And then a further ten years – the feeling of responsibility kicks in, with the addition of family, on top of work pressures.
Whatever your age or images, I’m sure you can see that until today your life has been in a constant flux of change – some of it planned and intentional, some forced and some unexpected. During this time, we reacted and responded, but we survived and most likely are stronger in our minds as a result.
On a personal level, technology has had a significant influence on the changes in my world – the use of calculators only came into practice towards the end of my high school years—computers a few years after that. I purchased my first desktop in 1986 with a DOS operating system and 20MB hard drive for AUD 5000. Ten years later, I read a book written by Bill Gates called Crossroads. He predicted that in five years, we would all be walking around with our world in our back pocket – while his prediction was a little ambitious, it was an image that certainly painted a picture of significant change ahead. Today as we shoot this video, we are entering another significant moment in history where change is reshaping our lives – the technical convergence of AI, IoT, Internet 3.0, 5G, Quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, and the list goes on. I look at my five-year-old daughter, and I can’t help but wonder what her teenage life will be like ten years from now.
So, as we shift that image of constant change occurring everywhere in our personal lives across into the workplace, we need to ask why it becomes such an emotional process.
We know that all business, profit or non-profit, exists to provide a product and service to the customer which addresses their pain.
These pains (needs) change, and therefore a company’s solution also needs to change right. And we have witnessed countless examples over the decades where once-dominant companies in their field have disappeared entirely.
Why for the simple reason that they didn’t understand or ignored those changing needs. So the message is that a company that fails to keep pace with the changes happening all around it will soon be extinct.
Naturally, there is a range of considerations for all companies during any change process. What is the impact on employees? To the customer and with the systems and procedures? And importantly, the company culture?
We’ll be exploring a number of these elements as we delve deeper into this video.
For now, see if you can recall some industry titans from the past couple of decades that no longer exist or forced into a different direction? And by contrast, who are the current day titans (those dominating the landscape).
Past companies such as Kodak, compared to the Amazons, Microsoft, Apple, and Google who are presently shaping much of our current and future lives – history will tell the story, whether all of these will survive 20 years from now.
And then we have fewer examples of those mega-companies such as Disney that have been able to weather the changing storm and continue to dominate decade after decade. What is the secret to their success? I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a fascinating topic.
Where to start in unraveling some of the reasons? We have decided to introduce first the neurological aspect, as we’ve touched on this already with the Motivational discussion. It’s the fundamentals of what drives our emotions and subsequent behaviors.
We can explain this simplest by showing either the 5 stage Kubler-Ross Change Curve depicting morale & competence or using a more vivid example through the Claes Jansen Change House model.
The Kubler-Ross model illustrates five stages along a curve. Kubler-Ross places denial, frustration, depression, experiment & decision at different locations on the curve, measured across a time axis. In our graphic illustration, we have overlaid the curve onto the house to give you some resemblance of how this might work.
Typically, we start from the status quo (from contentment where everything is proceeding as normal, and we feel relaxed, comfortable there’s no sign of any storm looming – you might say the sun is shining and the birds are singing.
Suddenly, the environment encounters a change. I’m shocked and in denial of the need for such a change. As time progresses, we move to frustration and anger.
If not dealt with correctly, people may get stuck here. The best practice is to allow those involved to express their annoyance as part of the healing process.
After which, the realization starts to set in, and we often see depression or general apathy towards the situation. The good news is this is the turning point, and if you, as the leader, are present and supportive, we begin to climb out of the negative situation.
However, the next phase is that enter a state of confusion which is often the greatest challenge. Something may feel wrong, but we’re not sure what to do to make things right.
We could be tense with feelings of inferiority and doubts – this is where we will start to experiment with the new changes. To develop our understanding further and grow in our confidence about accommodating and using them.
We need to be conscious here that the new environment might not suit everyone. There is a risk that people may not accept the situation instead opting to leave and seek a different setting rather than stay. Finally, with more time, experience, and guidance, we reach the final stage or room – we make the decision to accept the changes and start to embrace them: they rebuild their ways of working. Only when people get to this stage can the organization begin to reap the rewards of the change initiative.
As you may imagine, there is a large degree of preparation and careful planning required to have any chance of success during any change initiative. Clearly understanding where you are today and what the future state looks like through both mindset and behaviors.
Give due consideration to your stakeholder’s reactions (whether it’s your team, customers, suppliers, etc.) and make this based on their motivation, attitude, and abilities.
And then finally, being able to think through the entire implementation process and communicating with clarity. By demonstrating your belief in the changes and leading from the front, ensuring that the necessary supporting systems, tools, or procedures are available and working. And exploring the need for additional stakeholder development, coaching, and guidance to enable implementation. You can see illustrated on the screen the four broad steps mentioned in this entire change process. We are now going to explore the requirements of the last two steps, starting with WHAT & HOW.
We focus on Mindset and Behavior Change using the “from-to” tool before introducing the implementation guideline technique called BCM or Behavior Change Model. And how to incorporate the Change Story for more powerful communications.
With every Change initiative, clarity of purpose is extremely important. Starting therefore with the exercise to define “What is the current status and what is it we desire for the future”
This definition then enables us to explore the stakeholders’ current related mindset. Changing the mindset to align with that defined future state is perhaps the most critical factor in achieving success within the change process.
It’s foundational in being able to reshape behavior, and so we introduce here a simple 3 part tool, which Leaders can utilize together with their stakeholders, and we start by identifying where they are today – i.e.
What is the current status? How do current behaviors and their underlying mindset support this status – which we list in the “From” column.
The tool provides us with powerful insights, as we have already defined our desired future state, and therefore we can now determine what our mindset and behavior need to look like to achieve that state.
Hence in the “To” column, we list these new thoughts, beliefs and rules, and necessary activities as a consequence. Based on this realization, we can then develop the necessary actions to drive that change in mindset and behavior from today to the future vision.
And therefore, the time has arrived to start making the change a reality. We consider the actions needed to implement this Change initiative and to be successful.
For those familiar with John Kotter’s famous 8 step Change model, you will notice some similarities in the model we are about to introduce. There are numerous models available to you, so feel free to utilize what works best for you.
In our case, we are going with a simple and visually easy four-quadrant model, referred to as the Behavior Change Model. Our four quadrants cover the actions required “Creating understanding,” Being a role model, aligning systems, and Building capabilities.
To create understanding, we need to focus on our Communications skills mentioned a little earlier. Ensuring that every stakeholder has clarity around the change reason. It’s the starting point where we provide the rationale – introducing the big picture and zooming in to the local level, outlining timing, approach, systems, training, etc.
Then address what I’m required to do as a result and what’s the impact. Later we introduce the “Change Story” technique to support you here.
From this, we move to quadrant 2. We explore the required actions for leaders to demonstrate their belief in this change.
You essentially want to illustrate that you champion the initiative and will lead the way with adoption. Don’t underestimate this step – the stakeholders will be watching you closely to gauge your buy-in.
Quadrant 3 & 4 help us consider the supporting systems, tools, processes, and training associated with this change. Are they available? It is part of the change involving new technology that replaces existing legacy systems and will generate extra workload to introduce resistance. Whatever the case, you need to have considered carefully the actions required and the resulting reactions. Rigorously, working through each of the four implementation stages will greatly increase your chances of success which in itself a significant achievement considering that 70% of all Change Initiatives fail.
And finally, to put the icing on the cake – let’s ensure that you can celebrate that success by providing all of your communication throughout the process are effective and engaging. To do so, we introduce easy to remember five key elements in developing our Change Story.
Have the right parts and structure – i.e., make it personable, stating the BIG REASON WHY change is necessary. Paint the vision, the goals, what will they be doing differently in the future? What is expected of them, and what are the next steps?
Tie your story to a strong analogy – introduce a theme or fable which can be easily associated back to this change initiative and is enticing and motivating.
Grab the stakeholders’ attention with a teaser. – create some buzz and excitement within the story around the change process using something relevant and enforceable.
Spark emotions – the story should stir up emotions. Remember the motivational methods covered in Topic 2
And finally, as made famous by Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits – always have the end in mind. Make the ending of your story positive, and the recipients wanting to know more.
Something to keep firmly in mind throughout this entire Change process, and I’ll quote John Kotter again here – “Do not declare victory too soon.”
The secret is to remember the Change Curve and the reality that change is a process that takes time. People need the opportunity to work through their emotions, and while they can be supported and guided, not forced! So this brings us to the end of this topic, “Necessity for Change.” We hope you have gained a brief insight into the “Why What and How of Change?”
Our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world today requires that we not only understand this change need but that we leaders must also champion the process.
As we move into our next and second last topic, “Pitching your value-based strategies,” we’ll take a peek into the need for balance between performance and values and the impact of strong culture based on diversity and inclusion. How does this guide your approach in the pursuit of strategic objectives? Until then, stay safe and keep learning. Bye for now!
Ten skills at the heart of every leader’s arsenal.
“Topic 7 – Problem Solving Situations”
transcript written by Wayne Brown
Congratulations on turning back into this next topic which deals with problem-solving around your stakeholders and projects. Wayne here again, and I will host you through this episode.
Until this point, we have focused on building the team dynamics and disrupting the traditional ideas or approaches in areas such as motivation, delegation, and feedback.
The 1st portion of this episode will deal specifically with creating self-awareness around your leadership style in managing conflict and how to respond to team challenges or difficult conversations. We shall broaden this perspective for the remainder of the video to look at how to engage the stakeholder in Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Creative Thinking constructs.
It`s a fascinating and incredibly insightful leg of the journey, as it’s one of the “basics” areas practiced least often by leaders. Therefore we can’t wait to share these ideas with you, as we know the learning and subsequent outcome for you and your team is enormous.
So please get comfortable, take a notebook in hand & focus your energy as we step through this topic called Problem Solving Situations.
If you have followed the steps introduced in our previous six episodes, you will have greatly reduced the likelihood of dealing with argumentative stakeholders, particularly those in your team. And if you recall, during topic 5 Feedback Strategies, we introduced a few models for successfully delivering feedback – using FAST, BOOST, and SBI, which are among the more popular methods today.
So, it’s probably no real surprise that when you are the leader introducing change, the recipients may not always be on the same page as you. Nor will they always agree with your opinion or actions. Whether the change relates to a new process, systems, or tools, offering constructive feedback, or any number of other diverse situations.
The learning here is that this is a natural part of leadership, as everyone is an individual. While they may, for the most part, be loyal team players, cooperative colleagues, understanding bosses, or considerate clients, they will still hold unique personal values, beliefs, and perspectives. These may not always align with the working environment, situation, or discussion.
Therefore, as a starting point in this episode, we want you to reflect on your conflict handling style. This self-awareness of your style preference will greatly enhance your ability to handle different scenarios (if you choose to utilize it) with various stakeholders more effectively and avoiding unintentional escalation of the matter.
For this, we introduce a very popular tool called the Thomas-Kilmann model of Conflict Management. This model compares our chosen level of assertiveness against our willingness to cooperate in a conflict situation and defines five different conflict styles which we can and do adopt as a result.
Ranging between a win-win outcome through collaboration on the one hand and total avoidance of the issue at the other end. In between these two extremes, we also have three different styles;
Competing, where you are highly assertive with little willingness to cooperate, tends to create a win-lose outcome.
Accommodating, where you are highly cooperative, however normally at your own expense. Of course, this might be intentional, for example, where you wish to preserve the relationship.
And lastly, through Compromise, such as in a sales negotiation process where there is typically give & take, it can also be considered a lose-lose situation as neither party achieves what they desire.
Depending on the stakeholder and the situation in conflict, you may elect to use any of the five styles. Even selecting a combination of more than one of these options.
We’ll go deeper into conflict management in the Advanced series. Still, we will include several links to videos and articles to help with your self-awareness and understanding of how you can utilize this knowledge during future conflict situations.
We would encourage you to complete the questionnaire included in the episode blog on our site amentorscouch.com and practice using the five styles.
And back to our reality that all leaders should expect this conflict scenario to present itself at some stage. It’s important, therefore, to prepare ourselves (by knowing our default styles) and learn to allow the stakeholders to air their grievances, voice their concerns, and state their thoughts without you reacting inappropriately.
It’s pleasing to know that we can predict with a degree of accuracy (based on numerous studies in this field) when conflict arises during team feedback sessions, the types of pushback to expect. Knowing this enables us to be somewhat prepared ahead of the communication.
Typically, the recipient will express one or more of these four responses if confronted about an issue.
They deny that the situation exists, so you need to support the claim with facts and examples.
They may trivialize the scale of the situation, stating that it’s not a big issue – in this situation, you support your claim with an outline of the impact and why it matters.
They may try shifting the blame onto others. Here it would help if you allowed the recipient to detail the situation as they see it and explain the causes. Dig into the problem to find the root cause.
Shifting blame onto a lack of personal knowledge or skill – here, you would explore together which capability is missing and agree if this is truly the cause. If so, decide on a solution together.
In the end, it’s important to reach an agreement on a way forward with concrete actions, the nomination of the responsible persons, and clear timeline milestones.
The more you expose yourself to this challenge, the better you will handle the situation and manage your style. Of course, you utilize the tools provided and practice the communication methods already highlighted.
Remember to be factual and base the feedback on your observations, not hear-say, park your emotions, allow time for input from the recipient and work towards solutions, don’t get bogged down in the issue or problem. Keep moving the discussion towards the solution.
But what if we encounter a more complex problem with a larger group? The issue will require a somewhat different approach.
Let’s consider that your company is working on a large project and have encountered a significant problem that could jeopardize the completion date and financial outcome.
People start becoming emotional, the atmosphere is heated, and the blame game is rampant. How can we calm down the situation and move things towards a solution? The obvious step would be to call the team meeting, paint the picture, and demand cohesion and joint effort.
We see this approach repeatedly and with a similar outcome – most often with little change in project performance or success.
Thankfully, it’s possible and relatively easy to disrupt this mentality by introducing a little logic and process to the equation – we kick start this with our Problem Solving mindset and later elaborate on the process with Critical and Creative Thinking techniques.
We were referring to earlier these steps when we said that most managers fail to utilize the group’s collective genius to identify and solve complex problems fearing that the process takes too much time or, more often, that they don’t know how or what to do.
So let’s unpack this approach in greater detail, understand more about each component, and examine some supporting tools. And we start with the traditional Problem Solving methodology.
Starting with an understanding of this term Problem Solving and the realization that many companies have developed their practices to incorporate one or more problem-solving methods as standards in their daily work activities. You can see the definition and a small sampling (10) of common problem-solving techniques/tools on the screen. It is not an exhaustive list as there are many approaches, but most share a common theme.
This problem-solving approach became very popular in the automotive industry around quality topics in the 1980s and utilized many of these assessment tools. It has since spread to all business areas and usually with a simplified methodology such as Constructive or Inductive Reasoning techniques and perhaps PDCA – plan do check act – to name a few. Links to these and other methods will be in the blog.
To help you understand better, we would like to introduce a simple but effective method, which relates to the concept and how our problem-solving theory applies in your business practices with stakeholders and major projects.
The approach covers the principles adopted in the majority of methods while utilizing a simple 6 step model. Hence the reason I prefer this, particularly when working with groups that are not familiar with traditional problem-solving techniques.
Each of the six steps has multiple characteristics, which we adhere to or question during that stage, plus at the same time, we’ll incorporate various tools or techniques for drilling deeper into the problem.
The process starts with step 1, “Defining the problem.” In this step, we look to diagnose the situation to focus on the problem, not just its symptoms. For this stage, we introduce the end-to-end process review in the form of a flow diagram to ensure we are clear about what happened across the entire activity.
Next, in step 2, we “Determine the root causes or causes.” Meaning, what is it that is causing us to wind up with this problem or situation? We use tools such as the cause and effect diagram and the 5 Why questioning technique to explore the linkage further.
In step 3, we need to “Define alternative solutions” – typically using lateral thinking exercises such as brainstorming; we try to identify all possible answers. We are considering everything which may be helpful.
Then in Step 4, we “Select a solution or solutions” after grouping, prioritizing, and considering the possibilities before choosing the one/s which you believe will resolve the matter.
Implement the change” is the next step. Implementation can be a simple or complex process and may involve multiple sub-steps depending on the scale of the problem.
And finally, in Step 6, we continue to monitor and evaluate the results after the implementation.
We could, of course, stop here as this Problem Solving approach alone will result in a high degree of success over most problems and resolve most disagreements. But, we want to make sure you have a fully endowed knowledge base along with an arsenal of tools. Therefore we’re going to incorporate the applications of creative and critical thinking.
These two separate elements are highly powerful as stand-alone topics and could have had an episode devoted to each. Still, in our case, we want to highlight merely their value add & show how to couple them together for greater problem-solving effectiveness.
Let’s start by introducing creative thinking to expand the range of our solutions, particularly during step 3 of our Problem Solving exercise.
The concept of creative thinking and using outside of the box, innovative thoughts helps move from convergent to divergent ideas.
You are looking for alternative solutions rather than only one correct outcome. To create the right stimulation for this creative thinking process to occur, you need to establish the right environment and combine the right ingredients – such as a diverse group of people with different roles, different backgrounds, different cultures, age, gender, expertise, and so on, as and where appropriate. Plus, be sure to define the game rules for the creativity exercise clearly.
With this in place, we can call on different creative thinking tools and techniques. There are many tools to select from –Brainstorming, Mind mapping from Tony Buzan, Six Hats from Edward Debono, plus some less known approaches such as SCAMPER.
These tools can be supported by following more abstract and remotely practiced suggestions from people like Balder Onarheim and the use of pre-practiced activities such as “continuous practice.” You train your mind to think creatively, use dream sleep to solve a stated problem or use randomness to trigger abstract connections to the problem. Whichever you select, the aim is to enhance the solution ideation.
And then, of course, once we have these new, untested thoughts, how can we assess them? And that’s our bridge to the use of Critical Thinking in our problem-solving process.
So what is critical thinking – it can be defined as a developed skill acquired through practice, enabling us to think clearly and rationally and understand the logical connection between ideas.
It refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. Critical thinking involves evaluating sources such as data, facts, observable phenomenon, and research findings.
Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a given set of information and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve a problem or make a decision.
Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value.
So, if we reflect on our 6-step problem-solving process, we have already utilized Creative Thinking during step 3 to enhance and broaden our possible solution pool.
In step 4, while selecting the most effective solution, we can apply our critical thinking to challenge our rationale, based on the data provided in steps 2 & 3. The outcome will be concise, well thought through reasoning, which sits behind the solution selection process.
And there we have the complete approach – we started with the simple feedback situations and encountering individual disagreement or resistance. Learning about our conflict management style and then broadened our perspective to more complex issues affecting larger projects and groups.
For these, we introduced a simple 6 step Problem-Solving methodology that encapsulates both Creative and Critical Thinking practices.
And I want to share a highly effective example of addressing a problem that combines all three elements. Problem-solving combines creative and critical thinking through a systems thinking model referred to as a “collaborative visualization” approach.
Addressing the problem through this systems model and using drawings of images on sticky notes or pads, arranging them in the correct sequence expands on the end-to-end process flow through group collaboration. It produces a visual frame of reference offering both clarity and alignment.
Tom Wujec demonstrates the approach on his website called DrawToast and his Wicked Problem Solving™ toolkit.
Having facilitated workshops where groups used the approach, I can vouch for its effectiveness. We will include a link to this website and TEDTalk to gauge the method’s effectiveness for yourself.
And so to conclude and introduce the next topic. We have now provided you a 3 part mini-series related to feedback, celebrating success, managing conflict, and solving problems with this topic closing. Applying the learnings from these three videos alone will stand you apart from most leaders.
Therefore, please do yourself a favor and review them again if there is anything you are unclear about and remember to visit our site called amentorscouch.com to access each transcript which contains all of the topic-related links.
With only three videos remaining in this Basics series, you have reached the business end of proceedings. Up next, topic eight dealing with the Necessity for Change. I have a little surprise lined up for you in this episode, but you’ll need to wait until we release it to see more.
The final two topics cover “Pitching value-based strategies” and “Running with your game plan.”
In these three episodes, we bring into scope “Self-Awareness.” An MIT Sloan Management Review article cites self-awareness as the most important capability for any leader. While self-awareness, similar to communication, has always been a foundational part of this program, it will become a more visible component in our discussions as our attention turns towards you more so than the team or other stakeholders.
I can’t wait to bring the Change story to you, but until then, stay safe and be careful driving—cheers for now.
*** difficult conversations
difficult conversations – it’s ok to include
difficult conv. Mistakes
**** great starting video – opens the reason why people disagree
couchTALK: Coaching our elevator-escalator global tribe
“Constant change requires leaders to excel in the basics”
10 skills at the heart of every leaders arsenal.
Video 1 – Understanding your place in the team
Video 2 – Motivating your future team
Video 3 – Creative delegation
Video 4 – SMART rules and rewarding goals
Video 5 – Feedback strategies
Video 6 – Achievement reviews
Video 7 – Problem & solution solving
Video 8 – The necessity for Change
Video 9 – Pitching value-based strategies
Video 10 – Running with your game plan
Hello and welcome to couchTalk episode – 104. This time we are helping to launch a new 10 video program on our YouTube channel called Mentors Rant.
The progam focuses on the coming changes through technology and the
need to get centered with the basic skills surrounding Leadership in our
elevator-escalator global tribe.
In my article titled “10
Essential Leadership Skills for ’2019-20 – Our final opportunity to get the
basics locked-in”, I state;
The age of Industry 4.0 is
upon us and with it comes Big data, IoT, quantum computing, AI, Internet 3.0,
5G, Augmented reality and much more.
Individually each of these
breakthroughs will, are changing our lives. With the convergence of these
technologies however they will completely re-design the way we live and work in
the near future.
For leaders to maintain their
edge and to stay abreast of these immense changes to the way our people think,
behave and perform, we must have at the very least, a set of basic leadership
skills firmly embedded in our DNA. And without trying to over dramatize the
situation …
“There isn’t
a lot of time remaining for each of us to prepare for this gravitational shift
– a digital quantum leap as such!”
Experts are predicting that in less than 5 years from now we will be living and working entirely different from our norms of today. With this in mind let’s move on to review the 10 basics covered by our videos.
Video 1.02 – What leaders need, to achieve initial buy-in
Video 1.03 – Leaders that chunk, link, recall and review, win
Video 1.04 – Leaders need to learn how to close
Welcome back to “Highly effective presentations for every leader” – have you already complete episode # 1.01 – Preparing to present like a pro?
As this is a series of 4 episodes, it will make it much easier to watch them in sequence. However, don’t despair; if time is short (and isn’t for everyone), we will start here with a summary of episode 1.01.
So, it seems you’re about to get started with episode 1.02.
Here we identify what leaders need to do during the crucial opening moments.
In the final two episodes, 1.03 & 1.04, titled “Leaders that chunk, link, recall, and review, win” and “Leaders need to learn how to close,” respectively, we’ll investigate how to structure great presentations and then the methods for closing on a high.
5 key considerations from the previous episode – “Preparing to present like a Pro.”
# 1: Know your audience
# 2: Structure your presentation
# 3: Create great visuals
# 4: Powerful questions & engaging activities
# 5: Prepare through practice
From episode 1.01 – Preparing to present like a Pro, we covered these 5 key considerations.
– and said to remember that preparation helps you to stay Participant Centred throughout the presentation.
Let’s quickly recap on what we have covered so far.
#1 Know your audience
meaning know who will be participating and how experienced they are on the subject
#2 Structure your presentation
by this, we mean actively chunk topics and create links or bridges between these topics, using the rule of 3 and incorporate stories.
#3 Create great visuals
– remember simple is best, so they are easy to read and understand. 65% of adults have a visual learning preference.
#4 Prepare powerful questions and engaging activities
do some research on questioning techniques such as “funneling and develop simple activities.
#5 Prepare through practice
experts say there are typically 3 presentation versions for every eventual delivery – Each individual needs to develop their own method which works best for them.
7 concepts of memory (listed in order of importance)
Primacy, Recency, chunking, linking, record & recall, review & revisit and outstandingness.
# 1 in order of importance is Primacy – covered in this episode
# 2 in order of importance is Recency – covered in episode 1.04
Before jumping into episode 1.02, we would like to give you a short intro to the 7 concepts of memory (listed here in order of importance) – Primacy, Recency, Chunking, Linking, Record & Recall, Review & Revisit, and Outstandingness.
As stated, # 1 is Primacy – i.e., the thing our participants remember the most from your presentation is the opening (particularly if it stinks).
The second most important is how you close – i.e., Recency
– the last things we hear, do, or say before completing the presentation
– we address this item in episode 4 of this series.
Whilst #’s 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 (the remaining 5 concepts) we’ll cover in episodes 3 & 4.
So, it’s clearly important if we want people to retain the experience and learnings from our presentation that we turn our focus to these 7 concepts in the remaining 3 episodes.
Let’s now begin with episode 1.02.
Episode 1.02: “What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in.”
Starting now with the 3 vital considerations specific to our second episode – “What leaders need, to achieve initial buy-in.”
– 1st captivate “From the very beginning.”
– 2nd nailing those “opening comments.”
– 3rd “Engage through Story.”
Consideration # 1: From the very beginning
Dress to impress
Communicate through body language
Standstill – don’t rock or prowl
Consideration # 1: First impressions are critical, so fromthe very moment you appear, the clock is running, and your audience is making their judgment about you and the likely presentation.
Therefore, make your actions and expressions purposeful
approach the podium confidently,
pause in silence,
scan the room,
raise your eyebrow
and smile.
People connect more with the top half of your face than the bottom, hence the eyebrow movement but smiling is infectious, so don’t miss it.
Dress to impress – meaning neatly, regardless of dress code
– if it’s stated that the dress code is smart casual on the smart side. If more formal, make sure you are clear on the requirements – NEVER underdress.
Use of body language for successful engagement
> 50% of your communication occurs through your body language.
Standstill – don’t prowl excessively – in the beginning, move more from the hips and plant your feet.
Avoid rocking backward or forward or swaying.
Keep hands visible in front of you. Use them to emphasize a point but don’t become the flag bearer waving wildly.
Consideration # 2: Opening comments
Remember the “WHY”
Remember the “HOW”
Voice control
Graphic visual image
Consideration # 2: Opening comments
– use a powerful intro to give the subject substance & connect to the audience
When we say “Remember the WHY,” – consider that we are all presenters at some stage in our career.
The audience is there because they are wanting to hear and learn something new. Ensure your opening confirms their trust in you and reason for listening.
“Remember the HOW” – by demonstrating through words your Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity, Love – or HAIL, as Julian Treasure refers to it in his 2013 TED Talk on “How to speak so that people want to listen.”
Julian further defines HAIL “as to greet or acclaim enthusiastically.”
Additionally, lock the audience into you with your voice control
don’t speak too fast or too speedily,
ensure the right tone,
volume and pitch.
If you have a voice like me, use aids to assist you.
Introduce the subject using words that paint a graphic, visual image.
Explore and express the subject in a way that the audience will connect with.
Consideration # 3: Engage through Story
Use stories to link yourself
Be relatable
And have fun!
Consideration # 3: Engage through Story
and understand the difference between telling me and showing me a story.
Learning to become a storyteller is one of your most powerful aids as a presenter.
Discover how to unpack a story by taking the time to detail and explore details and living each moment.
Where possible, link yourself into the subject through this story as a means of self-introduction and introducing your background.
Be careful to stay relatable – authentic by being yourself, relaxed, engaging, enthusiastic. If the story is too unbelievable, then more likely that it won’t be.
And finally, remember to have fun
enjoy the moment regardless of whether the topic is serious and dry or humorous and comical.
Consolidation of the 3 key considerations
# 1 From the very beginning
# 2 Opening comments
# 3 Engage through Story
So that covers the 3 key considerations in this episode # 2. What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in.”
Remember that the opening seconds/minutes set the scene for the success of your presentation. In this episode, the 3 key considerations we spoke about were.
# 1 From the very beginning – we need to approach the podium confidently, pause in silence, scanning the room, raise our eyebrows, pause again, and then smile.
# 2 Opening comments – use a powerful intro to give the subject substance & connect to the audience. Paint a graphic picture through your words.
# 3 Engage through story – and understand the difference between a “telling me & showing me” story.
Thank you for listening to this 2nd episode called “What leaders need, to achieve initial buy-in,” from our series “Highly effective presentations for every leader.”
We look forward to you joining us as we continue our journey with episode #3 called “Leaders that chunk, link, recall, and review, win”!
“Highly effective presentations for every leader” …
Video 1 – Preparing to present like a Pro
Video 2 – What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in
Video 3 – Leaders that chunk, link, recall and review, win
Video 4 – Leaders need to learn how to close
Hello, I’m Professor Wayne, and I’ll be your Mentor for this video, podcast, and blog series called “Highly effective presentations for every leader.” Welcome to this the first of 4 short modules.
The title of this episode is – Preparing to present like a Pro, where we will deep dive into the necessary preparation steps that ensure your presentation runs smoothly.
In the following three episodes, we turn our attention to the presentation delivery focusing first in episode 2 on the opening. In episode 3, we explore the content, structure, and maximization of retention with chunking and linking. Finally, we round out the series in episode 4 by identifying how to close your presentation on a high.
First, now to defining the difference between facilitating and presenting.
Facilitation VS Presentation
Facilitation + Presentation = Training
A couple of items to clarify before commencing with the video of the preparation. Let’s first clearly define the difference between presenting and facilitating as the two are often confused.
Facilitation in the purest sense and as defined in the Cambridge dictionary, “is the act of helping other people to deal with a process or reach an agreement or solution without getting directly involved in the process, discussion, etc. yourself.”
– a typical example might be if we are chairing a meeting or workshop.
Presentation at its most basic level “is a platform for communicating information and ideas.”
– there are many examples where we present, but in our case, we’ll be stick with meetings, conferences, public speaking events, or workshops.
While the difference between the two roles is quite clear, it’s also possible to combine Facilitation & Presentation.
– there are occasions when we need to overlap the two activities, and this is most often seen with people that deliver training as they need to play both roles simultaneously.
Presentation framework and context
Presentation duration – 60 minutes
Target audience – executives
Presentation subject – focus on Leadership.
One further distinction is to provide some context to this video series and place a framework around the type of presentations we will be discussing;
Any single presentation has a given duration – it can be extremely short, perhaps just a few minutes, or the other extreme can last several hours.
And, of course, anywhere in between.
In our instance, we’ll suppose a typical 60-minute presentation.
As this series is developed for executives and leaders of our ELEVATOR-ESCALATOR TRIBE, we will target a similar audience group for these 60 min presentations.
The presentation subject is not as important, but again for the sake of this series and for any Use cases introduced in the episodes, we’ll focus on the subject of “Leadership.”
So, let’s look at the 5 specific areas of consideration related to our first video – “Preparing to present like a pro.” They are:
# 1 – Know your audience
# 2 – Structure your presentation
# 3 – Create great visuals
# 4 – Powerful questions & engaging activities
# 5 – Prepare through practice
Consideration #1: “Know your audience.”
adjust your presentation, preparing the timing and flow, where is the “power” is sitting
Consideration #1: Know your audience – meaning know who will be participating and how experienced they are on the subject. This helps you stay “Participant Centred” by;
Being able to tailor or adjust your presentation – with both content and your questions.
It also enables you to gauge the timing and flow of the presentation so that you can maintain interest and engagement.
Plus, and very importantly, particularly in meetings, to understand where the “power” is sitting in the room.
Consideration #2: “Structure your presentation”
clear objectives & include only the key points,
focus on participant needs – “think, feel & do.”
utilizing the “Rule of 3” and include a story
Consideration #3: Create great visuals
; remember simple is best, so they are easy to read and understand.
– this lets the participant digest the message quickly and then return their focus to you.
For slides – minimize the text (preferably one or two items per slide) together with a grabbing image. Keep the text in the top half of the slide for ease of reading.
For handouts – keep them short, simple, and well-formatted. Use graphics to help illustrate so that the information can be skimmed rather than studied.
For flipcharts, wall charts, or other supporting graphics, they should bring to life the points rather than just restate what you’re saying.
Remember that approximately 65% of all adults have a visual learning dominance or preference. Don’t risk eliminating 2/3 of your audience from the start as a result of poor visuals…
Consideration #4: Prepare powerful questions and engaging activities.
– this is such a critical component and yet the area least practiced.
To assist you here, do some research on questioning techniques such as “funneling.” The method helps you to extract greater involvement through open-ended questions before confirming the situation and then closing the discussion.
In addition, as adults, we learn best through experience; therefore, if you can incorporate simple, quick activities to re-affirm to key messages you want the participants to grasp, then this is highly effective.
Consideration #5: Prepare through practice
– prepare the presentation script, convert the script into key points, practice the presentation,
Consideration #5: Prepare through practice
– experts say there are typically 3 presentation versions for every eventual delivery
the presentation you prepare, the presentation you practice, and the final presentation you deliver.
Each individual needs to develop their own method, which works best for them, but here’s how I do it depending on the level of importance and complexity.
Start by preparing the presentation script in detail and edit this until you’re happy when reading it out aloud.
After reciting the script multiple times, convert this detailed script into clustered topics, utilizing techniques such as mind mapping to outline the structure and key points.
Finally, find a quiet location or location (somewhere preferably with a mirror) and practice the presentation repeatedly, including the stories. Try to anticipate questions and practice your response. Even better if you can record your delivery, then listen and watch for areas to improve.
Consolidation of the 5 key considerations
#1 Know your audience
#2 Structure your presentation
#3 Create great visuals
#4 Powerful questions & engaging activities
#5 Prepare through practice
Episode 1 summary
And that wraps up our 5 key considerations for this topic of “preparing to present like a pro.”
– remember this preparation helps you to stayParticipant Centred throughout the presentation.
Let’s quickly recap on what we have covered so far.
#1 Know your audience
meaning know who will be participating and how experienced they are on the subject.
#2 Structure your presentation
by this, we mean actively chunk topics and create links or bridges between these topics, using the rule of 3 and incorporate stories.
#3 Create great visuals
– remember simple is best, so they are easy to read and understand. 65% of adults have a visual learning preference.
#4 Prepare powerful questions and engaging activities
do some research on questioning techniques such as “funneling and develop simple activities.
#5 Prepare through practice
experts say there are typically 3 presentation versions for every eventual delivery
each individual needs to develop their own method which works best for them.
Thank you for listening to this first episode, “Preparing to present like a Pro.” from our series “Highly effective presentations for every leader.”
If you enjoyed it, please hit the LIKE buttonbelow and be sure to join us for episode #2 called “What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in.”
We’d love to receive your comments, and if you want to be notified of future material, please subscribe below.
Until next time, stay safe and prepare well. Bye for now.
Video 2 – What leaders need, to achieve initial buy-in
Video 3 – Leaders that chunk, link, recall and review, win
Video 4 – Leaders need to learn how to close
Welcome back to “Highly effective presentations for every leader” – you have reached the final episode of this series. And before moving onto our new material from episode #1.04, it’s important to recap what we’ve covered so far.
In episode # 1.01 – Preparing to present like a pro, we started by looking at the necessary preparations to enable professional presentations.
Episode # 1.02 – What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in, we reviewed the critical considerations for that opening stanza of the presentation.
And the previous episode #1.03, called “Leaders that chunk, link, recall, and review, win,” we looked closely at the essentials for presenters during the body of the delivery – and we’ll now summarize this in more detail.
OK, so lets at the consolidation of the 5 key considerations from episode #1.03.
If you recall, this episode is related to the “body of the presentation,” We touch on the 4 of the 7 concepts for memory retention.
# 1 The art of chunking & linking – adults digest information best when it is broken into small parcels
# 2 Using body language to enhance the message – focusing on your facial expression, hand gestures, and body movement
# 3 Using voice to enhance the message – just as body language conveys a visual message, your voice conveys the verbal & vocal message
# 4 Recall through activities – active learning is a powerful mechanism for assisting adults in locking in the message
# 5 Revisit and review – will deepen learning retention and create the potential for behavior change
As we have covered all 7 concepts of memory, let’s review them again here first and in order of importance
Primacy,
Recency,
Chunking,
Linking,
Record & recall,
review & revisit
and outstandingness.
Do you recall this topic from episode 2, where we said Primacy was the most important concept for memory?
Well, now we look at the second most important “Recency,”meaning the last things we do before finishing our presentation – our close.
This is your final opportunity to ensure that all of the key points the audience has received and discussed are taken away with them in their minds and perhaps their hands.
Let us now move into today’s topic.
During the next few minutes, we will explore the final 3 considerations in this 4th and final episode of the series – “Leaders need to learn how to close.”
Starting with “Summarizing topics & key take-aways.”
Followed by “Concluding the presentation.”
And finishing off with a Call to action
Are you ready, then let’s start!
Consideration # 1: Summarizing the topics and key take-aways
this is where you bring it all together that one last time.
Do you remember we spoke about the importance of reviewing a minimum of 6 times in the previous episode?
State the topics you have covered and those key points from each – recall something specific that was discussed with these points, so participants can recall.
Make the points visual so that there is a final chance to digest and retain – show graphically the link between all the topics which lead to the conclusion.
Take final questions and try to seek the audience’s involvement to review if your forum allows.
Consideration #2: Concluding the presentation
this is your chance to finish on a high!
It is a great opportunity to practice your outstandingness – put on your dancing shoes (figuratively speaking) and make it special.
Leave the audience with something to remember the subject by – such as a closing statement quoted by someone famous or a dire prediction if no change follows.
During your preparations, you would have identified this, and now it’s time to live it and illustrate the lasting image you want the group to leave with – make it big and bold on and off the screen.
Consideration # 3: Calling to action
all great presentations have a follow-up request or requirement
Try using the “challenge” or “call back” close – pose something which will require the audience to act immediately or commit to a post-workshop event.
Providing handouts, notes, or information on future events for the audience to take if interested is a good idea – but again create a reason why people would want to open it after they leave.
I’ve been to way too many events where I have been given material that sits on my desk for a while when I get back to the office but eventually ends up on my shelf or in the bin.
Don’t drag the ending on too long – bring the presentation to a close.
If possible, stay for the remainder of proceeding to field questions outside of the event.
To summarize episode # 1.04 and consolidate the 3 key considerations – we’ve just learned how to effectively close a presentation.
Start by Summarizing the topics and key take-aways – this is where you bring it all together.
Then conclude the presentation – your chance to finish on a high – Leave the audience with something to remember the subject by – such as a closing statement quoted by someone famous.
And finally, and very importantly, create a Call to action – all great presentations have a follow-up request for some form of immediate action or commit to a post-workshop event.
So that’s it for this episode. Thank you for listening to this series, “Highly effective presentations for every leader.”
We’ve enjoyed making this short series 12 months back and are happy now that we have them available as a podcast series. We hope you can get value from the discussion and strengthen your presentation ability.
It’s truly a key skill for all executives. During the series, we have covered 4 topics;
– Preparing to present like a Pro
– What leaders need to achieve initial buy-in
– Leaders that chunk, link, recall, and review, win
– Leaders need to learn how to close
Please visit our site @ A Mentors Couch.com and subscribe to this channel called couchTALK, on Stitcher and Apple. Plus, if you haven’t already done so, you can watch this series as a video through our YouTube channel Mentors Rant.
We’re presently working on a series of meditation tracks for use during my coaching sessions. After that, we’ll be ready to start moving onto the Leaders Advance series available through our 3 pack approach – video, podcast, and blog.
So until the next release, bye for now, and enjoy presenting!
WOW, you have reached a truly vital stage in the overall Leadership basics series.
Today our attention is squarely focused on how to motivate your team members.
There is so much great information in this podcast that we debated splitting it in half, but as we’re already committed to having one episode for each of the 10 skills, we’ve found a way to package it.
Are you ready? Sit back, stay tuned in and remember the transcript and any links will be contained in the accompanying blog. Here we go…
We’ll cover in the next 20 minutes broadly deals with seven key considerations when understanding and addressing the topic of motivation. We can split these 7 into 3 clusters.
The first cluster of 3 considerations we call our “Motivational Enablers”. This cluster are like the pre-requisites to motivating and cover Leadership behaviors, workspace & environment plus a healthy mind.
The second cluster – a group of 2 considerations, we call our “Motivational platform” – where we look closer at our workforce generational mix and the various motivational theories available to us.
The final and 3rd cluster we call “Motivational techniques”. Where we dig into using rational and emotion when triggering action.
Under emotion, we explore both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators to satisfy the inner needs. The final area looks into the latest neuro-science model, called SCARF, which assists us in determining the right intrinsic motivators to use based on behavioral preferences.
Before we go further, however, I want to pause here and add that to be successful in motivating the team requires effort and focus on your part.
Seldom have we witnessed a motivated team where the leader hasn’t been fully engaged and leading the way.
Hence all of the following 7 considerations require you to be in the center of the action.
With that said, let’s move into our first cluster, the “Motivational Enablers”- these are a pre-cursor before attempting to motivate and, if addressed properly, will improve your chance of success dramatically.
#1 in cluster 1 is you as the leader and the leadership behaviors you display and operate from. Your team wants a leader that embodies all 5 of the following behaviors. Trust, Listen, Share, Accept and Enable;
Trust – the team wants to trust that you have their back and will stand by your word. In turn, you need to demonstrate that you trust the team and that they are working with you, not against you.
Listen – remember the concept of having 2 ears and one mouth. Practice active listening and encourage dialogue. Give your team a chance to have their say.
Share – communicate openly, transparently, and frequently. Remove the potential for hidden agendas and rumors with regular townhalls, Q&A, and feedback sessions.
Accept – that the team is competent and capable. Seek opportunities to engage them in the decision-making process and learn how to delegate meaningfully.
And finally, Enable – building on the first 4 traits, ensure that you provide a way for your team members to develop and grow. Provide sufficiently challenging tasks which encourage their input and shared learnings.
One last consideration here – as leaders today, we must accommodate diversity and virtual teams. This brings with it different cultures, work environments, and potential for communication challenges, which may hinder our ability to successfully demonstrate all 5 of these behavior traits.
Leaders today, therefore, need not only to be effective in F2F situations and with their own local teams they must be clear of how to build that trust and relationships in all circumstances to effectively connect in our global operations.
The 2nd “Motivational Enabler” looks at our workspace & environment – not always something which is fully within our immediate control, given budget constraints and fixed facilities.
As was just mentioned, we must also give due consideration to the reality of today’s virtual teams. These can be as simple as employees working from home or out of their vehicles, to more challenging scenarios in dealing with team members scattered regionally or globally.
But suppose you are creative and engage your team to participate in open dialogue and the decision-making process. In that case, you can and should develop ways to improve the working environment and meet the current day less formal, modern, and healthy workspace expectations – it’s something that nearly all employees we speak with want and appreciate.
Whether this is a fixed or mobile space, remote or local location, taking steps to transform your team’s surroundings, the ambiance, and creating an overall healthier atmosphere can generate a mindset change and positive impact on working attitudes.
The 3rd and final “motivational enabler” and pre-requisite to motivating are a little more challenging to ensure than the first two. It looks at enabling a healthy mind through 7 key foundational life and work practices.
A detailed review of these 7 practices can be found in an article titled “The Healthy Mind Platter,” published by the NeuroLeadership journal issue 4, back in 2012.
We’ve placed a link to the article in the blog notes.
To avoid becoming too technical with the explanation, we’ll leave you to read through and understand more deeply about each. You should notice, however, that it supports many previously held beliefs in similar areas of research.
Here’s the list of seven daily practices required for creating a healthy mind;
Sufficient sleep each night (but also considers the use of 10-15 min daily power naps)
Get regular physical exercise
The ability to engage in playful activities during the day
Ensuring sufficient rest time (which is different from sleep)
Opportunities for socializing with colleagues, friends & family
Importantly work-related focus time – doing this in chunks is highly effective
And the last is the practice of mindfulness – the newest perhaps in the group and is the subject of considerable research – we see the practice becoming quite common and popular nowadays.
So, there you have it – start with your own mind – challenge yourself to see which of these you are or are not fulfilling, and then look to your team.
Question your team’s current working & lifestyle – what might be changed to enhance or enable these 7 practices?
Remember, any of the 3 motivational enablers may work as a motivator, but they serve to open the team to increased performance possibilities.
Right, so we have addressed the Motivational Enablers and are ready to tackle the two topics in Cluster 2, which we call our “Motivational Platform.”
And the first is a major one. Today, our workforce spans 4 different generations – from baby boomers through Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z or iGen as they are regularly referred to.
There is nothing new with the age spread – young employees have traditionally entered the scene around 18-20 years of age and worked beside veterans 60 years or more, thus offering a breadth of working knowledge and expertise spanning 40 – 50 years. – i.e., someone that entered the workforce in 1970-1975 is retiring as we approach 2020.
The clan’s newest member is Generation Z and will soon form the second largest of the 4 groups mentioned. By 2020 it is estimated that the iGen’s will make up 20% of the workforce.
The difference, however, comes when we explore the era that these generations have grown up in and, therefore, the expectations that accompany them.
In some instances, those expectations have compounded from generation to generation, while particularly in the Millennials and Gen Z case, they have been born into different eras – be it wealthy parents, the threat from terrorism, global financial crisis, or technology explosion and digitalization.
In the latter case, digitalization, we see the technology on every level continually reinventing itself at increasing speed.
So much so that we’re now entering one of the most transformational periods in our history and certainly for this current workforce demographic.
We are seeing a convergence of multiple technologies, each one singularly changing how we live, but collectively the impact is probably beyond most of our imaginations – and this in the space of just a few years.
Your role as a leader is to come to terms with the varying needs and expectations as you look to employ the right motivational techniques.
We provide links to several articles which discuss Gen Y and Gen Z.
OK, so we’re almost ready to start motivating, but “what should we focus on” and “how to do it” – these 2 questions need to be considered first & therefore forms the 2nd topic of this cluster.
For more than a century, researchers have been asking these questions and the results are quite interesting. Here, we list many better-known motivational theories that have evolved from more than a century of studies. Theories from legends such as Freud, Maslow, Herzberg, Vrooms, and Adams, through to the more modern and less known neuro-science studies and people such as David Rock.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, that over time, as our workforce evolved, so to have the research findings.
Of course, technology has played a significant role, enabling us to perform our studies in different ways – particularly in recent decades with the developments in neuroscience.
With each new theory comes a new level of sophistication in our understanding.
And as each theory gets accepted by the experts and adopted, we begin to glean a common thread linking past findings and while also identifying elements that bring something new to the table.
Note that to move forward and onto our 3rd and final cluster, we will work mostly with modern-day theories – those originating during the 1970s through to the last decade.
And so now to Cluster 3 and the last two of our topics, we’ll discuss the use of “rational & emotional strategies” and how to leverage these to motivate. In particular, we zoom in and explore our extrinsic and intrinsic inner needs.
We have learned that leaders need to address the rationale (i.e., provide a logical, well-structured, wholistic, and simplified communication) when introducing any change topic to the team.
To do this, the leader must provide the meaning related to the topic and enable the team to see the big picture and where they fit into this process.
This helps individuals, when receiving the information, to digest and associate with it on a personal level. It offers the chance for clarity on the reasoning behind the action. By itself, however, is unlikely to be sufficient.
That’s because we often need a little emotional stimulus to kick start us into action. Here we identify two methods to generate this emotional tie – firstly, we have the traditional power play at our disposal. However, this is no longer the accepted approach in most cultures.
It may be necessary for certain circumstances, but we try to avoid this method of leading through authority as a general rule.
The preferred way to trigger buy-in and action is via motivation, and this is what we will focus on for the remainder of this discussion.
Starting with the understanding of two words, “extrinsic” and “intrinsic.” Extrinsic, meaning to provide a short to medium-term stimulus for individuals – through things such as incentives, pay increases, or bonuses.
We often refer to this as the carrot used to derive an outcome, and while this may be necessary for some circumstances to bring balance and fairness, it not always possible, nor is it seen as a lasting solution.
The most preferred approach is to address those inner needs by focusing on those intrinsic motivators – and depending on the individual, these will differ. Fortunately, there are various options available – recognition, empowerment, autonomy, challenging tasks, etc., each of these falling into this intrinsic category.
We now know that we need to lead change through the use of both rational and emotional stimuli.
For the emotional component, we do so through motivating, perhaps using a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators but leaning mostly on the inherent needs.
And now for the final piece of the puzzle – an understanding of how to determine the best motivators for each individual in your team?
To assist us in the task, we turn to neuroscience and the latest study published in 2008 on motivation thru determining what triggers social behavior.
There are two aspects – the first being the principle of threat and reward. The second being 5 domains of social experience, which depending on how each is triggered, can activate a negative, threat response or a positive reward response with our brains’ neuron circuitry.
The actual model uses an acronym called SCARF – and each letter relates to one of the 5 domains. They are Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.
In the blog, we’ll include a link to the site where you can complete a free online assessment to determine your own domain mixture and which of the 5 are most dominant.
Understanding yourself first helps you understand the tool and the theory better. It would then be useful to have your team perform this same assessment to have a clear picture about which domains you need to focus on when trying to motivate an individual through reward and which areas you need to be careful not to trigger as a threat. The good news is that this model works across our generations – naturally with differing dominant domains but still with the 5 in play.
And that’s it – we’ve covered a lot of territory with this podcast, examining 3 clusters of 7 different considerations to achieve highly motivated current and future teams.
The more of clusters 1 & 2 you can incorporate into your preparation and planning, the higher the chance you will have great success motivating your team.
Provided, of course, that you then incorporate the “how-to” actions – i.e.
combining both the rational and emotive strategies
blended with a mix of extrinsic and intrinsic needs
and coupled with what we have learned from the SCARF model on treating each individual based on their social, behavioral preferences.
We’re planning an Advanced Leadership series to follow this 10-episode Basics series and a promo opportunity here. One topic will be Peak Performance – this is a continuation of this motivation topic and the next topic on delegation – with these two locked in place, the discussion around peak performance makes a lot more sense.
Right so we have finished with our 2nd of
the basics
Basic 1 was about Understanding your place in the team
and this one
Basic 2, about Motivating your current and future team.
Next up we look at how to take our motivated employees and find creative ways for you the leader to engage and delegate tasks or projects.
Looking forward to you joining us as we explore what our 4 generations require and answer 3 questions related to delegation – “WHY WHAT & HOW.”
BTW, if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to subscribe on our website to receive automatic notifications as each new podcast, video, and blog is released.
Looking forward to chatting again shortly. Cheers for now.
