Morag Barrett's Blog, page 2

Dependent on Others for Success?!

Take a moment and read that again . . .
Do you believe it?
If work is a team sport, then you are dependent upon others for your success. You cannot perform at a high level alone.
However, in many organizations a “hero mentality” abounds in which individuals wait to step in and save the day. In those organizations, I tend to see a short-term focus in which firefighting becomes the norm and long-range fire prevention is overlooked.
In extreme situations, it’s not just firefighting that occurs, but arson, where individuals actually create a crisis in order to be the hero. Those who save the day are then rewarded with other “problem areas to fix” or other recognition that serves to perpetuate the individual mindset. A culture of silos and barriers to collective success abounds!
While this solo mindset may deliver results in the short term, burnout occurs when the self-imposed demands become too great. Team members may become complacent, sitting back and saying to themselves,
“Why bother? She will just do it herself anyway.”
For the organization, when key individuals leave, the institutional knowledge leaves with them.
The lack of collaboration results in single points of failure that undermine corporate success.
Another reason for leaders to create a culture of cultivation!

 

It’s a Small (Business) World!

If the world is small, the business world is microscopic.
This fact should encourage you, but it may also scare the daylights out of you.
Good news about your accomplishments will spread, but at nowhere near the pace of bad news. Your reputation precedes you, as the saying goes.
Let’s look at the positive side.
This story helps illustrate the smallness of planet earth… I was sitting at the Anchorage airport, having facilitated leadership programs at the North Slope, Alaska. (It’s a long way from anywhere!) It was my first trip to Alaska, and I knew no one in Anchorage, let alone anyone sitting at the airport at four o’clock in the morning. The royal wedding was being broadcast on the screens in the terminal, and the lady next to me started to chat.
Apparently I have an accent, and she wanted to talk about my life in England. It was early, and I wanted to see the dress before boarding, so we chatted. Eventually the conversation turned to current things. I shared that I lived in Colorado. She knew someone in Colorado . . . it turned out that her friend was someone I know well.
We immediately went from strangers with nothing in common to acquaintances with someone in common.
This is just one of hundreds of chance encounters I have experienced in my travels around the world—encounters that only serve to reinforce that we are just one conversation away from reaching our dreams, or at least taking a step closer to them.
If we take the time to talk to those around us, we can cultivate relationships that result in a positive and lasting impact for both of us.

 

Practical Ways to Build Allies

This video introduces the four conversational strategies you can use to nurture allies, rally supporters, manage rivals, or address adversaries.

The four conversational strategies are

- Align

- Adjust

- Applaud

- Baggage
Consider buying gift copies for:


Your Allies and future Allies,


Those new to the world of work, or


Those graduating this Spring


Equip these people for the toughest team sport they’ll ever play!
Cheers,
Morag

 

 

Understanding Different Work Styles

Face it – not everyone has the same way of approaching work – and that’s a GOOD thing.
But the “good-ness” of our differences only become fruitful if we take time to understand each other.
Consider using a psychometric tool such as MBTI or DISC to provide an understanding of the similarities and differences between your team members.
Here are some questions you can use – and more are outlined in my book:


What do you do for fun outside of work?


What are your hot buttons? How will I know if you are stressed/frustrated?


Do you prefer phone, email or in person for our communications?


How often should we be meeting and for what purpose?


If I need your urgent attention, what should I say or do?


How can I best present bad news or tough messages in a way that you can hear and we can resolve together?


How would you describe your communication style? Are you direct, fact-based, logical, or more big-picture, options, and freewheeling?


Do you prefer to think things through or talk things out?


What is the biggest struggle you have had to overcome to get to where you are today?


What can I expect from you as a leader/colleague/team member?


When do you do your best work?


What three adjectives would others use to describe you?


What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself?


Let me know how it goes!

 

Social Workplace Bonds – The Key to Team Success

In a recent article, the Harvard Business Review found that social bonds were the major predictor of team success.
The other two were “initiatives to strengthen relationships” and “leaders who invest the time to build strong relationships with their teams.”
If team success (and individual success) is dependent upon social bonds, then it would follow that spending time getting to know the team members, and articulating the rules of engagement for the team would be a good investment of time, right?
Creating these social bonds is much easier said than done. With the advancement in technology, email has become ubiquitous, to the point of actually undermining performance!
In a recent program presented by my team, leaders reported they each received several hundred emails a day. While email may be keeping leaders tied to their desktops, or with their smartphones permanently available twenty-four hours a day, it is also preventing the creation of meaningful connections at work.
I’ve experienced this in a large telecommunications firm, where an egalitarian approach backfired. We were a company of cubicles. You could walk corridors but not see anyone. People used email to chat with team members twenty feet away, and we wondered why there wasn’t a real bond!
Contrast this with a working environment that was completely open: no walls, no hiding, and no excuses.
Team members could simply raise their heads and talk to the person next to them. It led to a much different environment, where camaraderie and team relationships flourished.
Don’t get me wrong, we still needed “quiet time” away from the hubbub of the office, and a private place to hold confidential conversations. I am not suggesting you start knocking down walls to build relationships (although now that I think of it—yes I am—the metaphorical walls that prevent us from getting to know the person in the next office).
My experience in both of these environments shaped my creed: “Get off your butt and go talk to someone!”
The perception that building relationships is “soft and fluffy” leads us to undervalue the time to focus on the interpersonal side of business.
We all know when the rules of engagement have been broken. We sit in meetings drumming our fingers, clenching our teeth in frustration. We vent to our families and friends, but we remain silent at work.
You’ve seen it happen—perhaps in your own career.
Rules of Engagement
Asking for what you need to be successful at the start of each relationship or project means you can more easily course-correct when things go off track. Notice I said when, and not if!
I’ve had the opportunity to work for managers (and with colleagues) who assumed I could read their minds, only to have them come down on me like a ton of bricks when my sixth sense fizzled. And I’ve been guilty of this myself.
Articulating the rules of engagement sets you up for success, both on the good days when things are going well and, more importantly, during the turbulent times when many of us revert back to inappropriate behaviors (micromanaging, command and control, or passive-aggressiveness, to name a few).
Rules of engagement could include the following steps:


Ensuring that the two parties are in agreement regarding the objectives to be achieved.


Agreeing on the levels of authority and decision-making responsibilities.


Articulating roles and responsibilities.


Understanding individual personality, communication, and decision-making styles, where these are in alignment and where they may be different, and the implications for how values and behaviors will be important to success.


Meeting cadence—where and how often will meetings occur?


Escalation process—when and who to ask for help and provide warnings of impending disaster.


Feedback and coaching expectations.


Try these for your next project. By learning to set expectations, you find clarity about who you can rely on for advice, and who can be a filter for tough decisions. Your team will also know who can be called on when you don’t know how to solve a problem.
Your success depends on it.

 

Who Goes There? Ally or Adversary?

Some difficult relationships are not Rivals or Adversaries; they are just different or annoying.
I recall facilitating a high-performing team program for a sales organization in a major tech company. Two senior team members were David and Stephen, who had been in conflict with each other for months. The relationship had deteriorated to such an extent that David saw Stephen as his Adversary and treated him as such.
Since they had never discussed their relationship, or the fact that David saw it as adversarial, they were stuck in a behavior loop that was starting to impact others on the team. True to form, the two sat at opposite ends of the table and barely acknowledged each other’s presence.
As part of the program, we were utilizing the MBTI® (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) personality profile to better understand the differences within the team and their client relationships. Once the MBTI styles had been discussed and we had completed a number of activities to bring the theory alive, David realized that his colleague was his exact opposite in terms of preferences.
They weren’t trying to annoy each other on purpose, they both simply “couldn’t help it.”
As a result of that session, they were able to sit down and discuss strategies for working more effectively together—strategies that were built on common ground—and identify adjustments each could make.
This didn’t require a personality transplant but took into account the different needs of each person and the overarching goals of the team.

 

Giving (You) Thanks!

Here’s a bonus video – just for you!

 

Younger Generations in the Workplace

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, and love to talk rather than work or exercise. They contradict their parents, gobble down food at the table, and intimidate their teachers.
I often use this quote to open my workshop on Generations At Work. Can you guess when it was written?  (It’s from Socrates, who lived around 400 BC!)
Much of the complaining about the “youth of today” is based on ignorance. Maybe you’ve also encountered this attitude from others in your workplace.
Different values, ideas, ways of communicating, and generations have always existed in the workplace. So, why is this becoming more of an issue now?
For the first time in history, there are four distinct generations in the workforce, all with their own perspectives, styles, and expectations.
In my experience, young people are not “slackers.” The amount of knowledge most carry, and their approach to acquiring knowledge, is amazingly different from prior generations. I see this with my own children when I quiz them about current affairs or try to stump them with a pop quiz. It’s not only what you know right now, but also knowing how to find the answer.
The Millennials are the most educated, technologically sophisticated generation ever. In general, Millennials value job satisfaction, security, and opportunity for advancement as priorities over financial compensation.
They respond well to being mentored by older, more seasoned professionals – and that’s our opportunity to make a difference in their lives!
Millennials want to do meaningful work, and they seek to develop relationships with creative, bright individuals who share that desire. They tend to get frustrated with bureaucracy and what might be perceived as unnecessary rules that slow down work.
When mentoring a Millennial:


Be positive.


Tie the message to the Millennial’s personal goals or to the goals the whole team is working toward.


Avoid cynicism and sarcasm.


I don’t like stereotypes either, but generational information serves as clues to help you engage in more rewarding ways with each person based on who they are—a unique human being.
We can then help our young people cultivate winning relationships with other generations – and find success in their careers!

 

Relationship Health Check Questions

Ever forget to water a houseplant?
If we don’t take time to deliberately cultivate winning relationships, your workplace connections will wilt. Here are some questions you can ask your stakeholders:


What has been happening for you since we last spoke?


What’s working well?


What’s getting in the way of our success?


What have I done to amaze you recently?


How have I missed expectations?


What is one request you have of me?


Obviously you don’t need to ask every one of these in a friendly check-up meeting.
Discussion on just ONE of these can cultivate a better relationship!

 

Abundance and Generosity

An Ally mindset starts with a perspective of Abundance rather than Scarcity.
Do you believe there is plenty of success to go around?  Then why not collaborate for the success of others in your company?
This is about moving from a “me first—my success” to a “we first—our success” mindset. Think about it: if we are both successful, then there’s more success to go around. With an abundance mindset, our hopes and dreams are shared, both personal and business. Our goals and passions are talked about, not kept in the dark, hidden and secret. The more people who know and understand what we are trying to achieve, the more people can help us to get there.
Creativity is stimulated as experience, thoughts, and ideas are shared! Continuous learning is an outcome of shared knowledge, increasing the organization’s ability to adapt and innovate and increasing our ability to adapt and innovate.
I’m often asked who my business competitors are. This is where the abundance mindset comes into play. My answer is that there’s plenty of work for all of us. We don’t spend time worried about who our competitors are or what they might be doing. I hope they experience success. We have referred our clients to “competitors” who, in my opinion, may be better positioned to meet their needs. This is normal in an abundant world, and it is the right thing to do.
When we approach success as a “scarce resource,” it becomes something to be hoarded and not shared. I’ve seen a “scarcity” mindset undermine collaboration and customer service. How about you?
This leads to the second part of this foundation—Generosity.
For me, this manifests itself in the advice, coaching, and encouragement I have provided to those who have asked, even in those in similar businesses to mine. I am happy to share my story, my successes, my failures, my mistakes, my learning—and if this helps you succeed and build your confidence, even better! My focus is on being the best version of me that I can be, to ensure that my team provides the best possible results for our clients. Ask for my input and I will make time for you, because I always learn something from these conversations that helps me to move forward as much as I help you. I am your Ally; I am with you.
Abundance & Generosity are the foundations for my business and my approach to life. Of course, at times I find myself in need of reminders to get back on this foundation. But my Allies are quick to help me shift.
Please know that while what I’ve said above is true, I don’t share it to paint myself as Saint Abundance. I’ve simply seen this mindset do wonders for our business and my Allies!