Does Your Team Know You Value Them?

It was great to get so many emails about my blog post yesterday. Thanks for letting me know that you are out there and interested in my random thoughts on life and leadership.  Today, let’s talk about leadership.  I think the single most important skill a leader can possess is (drum roll here):

The ability to convey genuine regard and value for their team.

Are you surprised?  Do you agree?  It is okay for me to say that I was surprised? I was especially surprised 14 years ago; I thought leadership was all about getting things done.  My natural approach to getting things done was to tell people what needed to be done.  Can you believe it?  

Interestingly enough, I found the “tell them what to do approach” worked in a crisis.  It seems many people relish someone telling them what to do when swift action is needed.  Yet, slow down and low and behold, they want to express their opinion.  They want you to include them in the conversation.  They (being your team) most often want to know not only what needs to be done, but why.  People have ideas, many ideas, about the what and how, once they know the why.  Will you be a leader that listens?

Interesting things happen when you’re not.  The energy and passion gets sucked out of your team members, almost as if by magic.  If we don’t include and value our team members, there is often a corresponding decrease in their connection and commitment to the tasks at hand.  

Yet, include, value, listen, learn and allow your team the freedom to try out their ideas and make some mistakes (yes, mistakes) and you often get a corresponding increase in their connection and commitment to the tasks at hand, the team and the organization. 

What do yo think? Agree? Disagree? Advice on how to show your team you truly regard and value their contributions? I want to hear what you think. You can comment here or email zohreh@piurek.com.  Have a great day!

Leading in times of adversity

We are waiting.  We are waiting for times to get better.  We watch updates on the news about the stimulus package, and we hope.  We hope that our leaders will have wisdom.  We hope that they will act quickly.  We hope that when they act, it works. 

Your team is waiting on you.  They are waiting for you to notice the work they do.  They are waiting for you to ask their opinion.  They are waiting for you to reassure them that they will have a job next month, and they wonder.  They wonder if you will have your job next month.  They wonder if they will have their job.  There was a time, not too long ago, where they may have asked themselves if they wanted their job.  Yet, those days are temporarily forgotten.  Now, they are most likely grateful to have a job.

How do we lead in times of adversity?  I learned my biggest lessons related to this when managing what seemed to be a sinking ship (metaphorically speaking).  I was brought into manage a failing operation.  After being there a short time, it became apparent that the operation may be shut down.  There was a period of several months where the staff was unsure as to whether they would have jobs in the near future.  The operation was in the press regularly.  There was much “talk” in the community about the contract and whether it would continue to be funded. 

In the midst of all this, we needed to perform.  We still had a job to do, even if we weren’t sure for how long.   What did I do?  What did I learn?

Well, I let them wear blue jeans.  Yep, that is my big tip for leading in times of adversity – find out what you can do to support your team and do it.  Now this involves a few underlying principles:

1) Talk to your team.  Tell them everything you can.  Each organization has a culture and approach about sharing information.  You will need to act within yours.  However, share as much information as you can.

2) Be honest about what you can control and what you can’t.  Your staff needs to know that they can trust you.  If you are going down the rapids with someone, you want to know they can handle a boat.  As you are open with them about what you can impact, their trust in you increases.

3) Find out what matters to them.  Small stuff makes a big difference.  In fact, during times of adversity, the small stuff can be even more important.   When staff are unsure of the future, knowing that you care and are doing what you can to support them makes a BIG difference.  

4) Act.  Your team wants to know that you can take swift and competent action.   If you are at sea, in a storm, who do you want at the helm?  During the tough times, your staff needs to have confidence in your ability to take whatever action is needed to bring success. 

So, why blue jeans?  I talked to my team each week, the entire team.  I told them everything I knew about what we were facing.  I shared what I knew, didn’t know, what we were doing and what we were trying to figure out.  I thanked them for their support during these tough times.  I reassured them that I would continue to share everything I knew with them, and I did.  I asked them how I could support them, and you guessed it – blue jeans.  They wanted casual Friday everyday.  Working for wise leaders myself, upon hearing the request, they approved it. 

I wish I could tell you that the contract didn’t end and the operation didn’t have to close.  Yet, it did.  Unfortunately, the cycle of organizational life has its sad endings as well.  However, what I can tell you is that the team was supported during adversity, that we worked together, and that together we did what needed to be done.  

I wish you and your team great success in weathering the economic storm upon us.  Things will change. Things will get better.  Together, we can all navigate through these stormy waters.

Lesson #1: Fire the Critic

Hi All. Thanks for visiting my blog.  It is still an adventure for me, a blogging adventure.  It is writing to people, you in this moment, without knowing what you think, that makes it most challenging.  Which brings me to Lesson #1, Fire the Critic.  It is my lesson, meaning the lesson that I need to learn.  It is lesson #1 because I think it is the lesson I need to learn above all others at the moment. 

I don’t remember what famous or brilliant person came up with the idea, the idea of firing the critic, but I know it wasn’t me.  All the same, today is a great day to embrace this concept.  I don’t know where the critic came from.  It appears to be some conglomeration of our own negative thoughts and every person that every told us what we should or shouldn’t do (similar to the judge in the Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements”). 

On the surface, I think I look pretty bold a majority of the time.  I actually love boldness, the strength and purity of it.  There is not a lot of time to think about what you should and shouldn’t be when you are being bold, because it is just that, being…

However, you may have caught that I said, “I THINK I look pretty bold a majority of the time”.  Meaning, you got it, if you are THINKING that you LOOK bold, you are in all likelihood not being bold.  Which takes us back to our critic, or mine at least.  I am really sick of him/her/it.  I want to do more.  I want to be more and in response I feel something coming up from deep inside, fear.  Fear that I will fail.  Fear that I won’t look like I know what I am doing.  Fear that I won’t be one of the ones.  You know, the ones that are a brilliant success.  

What do I spend my professional time doing? Consulting and leading a consultant team.  Aren’t consultant’s experts?  Well, we know a thing or two, but actually we all do.  As a consultant, we have the honor of being an objective set of ears and eyes in that slice of time, for that particular client.  If being a consultant means you resign from the human race and no longer have to deal with the inner critic (we both know that is not the case), than I need to find another profession (which I don’t feel inclined to do, because I love helping organizations and the leaders and staff that breathe life into them).  So here I am, spending most of my professional time looking like I know what I am doing (I hope so anyway), often thinking, what should I do? What do I say in this moment to help this group, this leader, this team. 

It is so unpredictable.  The world is full of experts and books that say “do this”.  What if the truth is that human behavior is unpredictable, team dynamics complex, funding and market forces swiftly and constantly changing, leadership a life long journey of mastery?  What if no one knows exactly what we are supposed to do?  What if it is all one great, messy experiment called life? 

Did you think I had forgotten the critic?  I wish.  No, he/she/it is there, is here with me.  Wispering as I write this:  are you being too open?; are you rambling to much?; will they think less of you?; why are you revealing personal stuff in a professional blog?; why can’t you separate you personal self from your professional self?; should you try?

There is another voice whispering.  It says, write.  Write whatever you want.  Be who you are, be who you want to be.  I like that voice the best.  The critic robs.  I see it all around as people struggle to feel good, really good about themselves and who they are.  And I wonder, do we find it so challenging to truly accept others because we often fail to accept ourselves.  The people that look so confident and self assured, are they really?  I hope so.  I hope we all can find that genuine place where we can be ourselves and accept one another. For me it is time, time to step out and be more.  To speak, to write, to share, to be of service in a bigger way, with much less thought for how I look to others and much more about the people in front of me. 

So let’s have a party and celebrate. Let’s fire the critic.  And if he/she/it tries to sneak back…well that is a blog entry for another day. Have a great day!