September has a “back to school” allure, even if you haven’t been a student for years. Not only are we reminded of it by omnipresent advertisements of school supplies and the like, but feelings are conjured from our own memories.
This is always a good time for a fresh start on whatever needs rebooting. Are there goals that have languished? A new project that was backburnered? A special initiative that will energize your team?
Too many people are afraid to make mistakes. They take the road well-traveled and try to stay under the radar. “Good is good enough”, because if they go out of their comfort zone they may make mistakes.
Simply put, they play it safe.
Change is almost always received with at least a little resistance. When someone says “we’ve always done it this way” it’s a signal that you’ll need to do more work than just the change itself. You’ll need to “sell” your people on why this specific change.
When planning for change, then, you should plan for the change itself in addition to internal persuasion time. Yes, this takes more time, and yes, you need to do this.
You can be thorough, methodical, systematic – whichever word you choose – but if you overdo it, it may hurt you. Of course, you need to be disciplined to obtain the necessary information to make a decision, but often the incremental time analyzing isn’t going to give you that much more information.
+ Through over-analysis, you may miss the point, as aptly described by the cliché of not seeing the forest through the trees.
We love seeing examples of people expressing their passion, especially when it reinforces their desire to do well for their clients or colleagues. Passion is contagious and can even lift others out of lethargy.
There is a distinction, however, between expressing passion and being subjectively emotional, or “overly emotional” as some people describe it. When this happens, people lose their objectivity and they are less effective influencers. I’ve seen many examples of this, with both positive and negative emotions.
Even the most upbeat, positive leaders hit obstacles. Ordinary difficulties are usually annoyances rather than true impediments. You figure out what needs to be done and you take care of it.
Every once in a while, though, you might hit a “blockade”. This can be considerably more intense than the usual obstacle, so you need to deal with it differently.
One of my clients has a very simple rule, which is to include the account executive on any communication relating to his or her accounts. Team members know that this means to copy them on emails and update them on any verbal discussions.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, many of the client management hiccups that occur in this company relate to breaching this simple guideline. How and why does this happen?
When you’re stuck, emotions often take over your otherwise rational approach to problem-solving. You may think that a particular task or initiative may be the obstacle, when in reality an underlying emotional hindrance is the real culprit.
Your ability to reframe the emotional issue will help you break through to a solution. The key is identifying the what is really getting in the way. Here are a few of the more common emotional obstacles:
Remember the Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared”? Are you? Is your team?
How do you handle it when someone on your team is unprepared for a meeting or a presentation? This can happen as innocently as an honest oversight or it can be because the person intentionally let it slide. People who feel entitled do the latter, that is, they are unconcerned about their contribution to the overall team.
When you’re not prepared, you can derail an initiative just because you didn’t do your job. Even worst is the implication that you don’t respect to your co-workers, by signalling its lack of importance.
Summer has officially arrived, and many people are revving up for some well-deserved time off. There shouldn’t be a need to say this, but my hope for you is that you take advantage and enjoy the season.
If you wake up 10 weeks from now and wonder what happened to summer, it will be too late. So, for all of you dedicated leaders, here are a few thoughts.