Be Do Get

Today I want you to think about how changing from a mind set of GET TO BE to BE DO GET will bring you personal success.

People who are not content often believe "If I get the promotion, then I will do my job better because I will have value and then I will BE a better leader "

It actually works the opposite way round value yourself now, which makes you more confident in your role and then you will get the promotion.....

The single most powerful way to make any change in your life is to act as if that change has already been made....a phrase that will help you remember "Fake it, till you make it !"

Decision Making

How clearly have you defined when people need to run things by you or when they can make decisions by themselves. If not clear it can cause tension. There are basically 4 ways to make a decision and if you use this framework you will ensure your team fully understands how the decision will be made

1. Autocratic - You are going to make the decision and you only
2. Delegate - You are delegating the decision and they do not have to come back to run it past you. Be careful here - if you delegate then you can't shout if the decision is wrong !
3. Consultative - Here you delegate the decision but the person must consult with others(usually defined by you) before they make the decision
4. Consensus - All people have to agree before a decision is made.

Now think....when you have been irritated it will have been because someone said, for example that it was consensus but in reality it was autocratic....Be clear to your team, they may not always agree but they will understand the process.

Change Management

How many of us have been on courses which tell us you can't stop change ? Well I came across an inventor called Buckminster Fuller who had quite a cute trick to get the point over...
He would hold up his hand and ask "What is it?" People would respond "A hand"
He then pointed out that the cells were continually dying and regenerating themselves.
What seems tangible is continually changing: in fact a hand is completely recreated within a year or so.
Now do you believe there are people who can't change or who won't change....actually they are doing it all the time without noticing. If change is frightening then choose other words like "How do we evolve, grow, improve,develop, succeed....all words which involve change but guess what ? Are a little less frightening...

Team vs Individual thought

Sometimes I wonder whether people are stopped from having ideas because of the team ethic. The drive towards having a great team, means that people sometimes find it hard to be brave and put forward ideas - they need to feel part of the team too much. Maybe I am wrong but I find that the phrase "I don't know - what do you think ?" is becomingpart of everyday life. Now readers of this blog will know I am a believer in teams but what I am adding, is that it should not prevent individuals being encouraged to have independent thought. It is about embracing diversity of thought within the team.
Encourage original thought - otherwise you end up with a team of what I call Powerpoint lovers who regurgitate ideas. Or even worse people who use other peoples ideas for themselves - that is a dangerous situation to be in. Ideas are lacking and trust is disappearing.
I don't know who said this but someone said "The price of being a sheep is boredom, the price of being a wolf is loneliness" The idea is to be wise enough to understand when to be a team player and feel safe enough within the team to be able to put forward original thought.
So are you a wolf or are you a sheep ? Let me know...and also send us examples of how you encourage ideas within your team.....

Respect

Respect is a key ingredient of managing people. People like to respect their boss. Respect comes from making tough decisions which are fair and explained fully so that they can understand the reason. (Not that they will always agree but they can understand !)
Think about it...you don't like bosses you disrespect, we have all seen them - the ones who give in to the wildest demands. Well learn from that and build your own respect levels. If bosses say yes all the time the boundaries are destroyed and people don't know where they stand.

"Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they know
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people all remark
We have done it ouselves"

Mirror Mirror

Fact: In a psychological experiment a person shown a photograph of him/herself and then one of a reversed image of the same picture consistently preferred the reversed picture. Why ? Simply because that was the one they were used to seeing in the mirror !

Familiarity is great but is it hindering your development? - some questions for you....

1. Do you tend to like similar people with similar opinions ?
2. Do you tend to go to lunch with similar people ?
3. Do you like to stick to routine tasks?
4. Do you like the way you have always done it ?

If so STOP think about it....that is hindering your development. You are in a comfort zone - comfortable Yes....but stretching...NO

Culture

Dr David Fleming does a fantastic podcast on ITunes and one I heard recently looked at culture. In simple terms if you feel there is something missing in your team it is probably missing in you ! If you feel you are never recognised - do you take others for granted ? If it is respect then are you giving those people respect ? A team looks to the leader for its culture..if you withhold passion for what you want to achieve then others around you, will lack commitment. So what do you do ?

1. Look in the mirror - Be ruthless, be honest with self reflection.
2. Think of a time when your team - or if in personal life, friends - were not committed to you. What was your body language saying ? What were the words you used ?
3. Become aware of yourself - try to stand by the side of yourself and think about how you are behaving
4. Ask for candid feedback - but you must take it - graciously. Say "I don't believe the respects me but I wonder whether it is something I am causing ? Am I holding back in meetings ?

Finally an old quote "Be the change you want to be in the world" (Ghandi) But so true in this context. Stop withholding and give out the very things you want to flourish.

Sudoku

Ever found yourself thinking "I wish I wasn't the only person round here who ccan solve problems !" Right now stop there......think about the last lunchtime, the last break how many people did you see doing Sudoku -the new quiz in all the papers...or a crossword....if not today then I bet you have seen it in the past. Those people are problem solving, they have self belief that they can crack the problem. Sure they have had a learning curve and often messed up but they learn and solve the next one - using their previous experiences.
Right there in your crowd are people who want to be challenged, want to be pushed want to learn. Right there, are logical thinkers who love solving problems.....when was the last time you tapped into that potential, when was the last time you thought they love those puzzles because they don't feel stretched in what they do ? Maybe asking them - understanding why they enjoy their puzzles will allow you to understand them better
Difference being that they allow themselves to learn, get it wrong and then learn again.....all you have to do is coach them..allow them to learn...share your experiences of how to approach a work problem and there! A ready made problem solver at your disposal. People need you to believe in them before they will believe they can be successful for you......

Future vs Past

Albert Einstein said "We had better pay attention to the future, after all that's where we will spend the rest of our lives" Ok well that's obvious isn't it...so here is the question then...if we believe this to be true - and lets face it, it's hard to argue against ! - why do we spend so much time thinking, talking, worrying about the past ???
Today, every time you find yourself thinking about something that has gone wrong or something that has already happened, I want you to STOP and change your thinking to how you will react in the future, or how you can change this to be a positive ?
Today think about what you want, not what you don't want - talk to people in your team about what you like about them, what you want to see in the future - if they try and drag you back to the past then ask them "What are our learnings from this experience ?"
One final thought how much is - Is your team talk aimed at reporting the past or talking about the future ? Keep everyone focused in the past and that's where people will stay...look to the future and funnily enough we tend to get what we expect......

Feedback is a great way of improving your skills, but if you are like me it can hurt ! One way of lessoning the pain is making it fun and in a team environment - then everyone is in the same boat.
At your next team meeting get everyone to think about what skill they would like to develop e.g listening, controlling temper, being creative, presenting etc
Then get them to write that at the top of the piece of paper. Then allow about 15 minutes for people to mix. What they must do is introduce themselves to their colleagues by saying "I would like to be a better listener (for example), can you give me an idea to help me ?" They thank the person and reciprocate with advice for their colleagues area of development, then go and talk to someone else. In 15 mins people should be able to get round 7/8 people if you have a smaller group ask for a couple of ideas. A prize can be given for the person who gets the most ideas. One rule to remember - no feedback can be given about the past - only ideas for the future - this must be stressed. Why? Well we cannot change the past but we can be part of moulding the future.
Why do this ? Well as a leader of people you are a coach and coaching is all about getting feedback - you can also use this technique to get ideas of how to solve individual work problems or ideas of how to improve systems, communication etc. Remember people love ideas BUT LOVE TO GIVE IDEAS ! Two outcomes you are looking for - to learn as much as you can but also for people to help each other as much as they can