Breaking a bad leadership habit

Do you that if you moved a light switch from the right side of the door to the left side, it would take about 21 days before your brain stopped telling your right hand to turn on the switch ?

You see we are human, for instance I have a set routine for getting up or when I arrive at my desk. Habits somehow give us a comforting experience.

The problem is that as a leader we can pick up bad habits, feel comfortable with them and keep doing them despite the negative effect on others. The best way to spot them...is to ask what they are...

Always remember you are asking the question, which means that you need to LISTEN and ACCEPT the truth as THEY see it. Don't argue, just take in the feedback. If more than one person is giving you the same feedback then the time to act may well be now!

Carnival of Leadership Development

Welcome to the November 22, 2007 edition of carnival of leadership development.

Ivan Rios presents 9 Things To Do In The First 100 Days posted at artofleading.net.

Anna presents Behave Yes...Conform Never! posted at The Engaging Brand

Ivan Rios presents Why Leaders Break Rules That Need To Be Broken posted at artofleading.net.

Jeremy Neal presents Thoughts on Quotes: Leaders Make Leaders - Creative Thoughts - Famous Quotes posted at Thoughts on Quotes, saying, "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders. Leaders make leaders, otherwise they are just managing to get by."

David Kam presents Bad Chief Officers, The Downfall of Many Companies | Marketing and Business Strategy - MarketingDeviant.com posted at MarketingDeviant.com.

Michelle Cramer presents Learning From Experienced Entrepreneurs posted at GreatFX Business Cards, saying, "We all have regrets - it’s just a fact of life. But we learn from those experiences, much like the flourishing entrepreneurs interviewed in Entrepreneur.com’s article "If They Could Turn Back Time." Their feedback reveals important steps that everyone starting their own business should know."

The Career Counselor presents Four Ways to Recognize an Office Liar posted at ask the CareerCounselor, saying, "Tips and tricks to help managers and other leaders see through office fibs and lies."

Mike Buckley presents Motivation posted at Mine Your Own Business.

Sagar presents How to: ?Fire? Your Bad Clients, Make More Money and Restore Your Sanity posted at Bootstrapper.

Matthew Paulson presents Eight Tactics That Will Help You Win Any Negotiation posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Tupelo Kenyon presents Inspire Yourself on Purpose – Inspiration from Inside Out posted at Tupelo Kenyon, saying, "Here are twelve common sense reminders on how to inspire yourself. The word “inspire” derives from root words that mean “in spirit” or “spirit within.” Although there’s always another step to take, these points are a natural result of recognizing and identifying with this realization of who we really are. "
Jeremy Neal presents The Hard Work of Genius posted at Thoughts on Quotes, saying, "A strong work ethic combined with the ability to focus, and exhibit leadership courage, can make people of average intelligence appear to be geniuses."
Gavin Ingham presents What’s your Si (Sales Intensity) rating? posted at Gavin Ingham.

Carol Bentley presents Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter. . . posted at Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter. . ..

Alex Marlin presents Stress Is Rampant In Our Community posted at Life Improvement Tips For Thin and Small People, saying, "Very nice article that deals with stress related issues, like how to avoid stress and simple signs for spotting stress."
GreatManagement presents How To Be An Effective Public Speaker posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Sagar presents Top 100 Entrepreneur Podcasts posted at Bootstrapper.

Edith presents How to Find Your Greatness (Inspired by Barbara DeAngelis) posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Alvaro Fernandez presents Emotional Intelligence and Faces posted at SharpBrains, saying, "What do our faces say?"

David B. Bohl presents Driven to Succeed, Prisoner of Success, Workaholic, or Someone Who Can?t Say ?No?? posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, "As you contemplate the number of hours you’ll be spending on your work in the months ahead, do you dread the thought? Will you have a mountain of work to do, yet still take on more with a smile (maybe forced) on your face? Will people be pulling you in every direction?"
Ralph Jean-Paul presents Meet 7 People in 7 Days posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, "Looking for new clients and business contacts? There are 6.7 trillion people in the world. How many of them do you know? Meet a new person for business or social advancement each day this week."

Michelle Cramer presents Communicating Competence posted at GreatFX Business Cards, saying, "Though your personality has a lot to do with it, people often judge by what they see first rather than what they hear. So it’s important that you portray competence in your business industry not only in your knowledge and performance, but also in how you convey yourself."

Marco Richter presents Be Flexible posted at Work From Home Concepts.

Jason Jacobsohn presents 15 Questions to Evaluate Your Networking Committment posted at Networking Insight.

Wanda Grindstaff presents Success Through Service, the Most Important Component! posted at Creating Abundant Lifestyles.

GreatManagement presents Great Inspiration Articles 19 Nov 2007 posted at The GreatManagement Blog

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of leadership development using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

3 Tips on How to Motivate Your Team

Motivation is a key part of improving productivity and therefore achieving your goals. Here are 3 quick techniques that I use to improve motivation

1. Spend a 30 minutes each day walking or talking to your team. Make sure you are asking them about how they are feeling, ask about their life outside of work, ask what is going well, what is their biggest concern. Time invested here is so important to show that you care, that you value them not only as a team member but as a human being.
2. Hold a monthly session with small groups of people who are direct reports of your direct reports.....no agenda...just ask them for their ideas...how can we make our work lives better, what is working well and we want to do more of, ask about their understanding of goals/objectives.....then act on the feedback.
3. Use surprises to break the monotony. Be it holding meetings outside, giving each person a small budget to woo their internal customers, thanking them with a treat, send cards to individuals with personal messages about achievement, go and work alongside during busy times....and understand their issues.
   

What we mean by listening...

I have published this poem before but I wanted to again as I think it is so powerful and recent readers may not have seen it. Listening is the most underutilised motivation and leadership skills in businss. Here is a poem that I always keep close at hand by Ralph Roughton which always helps me focus:

When I ask you to listen to me and you start by giving me advice, you have not done what I asked,
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin by telling me why I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to solve my problems, you have failed me. Listen !
All I ask is that you listen, not talk or do...just hear me.
When you do something for me that I can do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
When you accept as simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding whats behind this irrational feeling.

Isn't that powerful, print it out and place it on your desk......as an incredible reminder for the leader in you.

Great post on how to change the world

Here is a great post on the top ten phrases to repeat each morning as a manager - at The Engaging Brand. After smiling, sit down and tick HONESTLY which ones you need to repeat each morning.

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?"

A Question You Should Ask

Whether it be your partner, spouse, direct report, colleague...try asking this question.

"What is the best praise that you ever received and what made it so good?"

From that you can understand much more about the individual. You can then adapt to the style they link - informal vs formal, verbal vs written, public vs private etc. Every one of us is different, learn how to make each individual special. It is not how you like praise, it is how THEY want praise.