Leadership

The Honest Fallacy of Yes/No Questions

20 Jan
by Bridget DiCello

Questions like, “Do you understand?”  “Does that make sense?” and “Will you do that for me?” elicit responses that may have the best intentions, but may not be correct.

When you delegate or assign a task or project, whether it is to a colleague or employee on your team, the final step is to test that they understand what you have described.  The best way to do that is to ask them questions to ensure they are ready to move forward, like questions about what they will do first, what they see as the main components, and conversation about timelines and project steps.

However, what many busy people do instead is explain ‘very clearly’ what needs to be done, twice if necessary, and then ask a question like:  “Does that make sense?” to which most people will respond, “Yes.”

And the problem with that is….?

  1. They may think they understand, but the journey from your head to your mouth is long enough, let alone the distance to their ears and their mind!  Things get lost along the way.
  2. They may have received too much information and need to go process, so they need to tell you “yes” so you let them go and start working on it.
  3. They know what they will do, whether or not it is exactly what you have asked.

And these things are usually done with the best of intentions.

But, that is the problem with “yes/no” questions.  A “Yes,” like the nod of a head, tells you very little.  People think, process and begin to act based on what they are thinking.  People do the most thinking when they are talking, not when you are.  They way to get them talking about the subject at hand is to ask effective questions.  And the worst question, even for a two-year old is, “Repeat back to me what I just told you.”

So, how do we ask better questions?  First, you must be more curious than you are rushed.

Then, ask questions that force the person to process the information, like:

  • How do you see yourself going about this project/task?
  • What will you do first?
  • How will you determine the first step?
  • What will be the most difficult part?
  • What are you most concerned about?
  • What is a question you have right now?

All this must take into account the fact that there are analytic thinkers in our organizations who need some time to process the information in order to figure out the first step.  In these cases, the conversation does not end with, “Do you understand?” but instead with, “Take 24 hours to think through what we’ve talked about, and let’s get together tomorrow at 10am to discuss your first steps, and so I can answer any questions that have come up since then.”

Yes-No Questions will rarely get you the true picture, despite how honest your team is trying to be!

Managing Your Boss

14 Jan
by Bridget DiCello

Skills are activities you are good at doing, but do not necessarily enjoy.  Strengths energize you, but you may not be extremely good at doing them.  Big difference.  Your success depends on you developing your strengths far more than your skills.

Do you happen to work for a boss who has been promoted based on the skills they have to complete specific tasks, but is still a pain to work with?  Success is based on building upon your strengths, but often promotions are based on skills.  The problem with that… is that there is passion associated with strengths but often not with skills.

Natalie is very good at organizing meetings.  She solicits input from everyone, sends out an agenda prior to the meeting, starts on time, keeps things on track, gets everyone to commit to their action items and ends on time.  The problem is that she is not energized by this process, and no matter how organized she is, and how well she communicates minutes and progress to her superiors, there is no passion for what she is doing.  Becky is the passionate leader who is slightly less organized, may not have complete minutes, and may not catch the attention of corporate with her sometimes “off-the-wall” ideas, but her meetings are full of passion, bring out the best in her team, discover potential and move forward in unique ways.

Do you work for a company that would value Natalie or Becky more?  For which boss do you most enjoy working?  Realizing who your boss most resembles, and pinpointing your preference, is your first step.  Then realize that you also have strengths and skills and that working on things that energize you as often as possible will yield the greatest success, even if that is not a promotion with your current employer.

If you are the boss, move forward from consistency and task completion to passionate pursuit and development of your strengths, and encourage your team to do the same.

By the way, as the employee and a fellow professional, nothing says that you can’t have conversations with your boss about their strengths – things they are passionate about.  Offer to work with them on a project, ask questions about how one of their strengths-related initiatives are going, and work a little harder on those things they are passionate about.  It benefits you in the end if your boss discovers not only success in the form of raise or promotion, but also in discovering their potential as a leader.

Pervasive Relativism Stymies Leadership

15 Oct
by Bridget DiCello

Creativity blossoms out of individual and innovative thinking, a variety of viewpoints, and personal and professional confidence.  And no leader in their right mind would minimize the need for their team members to be thinking independently in order to pursue the company’s goals and objectives.

On the other side of that same coin is often the belief of individuals that they are entitled to act on their opinions, should be able to do things their own way, and do not need to be burdened with unnecessary rules and restrictions.  The incredible rise of pervasive relativism, defined by dictionary.com as “any theory holding that criteria of judgment are relative, varying with individuals and their environments,” has made it significantly more difficult to lead a group of people to achieve the company’s goals and adhere to company values and mission.

Relativism, as it rears its head in the workplace, does not recognize right or wrong, and believes more in the value of the individual’s preferences and style.

The problem is that when you, as the leader, have a powerful vision of how you want your company to operate, how you want to do business and how you will treat your customers – there is a right and wrong way to do things.  Your powerful vision is not only your passion in business terms, but also enables you to define a niche which is what provides competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Is it the only right way?  Not necessarily.  But it is the way you have decided your company or department will operate.  And within that, creativity can blossom. (Check out blog post on Processes are Strong Basis for Creative Thinking)

There is a right way and a wrong way to take care of a customer.  At times, an employee will do it the wrong way.  Excuses such as, “That is just my approach; the customer took it the wrong way,” or “They should not have approached me with that attitude,” are not okay.  The employee may have tried their best, but the fact is, it was not good enough.  It doesn’t mean they have to be fired, but they do need to realize that they did not act in a way that the company deems acceptable.

For example, Chick-fil-A believes it is right to smile and say, “My pleasure,” when a customer says, “Thank you.”  An employee could do the same thing at McDonald’s if they wanted to.  However, at Chick-fil-A, it is expected and the only right way to take care of the customer.

If you have an employee who demands to be able to do things their way, and it is directly in contrast to the behavior that you as the leader have communicated as acceptable, then their behavior is unacceptable and they must change.  This seems so simple.  Yet, over and over, I see situations where the pervasive cultural focus on relativism is brutally pushing companies to mediocrity.

What do you see?

Vision Meets Engagement

31 Jul
by Bridget DiCello

Successful companies are comprised of visionary leaders at all levels and engaged employees throughout the organization.  As a leader, there are many opportunities in your day and week to engage your team in seemingly small ways with powerful results.

 

 

If you desire to create a project plan, an agenda, a policy, a job description, a quality checklist, or document a process; as a leader you may be tempted to do it yourself.  Afterall, you know the information best, understand the big picture, and can probably do it faster than any team member. And you don’t have to take the time to delegate or hold them accountable.

 

 

The process of creating, even creating something like a policy that seems simple, can be energizing as well as provide a reality check. It often makes sense to delegate the creation of a draft document to a member of your team.

 

 

Reasons to delegate the draft:

 

 

1. The process of creating is empowering, fun and can energize your employees.

 

 

2. Asking someone to commit to paper what they believe they understand can be extremely revealing to them and to you regarding what they know and understand.

 

3. The employee who creates the draft has more buy-in to the product, even after you offer your insight, edits and make changes.

 

 

4. You may never take the time to do it yourself, even if you are quicker and more knowledgeable, and therefore it will not get done.

 

 

5. It keeps you from getting stuck in the details.  You can review and edit the draft with your big picture and visionary perspective, catching opportunities to improve the draft to more precisely make progress towards company goals.

 

 

So next time you are about to create something, ask yourself who on your team should be involved, and who will execute on it. Then ask them to draft it first. Be sure to tell them they are creating a draft, so they are not disappointed when you edit it. Then you can add your vision of what your team is capable of accomplishing to the draft. A true team effort!

 

Inevitable Turnover?

15 May
by Bridget DiCello

If you find yourself continually hiring and firing, your turnover may be higher than it needs to be. There will always be people who leave a job – to move up in their field, to pursue another field, they move geographically – and there is little you can do to prevent these. However, there are also several reasons that significant turnover occurs, which can be prevented:

1.  You hired the wrong person. Companies large and small have some ineffective hiring processes. Some of the most common mistakes:

  1. You hold only one interview.
  2. You talk more than the candidate in the interview.
  3. You hire them because you like them.
  4. You ignore warning signs instead of purposefully looking for them in each candidate.
  5. You ask interviewing questions that ask what they ‘would’ do, or how they ‘would’ handle a situation.

What to do?

Review your interviewing process. Create deliberate, multi-interview steps, and use effective behavioral interviewing questions. Train your interviewers to be effective.

2.  You hire a transitional type of employee. Those businesses who hire students, for example, or employees in lower level positions, can expect to see turnover as these employees move up to higher positions, or complete their training and get a job in their field of study.   Restaurants are often in this category, but there are other industries where the turnover rate is high for the industry. If you are wondering if this is you, check with your industry association and get your statistics.

What to do?

Set up a process that is not an incredible burden to hire. If you know you experience high turnover and have a good interviewing process and a great place to work, accept the fact that hiring is part of your routine work. Just a few ideas: use applications/resumes and phone interviews to screen candidates to save you time of in-person interviews, involve multiple people in the process, schedule a brief first in-person interview to prevent you from spending a lot of time on the wrong person, and use references to learn more about the person.

3.  You have an unpleasant place to work. Your turnover may occur because people don’t want to stay and do what you have hired them to do. This may occur because:

  1. You never clearly stated expectations of the job tasks and they didn’t know what they were getting into.
  2. The team is hostile and unfriendly.
  3. The managers are not effective in orienting, training, coaching, holding people accountable and developing people to bring out their best. You may end up firing a lot of people for this same reason.

What to do?

Management (processes, metrics and accountability) and leadership (set goals, inspire others, create the team) skills are very often assumed to be present in someone as soon as they assume a role with a manager title.   Although there are some who are natural leaders or managers, most must learn the skills and may destroy some teams in the process, or create a lot more work for an owner who must enable them to learn on the job. Send them to classes, have them read The Leadership Challenge, Opportunity Space and other great leadership books, hire them a coach, and purposefully mentor your leaders.

 

My Way – Why do I have to fight for it?

01 May
by Bridget DiCello

As an owner or leader, do you find yourself defending, selling or fighting for your standards, expectations and values? There is a fine line between demanding and expecting compliance, and creating a team of intelligent people who are thinking and engaged, yet still executing on the vision and plan you have for your department or business.

Passionately Share Clear Expectations

Passionately

It’s hard to get upset with a boss who is authentically passionate about customers, taking great care of them, and doing business in the right way. You must avoid expecting compliance because it’s the rule or just because you said so. Your team members must understand why it’s important, but not be allowed the liberty to grill you with questions about every plan, process or method you implement.

Share

So often expectations are in a leader’s head, but are not shared, not shared often enough, or not shared in a way that others really understand them. Team members need to engage – think about, talk about, report on and execute on their tasks, and why they are important to your customers and company values. And they need to hear your expectations over and over in a variety of different ways – and see those values in what you do and how you spend your time.

Clear

The distance from your head to your mouth is very long, and you may not be as clear as you think you are, and as you need to be. Expectations fall prey to assumptions, assumed agreement, what they think you really mean, and what they think is really best for you and the business. If you leave ambiguity, others will do what they think best, sometimes what is easiest and what enables them to stay in their comfort zone.

Expectations

Without micromanaging, what you expect must be communicated, starting with job descriptions, processes/procedures and evaluations, and continuing with ongoing coaching conversations and accountability through measuring metrics and regular reporting. Answering the question, “What do you want me to do?” can be difficult and is more often communicated as what you don’t want someone to do. What do I do when I don’t have what I need? Yell at who was supposed to give it to me? Make do without? Go find it myself? What is the proper protocol?

Business is not a democracy!

The owner’s or leader’s vision is incredibly important. It is this individual vision that makes the business successful – generic businesses that do it like everyone else don’t last. If a leader envisions a very collaborative culture, that’s fine and will work if that is what they passionately believe in, but that’s not the only or best answer in every situation.

The employees’ role is to execute the vision, and use their expertise, wisdom, knowledge and intelligence to execute well and share insights and ideas of how to do that better – not to disagree with the vision and fight it every step of the way.

“Good” isn’t enough, bring me the data!

17 Apr
by Bridget DiCello

“How is … going?”  You fill in the blank.  What have you asked your team about?  Projects?  Sales?   Customer satisfaction?   Daily tasks?

And have you heard in response, “Good!” or “Fine.” and wondered just what those phrases really meant?  Sometimes they mean to communicate:

  1. “Things are not all that great right now, but we’ve got a solid plan to address them.”
  2. “I’m really not sure how things are going, but nothing appears to be in fire, so I think we’re okay.”
  3. “If I say, ‘Good!’ or ‘Fine.’ you will not worry as much and give me some room to go figure out how things are really going.

This is not only the case if you have a few slackers on your team who avoid accountability.  In many very successful businesses, even good performers may not have a handle on specifically how things are going.  There is this common aversion to data collection and analysis in many organizations because it requires time and effort that could be spent doing things instead.

Brad Robertson, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) St. Francis Hospital has a sign hanging in his office which reads, “In God We Trust, all others bring Data.”

What data might your team need to bring you?

  • Customer service metrics
  • Sales and Pipeline data and pipeline building activities
  • Profitability, and the related pricing, expenses, execution, rework, delivery
  • Company overall health – current assets, long term liabilities
  • Where we are, where we’ve been, trends, projections
  • Industry specific measurements

How often do you need to see this data?

Part of the objective of gathering data is that the process can become part of the daily routine, so metrics are gathered and reviewed routinely (at least monthly, more often for some metrics), not only by a leader, but by team members as well.  If a doctor had to assess you without any tests, lab results or equipment such as a blood pressure cuff or stethoscope, and only saw you once in a while, an intuitive doctor might be able to make some guesses, but you would not have the same opportunities for good health.  It’s the same for the business or department you lead.

Identify the right data to gather, the easiest way to obtain it, a set time to review it, a consistent way to use it for making solid decisions, and stay consistent in that process.

On a final note, for those of you reading this who think that data is fabulous and you could spend all day just gathering and analyzing because there is so much good information to be gleaned, be careful to balance the value of gathering and reviewing accurate data with the objective of using it to improve business processes and ensure greater success.

Top 5 Non-Technical Sales ‘Musts’

16 Jan
by Bridget DiCello

I never wanted to sell.  I fought selling tooth and nail because I found salespeople annoying and time consuming.  I just wanted to be a trainer and a coach.  But, if no one sells, the company ceases to exist.

And if you think there is no sales in your job because you are not the owner or the official salesperson, think again.  You sell your ideas, your concerns, your approach, your strategies and your objectives every day to team members, strategic partners and your boss.

Since that time of resistance, I’ve learned a few things, and below are the non-technical (not the nuts and bolts of how to sell) things you must do to be successful.

The ‘Musts’:

  1. You must make connections with new prospects.  Sound simple?  Many people rely too heavily on current customers for recurring or new business, and keep calling on those same prospects they think will buy, but haven’t yet.  You must find new prospects whether you cold call, network, obtain referrals, initiate a marketing plan or hire a telemarketer.  Within your organization, make new connections with those involved elsewhere in the chain of events of which you are a part.
  2. You must track your sales activities.  I’m fanatical about tracking operational metrics in a business because it is the only way to measure what you are currently doing, assess how much more you want/need to do, and tweak your systems.  If you are not selling enough, but don’t have a concrete picture of what you are doing now, and therefore don’t know what to change, you will start shooting in the dark with sales strategies.  Track activity – calls, appointments, proposals, etc.  Whatever your goals, track your key activities that will get you there.
  3. You must ask curious questions.  As a leader, if you want to build powerful relationships and be able to motivate and inspire your team, you must connect with them.  Connecting occurs when you can understand where they are coming from, meet them there, and lead them in the right direction.  This also applies to the prospect.  Learn about them before you push your product on them – lest it be the wrong fit.  Get them talking to the point where they are selling themselves!  This is the best way to build strong relationships in every area of work, and personal life too!
  4. You must know yourself, as Socrates would tell us.  A major obstacle to a leader’s success is a lack of understanding of why you and others do what you and they do.  Are you driven by results, by the journey, the pat on the back, security or by the happiness of those involved?  This greatly affects how you sell, and why your prospect will or won’t buy.  Spend time in 2013 understanding you and others – read up on Emotional Intelligence.
  5. You must get some training.  If you need to sell, you need to learn how.  I often think that the skill most often assumed, but not present, is the ability to lead others, which is why so many exceptional employees who are promoted to leadership, then struggle with the new role.  However, I think the ability to sell is also very often assumed, especially if you happen to land a big sale or two at the outset.  It requires a very specific set of skills, which must be developed and expanded over time.  Within any organization, the ability to connect with others is critical, often undervalued and not natural to most people – so get some training to develop those skills.

I’ve learned to greatly enjoy selling because I enjoy the process of connecting with people who I can help and who want and need my professional expertise.  Take a look at your sales function.  Does it need an overhaul this year?  Greater revenue certainly helps to buy time to fix a whole lot of operational issues.

Need help with sales?  Contact my all-time favorite Sales Trainer and Coach, Andrew Gieselmann http://www.csp.sandler.com/  He handles the technical, the nuts and bolts and all the details I’ve left out of this article…

That Deadline? Yes I’m serious!

09 Oct
by Bridget DiCello

What creates the mentality that a deadline of October 15th means somewhere near that date? Or that the deadline is the ideal, but no one really believes it will happen? Or that the deadline, while important, is totally impractical and therefore can be ignored and close enough will be good enough? Or, as long as I help you diffuse the commotion we’ve caused by being late, I am doing my part.

If you experience these situations, you have not created a Culture of Deadlines. You probably haven’t set the precedent and may not have led strategically.

  1. Set the deadline. Don’t assume the urgency in your mind will somehow automatically convert to a specific date in the other person’s mind unless you have spoken about the date: October 15th, close of business. It is incredibly common to delegate a task without a specific deadline – you probably do it at least 20 times a day.
  2. Set the deadline. Set a specific date, and test commitment. “Uh-huh,” or “Okay,” or “Sure,” are not good enough. Ask some clarifying questions to ensure they understand.
  3. Clarify Expectations: What specifically must be done by that time? Project A must be done. Not just started, not just outlined, not just discussed as a group, but done, and done means… Again, ask questions to test they understand: “Please describe how you see the end product looking. What will be unique about it when it is done? What is the first step you will take?”
  4. Set a sub deadline to check in on progress, especially if you are concerned about their performance on the project. “By October 10th, outline the steps of the project and how you will approach it.” Then, review those steps when they are submitted. In other words, break the project into manageable bites, and strategically involve yourself in the process to ensure success at the final deadline.
  5. Run through the ‘what ifs.’ Create a thorough list of all the possible, yet reasonable things that could go wrong. You know there will be daily interruptions, unanticipated rush projects, occasional employee illness, technology interruptions and dependencies on other people involved in the process. These are typically NOT reasons to miss a deadline. These are real challenges, we know these things happen and we must build in time for reality to occur. Again, ask a question: “If the server goes down temporarily, what is your plan to continue to meet the deadline?” If the answer is that they will just miss the deadline, without the ability to think through alternative plans, then you know not to be surprised if deadlines are missed unless you work through these things ahead of time.
  6. Deal with the Elephant. If you know a particular colleague routinely misses agreed upon deadlines, you can either ask for things several weeks before you really need them, or address the Elephant: ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t work, ‘patching up’ the mess, and having ‘talking them down off the ledge’ conversations with the stakeholders, is helpful in the moment, but not the answer to the real issue that things are routinely late. Ask curious questions and determine what you and they will do differently to meet deadlines. “Let’s come up with six possible ways to address each probable ‘what if’ scenario.”

I Don’t Have a Bad Attitude!

18 Sep
by Bridget DiCello

“I don’t have a bad attitude, I just have a personality that you can’t handle!” When I saw this on the back of a woman’s shirt at the store the other day, I couldn’t help but verbally and enthusiastically acknowledge, “That is so true!” She looked at me strangely, probably thinking the shirt would keep her out of discussion, not start them.

What is a bad attitude?

  • Negative emotions displayed in a place or at a time where they are inappropriate?
  • A shield or wall to keep people away?
  • A mask for fear or lack of self-confidence?
  • A feeling that no one understands where I’m coming from, nor do they care to find out?
  • An honest but inappropriate lack of focus, prioritizing or caring about the situation at hand?

All of these could be accurate descriptions of what’s behind a bad attitude.

Your effectiveness at interacting with and leading others is dependent on your ability to find the person, the potential, the objections, the fears, the challenges and the disengagement behind the wall of “bad attitude”.

How many personalities are there that you can’t handle? That number is directly and inversely related to your success. There are personalities that I can’t handle – one of which is the personality that has absolutely no interest in self-development and improvement. The person believes so strongly that they are right, and although others may need to improve, they themselves do not.

However… I have not found many personalities like that. Most that appear that way are hiding something else, have built a very high wall, and no one has patiently worked hard enough to pull it down to find the willing person behind it.

It takes a lot of coaching conversations, accountability measures and supportive goal setting to work through bad attitudes. And there are times where the return on investment is not believed to be large enough to make it worth it.

Just be cautious. Next time you want to label someone with having a “bad attitude,” ask yourself as the leader if this is just a personality that YOU can’t handle.

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