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.
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.
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).
Do you know people who have rigid views about just about everything? Conversations with people like this either turn into spirited debates or one-sided monosyllabic dead ends.
Even if you have a firm perspective on a given topic, when you open your mind and hear a different perspective, it can enhance and expand your thinking.
In the past few weeks, several clients shared stories of gaffes that occurred when they made important presentations. The stories had different types of audiences: one was a speech at an industry meeting, another was a board presentation, and the third was a sales presentation to a prospective client.
All these people are experienced professionals. In each case, though, too much was left to chance. Simply put, they weren’t prepared.
I had a challenging series of conversations with tech support representatives over a problem that was enormously frustrating. At one point, a supervisor kept repeating the same instruction to me despite my telling her that I didn’t understand what she was saying.
Her solution was to say it again in a louder voice.
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 standing in line at the pharmacy and the man in front of me was disruptive and disrespectful to the person helping him. After he left, she and her co-worker were commenting on what had happened. As I approached to get my prescription, she greeted me, zen-like, saying “Relax – relate – release.”
Of course, I was immediately drawn in, and wanted to know more about this mantra. Had they had customer service training? Did she read about this in a book? Perhaps she had seen something on the internet?