I had a really nice trip to Washington, DC at the end of February to work with a client. One of our goals was to create more honest, open communication so people can say what needs to be said without tiptoeing, squirming, avoiding, or unleashing untold anger. It was a great success.
You don’t get to the top by being lazy. It takes a lot of hard, careful work. You need to be thorough and avoid mistakes. At the same time, you need to keep your eye on the big picture so you know when to push back and change course. You also have to be alert to your environment and know who can be relied upon and who needs help or watching. By the time you’ve earned a long series of promotions, you’ve made ultra competence your habit. That’s great! Congratulations! Now it’s time to stop that. It’s time to be lazier!
There is a formula for providing effective feedback. It is really pretty simple and many people know about it. Recently, however, I discovered a common and fatal flaw in the way most people apply that formula. The Feedback Formula The formula involves pointing out a specific, observable behavior and ensuring the other person understands the impact of that behavior. “When you {did/said a particular factual, observable thing}, {it made me/us/the company feel/think/suffer a negative impact}.” Once you’ve made your point, it is time to listen and understand the other person’s perspective on what happened and why. With this new, mutual understanding, you can work together to figure out how to prevent a recurrence. To make this work, you have to:
A client of mine was told confidentially by a third party that he was picky. That’s it. That’s all he was given. The messenger didn’t want to reveal the source and so my client was left with nothing to go on. Few people consider being picky a virtue. Especially my client, who was new to the job. When he told me about this, he had fashioned no fewer than three detailed theories about what he might have done and with whom that could have possibly led to this disparaging label. What a waste!
Idaho – a great place to be in May! Why? Probably many reasons, but here is one: I will be the opening keynote speaker at the Elevate Leadership Summit in Pocatello. I’m looking forward to it! You could be too!
If I overlook some of my personal fiascos such as: the airline that sold us nonstop tickets to London and then put us on a plane that couldn’t cross the Atlantic without refueling and the major appliance manufacturer with initials GE that decided it was easier to replace our six-month-old washing machine instead of sending a repairman to make adjustments – and then left us with a brand new machine that won’t run at all If I ignore those, and, instead, consider the many businesses I’ve worked with or talked with recently as a consultant, I’m pretty impressed. Lots of them are doing many things really well. But, of course, everyone can do better. So let me share some of the areas where I see the most pain and the greatest opportunity for improvement.
Increased clarity is the best option for improving profits, performance, and engagement. The reason more leaders aren’t pursuing greater clarity is they don’t recognize the lack of clarity that permeates their organizations and consumes their profit. A good part of that problem starts with the belief that they themselves are clearer than they really are. Where do you stand?
I’m proud to be quoted in Skip Weisman’s new book, “Overcoming the 7 Deadliest Communication Sins.” Not surprisingly, you’ll find my advice kicking off the first sin, “Lack of Specificity!” Here’s what I said: “Specificity creates clarity. Without clarity, we walk around the block to get next door. We don’t know where to focus. We can’t agree. We talk more than we act. We measure the wrong things. Specificity creates clarity and clarity creates speed.” Says Weismann,
When you think of productivity tools, you probably think of apps and other technological tools. Unfortunately, apps are not the route to greater productivity. As a matter of fact, technology often consumes more time than it saves. Here are my 13 favorite productivity tools, none of which require technology and all of which increase productivity: