Google Maps. Voice Control. 330 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC. Drive. Three hours later Google Maps tells me I’m there. In the middle of a busy street! No parking anywhere to be seen. Clearly, I am not there! And I might not actually get there for another hour because I don’t know where to park and I have no navigator to help me. Had I selected Transit instead of Drive, Google would have shown me how to walk out of my office, gotten me to various trains and buses, and left me walking in the front door of my destination. Arrived and ready. Why doesn’t that happen with Drive? Why doesn’t Google leave me in a parking space or garage with walking or transit directions to my real destination? Why would I want to be left in the middle of a street in New York City? Are you leaving your customers, employees, and co-workers stranded in the middle of the road, undeniably short of their destinations?
Massachusetts is suffering from a serious drought. Town water supplies are low. Reservoirs sport wide gravelly necklaces on every shoreline. Private wells are drying up. The grass is brown and crunchy. And the gypsy moths are destined for a banner year in 2017 because their only natural predator, a fungus, requires moist conditions to thrive. Millions of trees devastated by drought and gypsy moths this year are unlikely to survive another horrendous year. Nonetheless, the weatherman on my radio says, “Not a great forecast today. You can expect lots of clouds and rain.” Not a great forecast? Where have you been? We need every drop of moisture those clouds can deliver, as well as the reduced evaporation the same cloud cover can provide! Think before you speak!
I tell my clients they must put an end to informing each other. Why? Because inform is a Treadmill Verb™. And like other Treadmill Verbs™, such as report and review, it has no destination. There is no way to know when you are done. It is an open invitation to talk on and on with no particular outcome in mind. It leaves people listening, assuming they are listening at all, for nothing in particular. Thus, it accomplishes little, encourages smartphone tinkering, and leaves most people bored and disengaged. Unfortunately, inform remains a favorite agenda item. Even die-hard fans of mine who have memorized the six clarity kernels still argue that it is important to simply inform people.
We have unusual toilets. The lids close softly. A nudge is all it takes. It didn’t take long after moving into our new house to develop the nudge habit. You know where I’m going, though. You know what happens when we are guests and nudge someone else’s toilet? BAM! It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing because we are aware that it is happening. The BAM! helps. So we apologize. But what if we didn’t? What if we just went around slamming toilet lids?
I asked a freshly minted VP at a Fortune 50 company who has steadily risen through the ranks what he believed led to this and previous promotions. His answer echoed one I have heard from other executives as well: I am proactive Follow up Get stuff done Am helpful He takes for granted his technical expertise. But then again. he is surrounded by technical expertise. He wishes he were surrounded by more people who are proactive, follow up, and get stuff done! And he isn’t the only one. Many executives and managers share that wish. What can you do?
An executive I know recently asked me for advice about what to do when colleagues just don’t get it. Then he explained to me what it was they just couldn’t get. I asked what the other two people thought should be done instead. He didn’t know and explained once again what they just couldn’t get. I asked if he respected the other two. “Very much,” he said.
The tangible outcomes of progress are easy to measure: sales, profits, market penetration, and yield, as well as number of products, parts, members, programs, etc. Many employees are pretty clear about their goals in relation to these type of results. But only those on the “production line” can really tie their own productivity to these metrics: Parts per hour, sales per week, hours per production, etc. Everyone else spends a lot of time talking, thinking, writing, and reading, often with little to show for it. As a matter of fact, the farther they are from the assembly line, the more time spent this way and the less time spent producing tangible value for which customers are willing to pay.
The employee of a client was asked to look into the possibility of a new product idea. Being his diligent, hard-working self, he did a complete analysis and returned several weeks later with recommendations. He expected a pleased boss and was shocked to find his boss had expected a response in a matter of days, not weeks. I hear of situations like this frequently. And it is sad because it would be so easy to avoid the lost time, delayed outcome, bad feelings, and lost trust in both directions. Was this employee slow? No. Is this boss a jerk? No.
My clients, readers, and audiences complain frequently about getting dragged into issues that ought to be resolved without their help. Every time an issue is escalated one, two, three, even more levels, the cost is significant. “Why can’t people just solve these problems themselves?” they ask. Well, you can’t eliminate a problem without eliminating its cause so here are the 10 most frequent causes of unnecessary escalation. 1. Unclear Priorities Employees can’t make decisions without understanding the factors that should govern those decisions. Sometimes those factors are project specific – requirements, customer expectations, cost/schedule trade-offs – and sometimes they are company wide and involve strategic priorities – priority accounts, product life-cycle plans, customer service expectations, quality/schedule trade-offs, etc. Without clarity, employees often need to escalate what could be simple decisions.
Did your parents ever tell you to “Watch your mouth!”? Mine did. But today, I am telling you to watch your mouth for a completely different reason. Why? Because your language controls your mind, your mood, and your perspective. I will never forget an interview I heard with the US Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman. When asked about the pressure of competition, she responded that she doesn’t feel pressure, just excitement. By substituting the word excitement for pressure, she totally changed her thoughts and her perspective. The language we use to describe our feelings and mood, even when talking to ourselves, has tremendous power. You can choose to be stressed out or you can choose to be challenged and excited like Aly. In a speech I gave last week, one point I made was that the words “too much to do” and “not enough time” are victim words. Using them is simply an abdication of responsibility for making decisions about priorities. One attendee wrote me a few days later to tell me she recognized her “state of victimhood” immediately, changed her language about having too much to do, and started feeling better right away. By choosing to be in control instead of being a helpless victim, you will regain your sense of purpose and power.