Be more Proactive for those around you April 27, 2006
Years ago now, I was working as a technical expert. I loved the work. It was exciting, I got to play with millions of dollars of equipment, and I was a key member of the team - and it almost killed me…
Being a key member had its drawbacks. One of which was that I was indispensable. I now understand that I painted myself into the indispensable position and became my own worst enemy to my growing workload. I had this strange ability to turn normal, smart individuals into five-year-old children unable to tie their own shoelaces. I was able to expertly remove their proactiveness. These previously smart people would call on me for advice, suggestions and to make decisions at any time, day or night. Very stressful, and entirely my own fault. At the time I didn’t realise what I was doing
Almost every manager I’ve ever spoken to wants to have proactive employees. Every employee I’ve ever met, or been, sits somewhere on a continuum of proactiveness. On one side you have micromanagement, on the other completely independent workers. I break this continuum into 4 main groups of proactiveness. Where someone is located can be immediately identified through his or her behaviour (and also through the behaviour of their manager) and it is possible to encourage the people you work with to move through the groups. I would expect most people would want to move into group 4, the most proactive. However I’ll discuss how to go backwards for completeness…
Depending on where your co-workers fit within these groups makes a huge difference to your working day. These groups are:
1. Wait to be told what and usually how to do something.
2. Ask if they can do something.
3. Do something and immediately check it is ok.
4. Do something and let you know the final results.
Group one usually is unskilled labour. We also see this behaviour with young children. This loads most of the thinking and decision making onto the manager (or you). Usual employee statements will be “I’m bored”, “I’m finished with this activity, what is next?” etc.
Group two will work happily keeping themselves busy. Until there is a decision that falls outside, or sometimes even near their area of control. Then they forward the decision over to their manager or some other authority. Typical statements are “Can I do X?”, “I want to X, is that ok?”
Group three is where we start to delegate effectively. This is where people start to make their own decisions, though they are usually not comfortable enough to do so without checking. Usual statements are “I’m going to X, is that ok?” “I’ve just done X, and I’m waiting on the result”. As a side note, here is where people begin to internalise the questions they asked in group two. They begin to ask themselves the questions they asked of someone else.
Group four is usually where you want most people to be, most of the time. This is where they do their job, and check in every now and again to update you on their progress. Typical statements are “Here is where we are with X” “Project Y is nearing completion and will be finished by Thursday”.
So, how do we encourage the people around us in business to move along this line to where we want them to be to enable us to most comfortable in our own work?
Step 1 - Awareness. Become aware of which group you fall into, and the groups that the people around you fall into. Knowing where you are on the line means you can make a knowledgeable decision on what to do next to get you closer to you goal. Knowing which group you are in usually matches the group of the people around you.
Step 2 - Ask the right questions, or make the right statements to get them moving in the direction that you want.
If you want someone to move to the right, a very powerful question, that everyone should know is “what do you think?” This question quickly hands back the decision and responsibility to the other person. When you do this, resist the urge to make the ‘final’ decision on what activities to perform.
If you want someone to move to the left, the usual way is to give them direct commands. “I want you to do X, Y, Z.” Begin to micromanage by asking detail orientated how questions.
Understand that when someone comes to you and asks “I’m done with this project, do you have anything else I can do?” if you give them a direct answer, or more work, you are actively encouraging them to stay in group 1 and 2.
When you answer their questions directly you are:
- making them dependent on you (which might well be your intention - moving them to the left),
- limiting their career progression,
- increasing your own workload and stress (they will keep coming to you for their next job).
When you ask them, “What do you think?” you begin to move them through to groups 3 and 4. The reason is because they begin to ask these questions for themselves before coming to you.
Moving someone along the line does not happen immediately. It might take them 20 times to move someone from group one to group two. Above all, you need to be consistent. If you flip back and forth, so will the people around you. Your results will be limited as a result.
To fix my own problem, once I realised what I was doing, I began to push back on the phone calls - if the request did not need my direct input or action, I handed it back to the questioner. It was hard to do this at the start. I wanted to answer their questions, I wanted to be helpful. The more I moved the questioners from groups 1 and 2 into groups 3 and 4, the more time I had, the less stress I experienced, and the more I got done in less time.
Update: Seth Godin re-enforces this here with the questions to ask yourself to keep yourself in group 4…
Technorati Tags: Business, CEO, Change, Persuasion, Proactiveness, Psychology, Stress
Shake my hand… April 18, 2006
The gentlemen over at Manager tools have a podcast on one of the most basic business tools you will ever find - The Handshake.
As they discuss, you get it right and you make a powerful impression, get it wrong and you erect obstacles and difficulties into the relationship.
I have, in my time, broken each and every one of their recommended steps. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.
Technorati Tags: Business, Persuasion, Psychology
Presentation difficulties? April 14, 2006
There are many things that can be done to help if you have difficulty giving presentations. I have worked with many people with this exact same problem (with very different symptoms). One individual, for example, could not even say ‘hello’ when someone came and introduced themselves, let alone speak in front of more than 3 people… Another example is here and here.
1. Prepare your speech in a specific way. write out the speech, test it and give it a full dress rehearsal. Then immediately do another dress rehearsal, but this time with no sound … Make all the gestures, mouth and face movements etc, just don’t speak the words.
2. Once done, imagine you get asked some questions - start with simple ones like “what’s your name?” and lead up to very in depth, personal questions such as “What colour is your underwear?” When you answer these imagined questions - focus not on your answers, but on your physical state. You know what question you most want to avoid or you have the most difficulty with - have these on your list!
3. Get comfortable with silence. When someone asks you a question, and you pause to gather your thoughts (or in this case, get comfortable) you will be considered as giving a better answer.
4. More preparation. Independent of your speech, practice changing your emotional state. Pick two emotions, happy and sad, for example. Imagine you are happy, stand and move and act as if you are. Do that for 2 minutes. Then change to ’sad’. Move, talk and think as if you are sad. Do that for 2 more minutes. Then go back to happy for two minutes. (finish with the enjoyable one…) Really amp each state up, even if you don’t feel it. How will a world class actor do it?
These are just a few drills from a long list that will give you the skill of intentionally being able to keep control over and change your state quickly and easily. At the start it might be slow and difficult, the more you do it, the better you will get…
Technorati Tags: Business, Persuasion, Presenting, Stress
Storytelling makes a difference April 13, 2006
There is some interesting research into how the brain reacts to different teaching styles. I’m sure everyone reading this will have first hand experience that when you are engaged and interested in the learning, you learn and retain more.
The research is in regards to children, but that would hold for adults too. Have a look here. Think about it in terms of next time you have to speak in a meeting - are the others listening intently, or gazing off into the distance?
Technorati Tags: Business, Persuasion, Presenting, Psychology, Training
The reason why. April 12, 2006
Following on somewhat from an earlier post.
Malcom Gladwell comments on his piece in the New Yorker.
Strange reasons result in strange behaviour - yet fully within societal norms. Now I have to read the actual book.
And to take another side step. Telling a story makes a difference. Read this and think about it from difference perspectives; as the players in the story, and as yourself understanding the power of this story.
Technorati Tags: Brain, Persuasion, Psychology
RIFed?
Pink slips, reduction in force, headcount adjustment, retrenchment, termination, lay-off - whatever it’s called means a lot of fear and confusion for employees. Not just for the individuals involved in these events, but every other person in the company.
The knowledge that retrenchments are coming is, in my experience, usually known about long before it happens. Sure, there are often employees that are surprised, confused and angry that they are on the list, but they knew there was a list.
I remember back to my first retrenchment, many many years ago. I walked into the office one morning and there was a feeling, a smell - something was wrong. I ignored it for an hour or two, thinking it was just me skipping breakfast. Then there was a strange general meeting of all employees. We were collected from our desks and marshalled in the large cube farm in the centre of the office. After an extended wait, with growing unease, the CEO then explained the situation - the parent company was reviewing performance, nothing firm as yet, 3 months grace, I’m in the same situation, you’ll all be looked after…
The rumor cycle starts from anywhere from a year to three months before the event. Then about a month before the actual retrenchments, there are general comments made that there ‘might be retrenchments’, or ‘we are reviewing headcount’… And with today’s corporate environment most employees knows that their job is on the line. And the thing that causes them the most stress is not knowing their position is tentative, but knowing that there is nothing they can do to change their predicament. They are not being fired for poor performance, not because they made too many mistakes, but because they are in the wrong place, at the wrong time. To them, some manager that they may have not ever met is striking a pen through their career. This can build a situation of learned helplessness and depression, neither of which is desired in an employee or workforce.
A month later the same CEO called another meeting. Everyone was given a months notice. Usually the company doesn’t got out of business like this. Usually there are people left behind.
During the time of retrenchments the managers in the company need to speak plainly and clearly. It’s not enough to say that there has been retrenchments, and the company will grow stronger for it. Often the people you are saying that to know that they have just picked up someone else’s workload.
Too many times I’ve seen and heard a ‘management whispers’ (similar to the childhood game of Chinese whispers) scenario. The CEO will say one thing, and as it filters down the chain of command it changes and shifts. I’ve even experienced first hand the information to employees changing from “there should be no more retrenchments” to “there will be more retrenchments”. For two months the employees were expecting to be out the door at any time - not surprisingly their effectiveness and productivity dropped. At another time, I watched the management team say nothing - and listened to the rumor mill grind down the company morale. There is also research that shows morale has an effect on stock price.
Management should be transparent in their decisions. Explain clearly why the people that have been retrenched were chosen, how that relates to the company as a whole, and how that relates to each individual. If the reason is a corporate restructure, then explain why there is a restructure. Cialdini discussed in his book Influence how this is so effective. If you want to cut in line, asking to will work about 60% of the time. Asking to and giving a reason, any reason, will work over 90% of the time… Sure, the employees don’t need to know why, but it helps them feel more comfortable and it will stop them from making up their own reasons.
Technorati Tags: Business, CEO, Change, Psychology, Stress