Something that helps people make progress is to consciously think about what they know now that they didn’t know last week (month, year, etc.). Incremental knowledge – no matter how small or big it may be – accumulates and adds to your professional development.
Why not ask this question in your weekly team meetings? If you take time to have a quick round robin, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you hear.
Do you suffer from too much work, not enough time, and (heaven forbid) your employees need your help?
Good news, bad news, the same news: Get used to it.
To succeed in today’s workplace, people need to demonstrate their value and curtail any hint of dispensability. At a minimum, they need to at least act the part.
Here is a personal example to illustrate the point. I needed help to remove a piece of furniture from my apartment. I asked Joe, who works in my building, if he’d like to make a little extra money by assisting me.
Have you ever faced a situation where you’ve clung to an old “story” about an employee even if the circumstances have changed? For example, let’s say you’ve been dealing with a “renegade” employee for at least a year.
You don’t want to loosen your grip over him, because you believe this old scenario is still current. From your perspective, “He’s still out of control” or “I don’t want the management headache”.
Many managers wrestle with how to give feedback to their employees, and as a result they aren’t successful in conveying what they really want to say. Consequently, delivering feedback can be one of the more stressful parts of their job as manager.
At one end of the spectrum are managers who are so brutally blunt that the sting of their harsh words is more powerful than the underlying message. At the other end are managers who couch their feedback in overly positive and flowery comments so that their employees completely miss the message.
Do you often succumb to “I’ll do it myself”? Sometimes, hard-driving managers become frustrated when their staff makes mistakes, and as a result, they sing the refrain of “it’s easier to do it myself.”
This is usually a bad idea. Of course, there are exceptions, but overall, it’s better to take time to coach someone about what was done incorrectly and how to do it accurately the next time.
Even if you don’t see yourself as detail oriented, paying attention to details can make a difference between average and outstanding communication. The expression, “it’s all in the details” takes on fresh meaning in these situations. Consider these examples:
The executive who isn’t clear in his instructions but expects his assistant to know precisely what he has in mind. The assistant books his travel and the exec yells at her because it wasn’t the exact schedule that he wanted (which he, of course, never mentioned).
Team members rely on each other. When everyone does what they commit to doing, the results can be fabulous. On the other hand, if one person neglects to hold up his or her end of the bargain, it can create a domino effect where the house of cards tumbles down.
If your organizational structure is built around teams, as the leader, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the teams function to their best advantage. There isn’t room for prima donnas, lone rangers, or slackers. They need to understand that no matter how talented they are, they will drag down the team if they behave in such fashion.
Does your team have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and expectations for performance? If it doesn’t, it’s a recipe for confusion and misunderstandings. Think about it: if people don’t have clarity about what their supposed to do and how they’ll be evaluated, they’re walking around in the dark.
Consider these examples
I was facilitating a management offsite with a goal of improving communication among leaders. During the discussion, one of the participants enthusiastically said that she was open to the ideas of others as long as people realized that her opinions were the right ones.
What?!?