Susan Scott's Blog, page 108

Fierce Tip of the Week: Say Thanks

In the United States this week, many of us will gather around a dinner table with our friends and families to celebrate Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday, even as a little girl, has always been Thanksgiving. First, I truly enjoy every single dish that the traditional turkey dinner has to offer and, more importantly, I love that its main purpose is to be with the ones you love and say thanks.

This week’s Fierce tip is about having many conversations this week expressing your thanks out loud!

This thanksgiving I will say thanks to my newly born daughter, my husband, and our families who have supported us through this new time in our lives. I’ll say thanks to Fierce and my family here at work, who make coming into the office each day a true joy. I’ll say thanks to our clients who work so hard to make their organizations places where people can communicate authentically and openly with so much passion.

This week also unofficially kicks off the start of the holiday season and all the hoopla that holidays entail. So take this occasion to slow down, before the rush for the best new gadget, toy, and black Friday deal begins and enjoy this opportunity to say thanks.

Fierce Resources: What is Your “Burning Platform”?

This week’s Fierce Resource first appeared on the Fierce blog February 10, 2011 and was written by Fierce CEO & President Halley Bock. What is Your “Burning Platform”? explores why it is critical for leaders to ask tough questions of both themselves and their organizations in order to pinpoint problem areas.

“More often than not – in our businesses, our careers, our relationships, and in our very lives – we stand atop our own “burning platforms”, resisting or ignoring the clear signs that we are in danger and that a radical change in behavior is needed to survive or to lead a life worth living. Business leaders should be vigilant in asking themselves, their employees and their customers where they are at risk.”

To read the full article, click here.

Is It Past Time You Engaged in a “Courageous Conversation?”

Margie Warrell wrote a piece today on Forbes.com titled, “Is It Past Time You Engaged in a “Courageous Conversation?”, that explores why it is important to have the conversations that weigh you down and gives ten tips around how to move forward. Below is an excerpt.

If there is something that we genuinely want to say, chances are there is someone who genuinely needs to hear it. But too often we choose the path of safety and give up the possibility of addressing issues that undermine our relationships, limit our productivity, chip away at self-confidence and constrain opportunity. Conversations are powerful.

As Susan Scott, Author of Fierce Conversations once said, “While no one conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of your career or life, any single conversation can.” Like it or not, you build influence and “make your luck” one conversation at a time. The conversations that take the most courage – those in which you speak candidly and listen openly – are those which make the biggest impact.  They are what I call “courageous conversations,” and they create a pathway to building the relationships, influence and outcomes.

To read the rest of the article and Margie’s ten keys to speaking up about issues, click here.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Get to the Ground Truth of an Issue

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and something did not sit well with you? I’m talking about the visceral feeling in the pit of your stomach.

This week’s Fierce Tip is to obey your instinct and verbalize your concern to the person you are speaking with, so you can learn what is really happening – the ground truth.

Often we can put blinders on when it comes to certain topics and even with certain people. It’s only when we engage in the conversation with others and see their reactions that it becomes clear there might be more that needs to be uncovered and discussed.

This week when you’re having a conversation with someone, and it becomes clear that there is more than what is initially on the surface, don’t let yourself or the other person brush over what needs to be explored.

Listen to your instincts and at least articulate that you feel like you’ve just skimmed the surface. If there isn’t time to dig deeper right then, set up a time to re-visit the topic.

It may surprise you how keen your instincts are when you actually listen to them.

Fierce Resources: Political Differences Can Divide Employees

This week’s Fierce Resource was published in the Virginian-Pilot Online. The piece, Political Differences Can Divide Employees, features survey results from a recent Fierce political conversations survey.

The workplace hasn’t avoided the high-strung campaign debate polarizing the nation this year. Thirty-nine percent of people polled last month by Fierce Inc., a Seattle-based training company, said they had seen an office political discussion morph into “a personal attack.”

This article explores political conversations in the workplace and where lines should be drawn to create a comfortable environment for everyone – despite political differences.

To read the full article, click here.

How to Shift a Leader’s Negative Opinion of You

What do you do if you learn that your boss holds a negative opinion about you?

Do you avoid them at every turn and risk bodily harm so as to not have any interaction? Do you run into their office and confront them with a list of all the reasons they’re wrong?

The answer is neither. When an employee learns he or she is viewed in a less than stellar light, it can cause impulsive reactions.

In truth, when handled positively, this is a great opportunity to build the relationship with the leader that holds this context about you. Below are three tips to approach the conversation and turn a negative into a positive.

Tip #1: Be Gracious.

If you discovered that your boss has a negative opinion about you from anyone other than your boss, and you want to shift his or her perspective, you have to be sensitive to the fact that there may not be awareness of the information being shared.

While it may seem like an office politics land mine, avoidance is not the answer. In fact, even though what your leader said might be hurtful, you taking a gracious stance and approaching the conversation in a sensitive manner shows great character. It also shows that you care about the person and are willing to embrace difficult situations.

Tip #2: Schedule Time and Come Prepared.

Approaching your leader to discuss how they view you is a delicate topic and deserves quality time. This is not the conversation you start in the hallway or after a meeting.

Schedule this conversation and be prepared. Have you really explored how you feel about the opinion of you? That it was possibly shared with others? Do you think the opinion is justified and you want to improve? Do you feel it’s unfair and you want to explore how you can show this?

The reality is that this person’s perception of you is his or her reality. There is some truth to it from where your leader sits, and it is important to understand it. A conversation this complex requires the undivided attention of both parties. There are no shortcuts with this dialogue.

Tip #3: Remember It’s a Conversation Not a “Versation”.

If your goal with this talk is to prove you are right and that he or she is wrong, don’t bother. Remember that the prefix of the word conversation, con, means with in Spanish.

A conversation is a chance to be with someone – not against them. It is a time to get curious. While the opinion in question may be your leader’s, you are with them now exploring it, and if you give them no time to speak freely, it loses the with part.

If you learned your leader held a negative opinion about you, what would you do?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Join the Conversation and Vote

“Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That’s voting.” ― Robert Frost

Tomorrow in the United States, Americans take to the polls to vote. The act of casting your ballot allows you to join the conversation and choose the people and policies that represent you.

It is a moment of reflection and a time to look toward the future. It is both a private and public action that builds an emotional bond between those who participate.

This week’s Fierce tip is pretty simple – join the conversation and vote.

Have this election cycle be a time when your voice is heard. Show up and be present!

Fierce Resources: Why Managers Should Love Football Season

This week’s Fierce Resource was published yesterday on theDailyMuse website. Why Managers Should Love Football Season, was written by Fierce CEO & President Halley Bock.

In the article, she explores why managers should shift their mindset away from football season being a “time suck” and gives three tips on how to leverage the opportunity to build relationship with employees.

“First of all, if you think you can manage employee conversations, you’re playing in your own very special kind of fantasy league. Unfortunately, there can be no winners here. When employers curb the topics that are of interest to their employees, the conversations don’t stop. They just take place somewhere else. Like behind closed doors, at the water cooler, or during breaks that—all of a sudden—become longer and longer and occur more and more often. While you may think you’re nipping a potential “time suck” in the bud, you are in reality taking a bite out of productivity.”

To read the full article, click here.

3 Tips to Motivate a Multigenerational Workforce

A common question that leaders have to wrestle with is: What motivates my employees? What moves them to action? What gets their fire going?

The challenge is that even when you figure out what inspires one group of people, that very same thing may not work for another. This is never truer than across the generations.

Leaders today have the unique experience of having up to four generations working together. This trend is very likely to become the norm. Given that, as a leader, you need to motivate many generations simultaneously.

How do you do this successfully? Below are three tips to help leaders learn how to motivate a multigenerational workforce and leverage the opportunity.

Tip #1: Realize that we’re more alike than different.

In Fierce Generations, we explore the characteristics of each generation, from Traditionalists to Gen Y. Then we ask the participants to choose which of those characteristics best describe them. The answers are usually surprising. As I wrote earlier this week, I picked many characteristics commonly attributed to my grandparents’ generation. More likely than not, your workforce has more in common than they think they do. As a leader, you can boost collaboration and motivate your group as whole by highlighting these similarities.

Tip #2: Look Backwards.

When leading individuals of different generations, you have to look backwards. In order to uncover what will motivate your employees in the future, you have to examine their experiences of the past. For example, going through the Great Depression, and then WWII, heavily shaped how the Traditionalist generation views business. Now, sixty plus years later, even though the world has changed, what motivates Traditionalists is still rooted in those experiences in the past. Spending some time understanding each generation’s history helps you as a leader to better recruit, train, and retain.

Tip #3: Go to your team.

If there is discord among your workforce due to the generation gap, take a step back and make sure that one generation isn’t dominating the conversation. If one generation is dominating who is in leadership positions, ask yourself: What generational perspective is being heard most often?

The answer isn’t to promote employees into leadership roles just because of their age. Instead leaders need to create a collaborative environment by harnessing the different generation’s perspectives. In our Team Model, we encourage leaders to look at their workforce like a beach ball. Each stripe of color represents a different viewpoint. When creating policies that will incentivize or motivate employees, don’t create them in a vacuum. Instead go straight to the source and open the conversation up to those you are trying to motivate.

As a leader, how do you motivate your multigenerational workforce?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Connect with Someone from a Different Generation

When I took the Fierce Generations workshop, I was shocked to discover that, even though I am a Gen Y’er, I actually identified more closely with traits commonly associated with my grandparents’ generation.

This new realization about myself prompted me to call my grandparents and have a conversation with them to learn more about their thoughts on current events and how they viewed the world. I was surprised to discover how aligned our points of view were when it came to most social, political, economic, and pop culture topics. How we formed those opinions came from different experiences, and yet, what we value is very similar.

Even though I was close with my grandparents, prior to this conversation, I would have bet that we held opposing views on how the world should tick. What I realized was that even though two generations and 50 years separated us, the human experience is the human experience.

This week’s Fierce tip is about connecting with a different generation and getting curious. Let go of your assumptions and open yourself up to the chance to engage with someone you might not normally engage with.

This can be particularly powerful in the workplace. Multi-generational collaboration is around every corner if we only open ourselves up to the possibilities.