If you follow my blog you know that I am regular listener of the EntreLeadership Podcast. The host Ken Coleman interviews many great leaders. In a recent episode Ken shared his ideas on how to improve how you say it. My summary is below. Increase your value by 50%! 30% of U.S. GDP is based on persuasion.
How do you know if you are developing leaders? If you are working your tail off, and others are standing around, you are not doing a great job developing leaders. If your leaders are developing leaders, you know you are succeeding at leadership development. As a leader of a growing organization your main job is to develop leaders that will take over what you are doing now so you can focus on what is next.
A high performance culture has a focus on and regularly achieves intended results. Building a high performance culture starts with building great leadership team. Assuming that that employees understand what is important, and know what it takes to do their job successfully, is the second mistake of average leaders. If bad behaviors exists, it is because the leader allows those behaviors to exist.
Asking questions builds more credibility than presenting facts or making statements. How would you feel if your doctor started the conversation with your nose is red you look like you have a headache. I am going to give you this shot A good doctor will start the conversation with diagnostic questions such as what brought you into the office or on a scale of 1-10 can you rate your pain? In the same way a great consultant or sales person builds credibility and later a relationship by asking great questions
One of my long term friends posted this video of Paul Maritz. Paul is aboard member of Pivotal Software and was a key executive at VMWare software. Whether or not you care about Paul's company or the software industry, I believe there is considerable value in his talk. I really enjoyed his perspective in a couple of areas. Below are my paraphrases of his message.
Recently I attended a session at the Microsoft partner conference in Orlando, Florida. The speaker was @KrisPlachy. She had some great advice for managers on how to coach performance gaps. She started by giving three reasons why employees don't perform. It is important to understand if one of more of these problems exist before choosing your strategy.
Knows what to do but unwilling to do it (mindset problem).
Does not know what to do but is willing to learn (skillset problem).
Does not know what and is unwilling to learn.
If an employee has a mindset and a skillset problem the mindset problem will need to be addressed first. A manager should address a mindset problem by creating awareness through inquiry, confirm willingness to change, follow up, measure progress.
Mindset Problem..
What are the reasons for not doing what they are supposed to do?
Do they blame others for external factors for non-performance
What thoughts do they have about doing their job or work?
Below are some questions to help create awareness.
What are your thoughts about the assignment?
How do you feel when you think that way?
How do you act when you feel this way?
What results do you get with these actions?
She suggest using the CTFAR Model to help employee work though mindset problems.
Circumstances
Thoughts (Evidence will change thoughts)
Feelings
Actions
Results
If the employee does not know how, but wants to learn you have a skillset issue. Kris suggests the following strategy to address skillset issues.
Skills Transfer
Tell: them what you want done
Show: them what you want done
Do: Have them do the work as you observe
Review: Provide Feedback on their skill
After using the skills transfer process be sure to follow up. It is going to cost your more in time to have an employee that is a performance issue than to practice good follow up. What are your thought on performance management?
Most people who achieve great things had a negative experience that shaped their motivation. For instance Daren Hardy, publisher of Success Magazine, started out trying prove himself to his dad. Eventually when you have had some success, it is time move up on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. You should increase your motivation with things like helping others or a cause greater than yourself
Learning is a life long passion. I learn by observing, reading and listening. When given the opportunity, I spend time with great leaders. Since I don't always get to spend time with great leaders, I have read hundreds of books. I am always on the hunt for the best of books, podcasts, videos and any other opportunities to challenge myself to grow. Below is my list of great authors, speakers and influencers. Please feel free to share your list. This is a list that I will update on a period basis.
