Develop your reaction to problems

Problems happen, things go wrong ....fact. No matter how great you are as a leader, life will throw up issues, home and at work.

It is not the problem that causes issues, it is your reaction to it. Your reaction has a huge effect on those around you, on the ability to resolve the problem, on your own mental welfare!

Do you listen carefully at what is the real issue?

Do your present an optimistic approach?

Do you respond positively?

Do you see this as a challenge rather than a problem?

Do you understand that your reaction will impact on how people approach you in the future?

Bad bosses are great motivators!

Sound a little strange? Well, I firmly believe that I have learned a huge amount from bad bosses, and they have helped me develop my skills. If you are working for a "bad boss" then instead of being demotivated see it as a huge learning curve. I have learned the following

1. What demotivates people.
2. How to not value people.
3. How not to communicate.
4. How not to deal with a problem.
5. How the behaviour of your boss affects your motivation.
6. How to remove clarity from people's work
7. How to ruin work/life balance.
8. How changing priorities on a daily, weekly basis causes confusion.

Now that is great learning. What I did was take time to review how he did it, and how I felt. I then promised myself that when I had the chance to lead I would NEVER do the same things.

You can survive a bad boss in the short term, by using them as a living learning example.

A new style of CV

We all need to learn from failures, failures are fantastic if you grow as a person so to ensure that you have developed

Create a CV which concentrates on your mistakes !

Put underneath each one write your development plan, how you have progressed and future action to be taken.

Clearly, you can keep this to yourself but it can help you focus on your growth.

A wonderful lesson

I always remember my boss saying

"Committees don't commit, people commit"

That is so true, if you want to ensure success then make sure people own the actions to be taken and not the committee.

How to manage homeworking

In a world that craves flexibility and individuality, there is a greater number of times when you manage people that are not necessarily working alongside you. So what are the 5 secrets of success

1. Trust - the number 1 item. You need to trust in your people, trust their integrity. Without trust their is no relationship.
2. Understand why they need to work from home and support them. Get to know them like you would your people at your place of work. Understand what they like about it, and what support they need from you.
3. Manage by output. Set clear objectives, and give regular feedback on their performance. Feedback on the output NOT a value judgement on whether they are working hard!
4. Invest in your communication skills...more than ever you need even stronger social skills when you cannot interact face to face regularly.
5. Find ways to give face to face. Online meetings, visits, gatherings anything to give that personal touch.

How to manage homeworking

In a world that craves flexibility and individuality, there is a greater number of times when you manage people that are not necessarily working alongside you. So what are the 5 secrets of success

1. Trust - the number 1 item. You need to trust in your people, trust their integrity. Without trust their is no relationship.
2. Understand why they need to work from home and support them. Get to know them like you would your people at your place of work. Understand what they like about it, and what support they need from you.
3. Manage by output. Set clear objectives, and give regular feedback on their performance. Feedback on the output NOT a value judgement on whether they are working hard!
4. Invest in your communication skills...more than ever you need even stronger social skills when you cannot interact face to face regularly.
5. Find ways to give face to face. Online meetings, visits, gatherings anything to give that personal touch.

How to build your personal brand

People often feel not valued, and unnoticed for all they do in the roles. Here are some tips on how you can build your personal brand

1. Network - across lunch, in meetings, in corridors. Speak to people, ask them about what they are doing, what are their interests?
2. Volunteer for projects, organising events.
3. Have a success wall in your work area for e-mails that thank you, projects delivered, customer feedback
4. Take in to your one to one a progress sheet on what you have achieved so far, and how you are tackling the next steps.
5. Use Linkedin - if you want contact me !
6. Gather through technorati or an RSS reader info on your company, market, competitors and share it with people.
7. Always remember knowledge is not power - it is the sharing of it, that is!
8. Remember to thank others in the company for work THEY have done well.
9. Be true to yourself on your development needs no matter how difficult it is to admit it and spend time developing your skills.
10. Ask for feedback - be brave with more negative comments, don't dismiss the points just the emotional words.

Just a few for starters....anyone got any more?

Reactive vs Proactive

I listen to the Motivation on the Run podcast and love it - Larry's style is well...engaging. He talked in one of his shows about reactive vs proactive and this is absolutely true in terms of managing people. Some questions to consider

• Do you talk to people about what they want to achieve more than what they haven't?
• Do you talk to people of how they have incorporated learnings vs what courses they should be going on?
• Do you talk about how they are going to achieve their objectives or how they haven't ?
• Do you talk about their strengths more than their gaps?
• Do you talk to them about their personal visions or their past history?

Are you a proactive or reactive manager?

Recruitment Techniques

One thing I really hate...yes, I know hate is a strong word! ...... is recruiting for a role rather than a person. Here are my ways of changing your mindset.

Change what role do I want to fill to what skills do I need to take the team forward?

Change what is the cost of recruiting to what is the benefit from bringing talent into the business?

Change how can I get others to do the work in the interim to how can I use this opportunity to develop others in the team?

Change I need to loads of people to apply, to how do I get the right people to apply?

The Engaging Brand has 2 great shows on this - Show 35 and 36 the former with Seth Godin on how to create an employment brand that stands out from the crowd and the latter with a recruitment expert on tips of the trade.

Grab that Brain!

As the famous saying goes - you hire a person, hire the hands and forget to engage the brain.

So many people forget to engage the brain, so what questions can you ask to "grab that brain as well"

• What are your career goals and how can I help you achieve them?
• What are your passions and how can we develop your role to engage those passions?
• What do you want from me as your mentor?
• How can I get the best from you?
• What values are important to you?

This is in no way a full list but a start....the main point is to follow up on what you find out, and to review regularly.

Quality of Life

Studies show that the quality of life depends on 2 things

• How we experience work
• Relations with other people

Both of these need work and attention. As a manager we can be a catalyst for both of these and therefore just think of the power that you have in your hands. When you are sat thinking that you cannot change anything...remember this blog post. You have the power to help others enjoy a better quality of life...wow, now that is the ultimate power. Ask people how you can improve these 2 things at work....help build quality of life for people.

Developing Talent

How many times have you thought "I might as well do it myself!" and then gone away and done it.

In the short term that may well be the quickest way but it doesn't develop your people, takes your precious time, creates frustration and when the problem comes up next time....you won't be any better off - indeed you will probably have to do it yourself again!

So next time, try saying to yourself "I owe it to the person and myself to take the time and help develop their skills. I want them to be successful in the future and my experience can help them"

Time invested now, will pay HUGE dividends later...not to mention both of you feeling more positive in the short term.

Innovation - It is not just the product

People think of products when you talk about innovation. In 2004 Booz Allen Hamilton said that 10.2% of the R&D budget at the Top 500 industrial businesses, was spent on process innovation. Simplifying, clarifying, automating, quickening etc

Toyota and Proctor & Gamble are classic examples of how to engage people in your business by encouraging shop-floor innovation. They let people design process themselves.....bringing improvement in productivity, profit, engagement, product, morale, cost reduction.

How to be brilliant

Tom Watson, the IBM boss was asked "How long does it take to become excellent?" The answer came "A minute, think"

Speed will be our huge legacy of our age, and we have to be careful that speed does not detract from our thinking ability. If you don't put some time aside for thinking, you will never find time for it.

Two things to do

1. Subscribe to

Effective Teams

The Courage Institute said that effective teams exhibit 5 strengths

1. Candor - speaking and hearing the truth
2. Purpose - pursue lofty and audacious goals
3. Will - Inspire hope, spirit and optimism
4. Rigor - Invent new knowledge and make it work
5. Risk - empower, commit, invest in relationships

5 thoughts for you to think about and how your team rate against these criteria

How to bring values alive

Values are important to any work environment. I give A4 page with each value listed down the left hand side, a column saying how my direct report should be showing those values, a column with any development and then a column to show progress.

At each fortnightly meeting we have a quick review and they discuss how they have illustrated those values.

It shows my commitment and it also keeps the values at the forefront of the teams minds.

At the team meeting we then celebrate any great ideas or accomplishments.

Focus - the key to shorter working hours

Sam Ewing said "It's not the hours you put into your work, it is the work that you put into the hours"

Successful people have the ability to focus. They know what their objectives are, how to achieve them and then get on it with it!

If you find that you are not achieving what you want to despite the long hours then take 5 minutes and look at what you have been working upon during the day. Long hours lead to a lack of focus, and tiredness. Tiredness leads you then to not be able to work to your optimum, you take more breaks - a quick gossip, a few more coffees, longer meetings etc

Focus is key so proudly on your table put your personal objectives.....then each day look at your commitments and ensure that they are achieving your objectives.

Your legacy

Last week I talked about creating a 8 word legacy....one thing to think about is each day how can you bring a little sunshine to the world.

1. Do I smile, do I smile inside so that it comes through in my voice?
2. Have I caused someone else to smile today?
3. If I am not smiling, am I doing the right job for me and my needs?
4. Am I present with people, do I give them respect by giving my 100% attention?

Trust is the Key to Relationships

Trust is a key part of life - think of how important it is in your relationship, and how difficult it is to rebuild if ever doubted.

If you went to your Doctor with a sore throat and he made a mistake on the prescription giving you laxatives would you trust that Doctor in the future? You may, but more likely you would try and see another Doctor.

That is similar to work. As a manager you promise things, promise to take action to remove roadblocks, deliver development, develop talent, communicate well etc If you don't deliver or you don't explain why.....then trust disappears. People will feel that you are not the manager that they want to work for....

So build trust..under promise and over deliver!

Perfect - see it as a warning!

If you ever feel that there is a great atmosphere, that you have reached peak performance, that there are no real issues, that morale is great...beware!!

Is it real or are you just not close enough to your customers or your employees?

Sometimes people tell us what they THINK we want to hear....when things are going well, stay on top of the issues, stay close, walk around, listen, talk, dig below issues, ask "We have made many improvements, how can we continue to drive forward?"

Be the change you want to see in the world!

The heading of this post is a quote for Ghandi and is so true!

Social change starts with individuals - so if you want to reform your team, reform your culture, reform how people interact etc then start by reforming yourself. The change will impact others around you and even if others do not change then you have helped changed the world...by changing one person!

8 Word Legacy

Over at our sister blog -The Engaging Brand - they run a podcast called The Engaging Brand which looks at motivating and inspiring people at work and they have a lovely question at the end of the interview...what do you want your 8 word legacy to be?

This is a great thought...try writing one it is difficult, but it helps to give you focus to your life.

What is yours....feel free to share one

Aim high

A quote from Somerset Maughan that I love:

Its a funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it

Now how true is that! We are often demotivated because we settle for things that do not give us pleasure. Settle is an awful state at work and at home. Your own self motivation needs you to dream, it needs you to set yourself a target. That target will be one very personal to you - but then live that dream by working towards it. At work if we are going to succeed then we need to aim high, don't settle for mediocre become a magnet for the extraordinary. You will achieve alot more by having high standards then settling for just OK.