Susan Scott's Blog, page 97

3 Tips for Leaders to Avoid Insanity

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

-Albert Einstein

As a leader, have you ever tried to solve the same problem the same exact way over and over again?

In hindsight it might seem insane, however, in the moment the plan was set forth with great intentions and a level head. So where is the disconnect? How can we make sure that when we come back to the drawing board we don’t keep doing the same thing we did before?

Below are 3 proactive tips to help innovate with intention for your own sanity.

Tip #1: Mix It Up

In the Fierce Team model, we focus on seeking out different, competing perspectives from team members. This skill set can be incredibly useful when problem solving. In order to make sure, as a leader, you keep your wits about you, if your first attempt fails, invite a fresh set of eyes to the table to help create another solution. Want to get even more creative? Choose a perspective you feel would really push your comfort zone. The point of view might save you time and money.

Tip #2: Check for Understanding

Have you ever overheard a conversation and noticed how common it is for all of us to speak in generalities? The devil is in the details and those are often overlooked. If you want to make sure you don’t repeat your efforts and solve a problem the exact same way, check that you are hearing those around you correctly and that everyone is on the same page.

Tip #3: Let People Know Where They Stand

When delegating responsibilities on a project, don’t make assumptions that your team understands what responsibilities they own and have the authority to move on. There should be clarity about what decisions they need to check in with you about. Make it clear upfront. This allows your team the flexibility to innovate and think outside the box.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Conversations Influence Change

How people react to change all depends on their perspective. Whether they are excited or anxious, insecure or prepared, those beliefs and feelings are influenced by the conversations you, as a leader, have with them during a transition.

This week’s Fierce tip encourages those leading any type of change management  to reach out and provide a place for others to give feedback. It’s helpful to look at the word Conversation and break it down. In Spanish, the “con” prefix means with. Take that awareness into your interactions this week.  And when you are having conversations about change your team is going through, really be with them.

Anxiety, insecurity, and resistance are all symptoms of feeling unheard.

So this week, engage your team and ask each of them: As we go through this adjustment what is the most important thing to you that we should talk about?

Don’t lead the conversation to where you want it to go. Instead, stop, listen, and be present.

Fierce Tip of the Week:Conversations Influence Change

How people react to change all depends on their perspective. Whether they are excited or anxious, insecure or prepared, those beliefs and feelings are influenced by the conversations you, as a leader, have with them during a transition.

This week’s Fierce tip encourages those leading any type of change management  to reach out and provide a place for others to give feedback. It’s helpful to look at the word Conversation and break it down. In Spanish, the “con” prefix means with. Take that awareness into your interactions this week.  And when you are having conversations about change your team is going through, really be with them.

Anxiety, insecurity, and resistance are all symptoms of feeling unheard.

So this week, engage your team and ask each of them: As we go through this adjustment what is the most important thing to you that we should talk about?

Don’t lead the conversation to where you want it to go. Instead, stop, listen, and be present.

Fierce Resources: How to Confront: 3 Traps to Avoid

This week the Fierce blogs focused on resolving outstanding conflict and how to resolve conflict across generational lines. To keep the momentum g oing and to encourage you to have those difficult conversations, this week’s Fierce Resource is How to Confront: 3 Traps to Avoid, written by Fierce CEO & President, Halley Bock, and was first published on the Fierce blog.

“There are two places where confrontation can go seriously awry. The first is when you initially confront someone and deliver your message. Hopefully, you’ve done your homework around this and are using the 60-second Opening Statement from our Confrontation Model. If you are, congratulations! You’ve avoided pitfall #1. The second opportunity for things to go sideways is immediately after Step #1 above. Sorry folks, no one said this would be easy! The great news is that navigating the whitewater is simple once you’re aware of the upcoming traps.”

To read the full blog, click here.

Resolving Conflict Across Generational Lines

We should all work in a multi-generational organization. Whether it is decision-making or brainstorming, there is so much richness and wisdom that comes from soliciting different perspectives.

However, with all the positives that come from the different generations working together, there are also unique challenges. Difficult conversations are necessary to a business’ success across generational lines.

Why does it sometimes feel harder to confront an issue when it’s with someone of another generation?

Typically, we sidestep having the conversation because confronting behavioral or attitudinal issues is just not fun to do. Add on that you need to confront someone of a different generation who reports to you or someone who has been in the field longer than you have been alive, and you have a situation that is appealing to avoid.

What’s the problem with avoiding these conversations?

First, the issue will not just go away. The unresolved conflict will remain until it is fully addressed. Rarely do issues resolve themselves. Second, your generational difference will always exist. If you lead millennials, they’ll always be millennials. It is important to learn how to work with them and that includes how to confront them.

In Fierce Generations, we have an exercise centered on values. The purpose is to see how your values align with common values of the different generations. Doing an exercise like this with a multi-generational team is beneficial on many levels. With any team it always helps to see how you are alike and to understand how to deal with differences.

Perhaps in the exercise you learn that most of your baby boomers hold Gen Y values. Taking a deeper dive as a leader can strip away any preconceived idea you might have about someone based on their generation. When you understand the values of the person you are confronting, their generation becomes secondary.

As a leader, how do you resolve conflict with someone from another generation?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Resolve Your Outstanding Conflict

In our Fierce Conversations training, the Confrontation model is typically the first module people want to know about. No office, no life for that matter, is without conflict.

If you’re a leader you should consider your team a great success if there is discord, if people challenge one another’s ideas, if leaders address behavioral and attitude issues.

This week’s Fierce tip encourages you to begin to resolve any outstanding conflict you have by having the confrontation conversation. If you need some tips, check out Fierce President and CEO, Halley Bock’s blog here.

The cost for keeping this conflict unresolved is large for your company and yourself. The most poignant takeaway the first time I went through Fierce Confrontation was this: It is not the conversation we have that should alarm us; it’s the ones we don’t have that should scare us to our core.

So, what can you move to resolve?

Fierce Resources: Daniel Pink: New Rules on Being Successful in Sales

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published Wednesday, on Mathew E. May’s American Express, Open Forum page. Daniel Pink: New Rules on Being Successful in Sales, is an insightful interview with author, speaker and entrepreneur, Daniel Pink.

In the piece Daniel Pink speaks to his new book, To Sell is Human, and how one in nine of us earn our living selling a product, service or experience. What struck us about this piece is how relationship-focused the new way of selling has to be. In Fierce Negotiations, we focus on having the conversations to build the relationship, so you can negotiate in a way that actually enriches the relationship, while getting needs met on some level for both sides.

“In the U.S., we’ve got one in nine workers who earn their livings selling products, services or experiences. That’s a lot of people. But the bigger story is that those other eight in nine are also in sales. They’re spending huge amounts of their time on the job—upwards of 40 percent on average—persuading, influencing and convincing others. Thanks to a host of forces, “moving” others is a big part of what they do on the job. Nowhere is this truer than for entrepreneurs and small-business owners.”

To read the full interview, click here.

What Can Limits Offer Us?

I remember in school when an essay was assigned, and it limited us to 500 words. I felt so trapped by the few paragraphs on my page. I let my mind wander to what I could do with 1,000 words.

I run into similar situations now in the workplace when I need to figure out a solution to a problem and stay within a budget or time frame. My gut reaction is to push back on these restrictions, to imagine what could be built with twice the money and time.  I think about how easy it would be to solve a problem at least five other ways without these limitations.

However, the real question is: What does having these limitations offer us?

Limits make our grand ideas actionable. Think of your limits as tools you have been given to build your solution. Sure, it’s easy to think about how you could solve any problem with a premier $30,000 solution, and if the budget is only $500, the challenge will then be how to get the same or near the same results with less? While this may seem daunting, when dealing with limits we can take a tip from MacGyver and make something happen from the unexpected.

So next time you have a problem and feel trapped by your limits, think about how you can redefine them and use them to help build a stronger solution. How can the same budget push you to be creative with the resources that you already have?

You may just wind up discovering a totally new way of doing things.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Embrace Limitations

We all work within limitations. They determine what we can or can’t do, how much we can or can’t spend, how short or long it takes to accomplish a goal.

How we react to our limitations depends on our perspective.

This week’s tip is to embrace limits in the pursuit of creative freedom. What if, when you were given a limitation you viewed it as an opportunity to innovate and be creative in a way you would have never tried if you had unlimited budget, time, energy, or resources.

Limitations push our creative boundaries. They can push us to gather different perspectives, to collaborate, listen, and think of an unconventional solution.

So, are you embracing your limits?

Fierce Resources: A Simple Rule to Eliminate Useless Meetings

This week’s Fierce Resource was first written by LinkedIn CEO, , and was published on his LinkedIn Influencer page. A Simple Rule to Eliminate Useless Meetings, provides insight on how to take your organizations meetings from a presentation to a discussion.

Similar to what we explore in our Fierce Team Model, Jeff explores how when you use meetings as a time to look at multiple competing realities, ask the group for specific feedback, and speak to deliverable/next steps there is a much higher satisfaction level with how the time was spent.

“Ask your team to identify their biggest productivity killer and inevitably two issues will rise to the top of the list: managing their inboxes and their meeting schedules…At LinkedIn, we have essentially eliminated the presentation…With the presentation eliminated, the meeting can now be exclusively focused on generating a valuable discourse: Providing shared context, diving deeper on particularly cogent data and insights, and perhaps most importantly, having a meaningful debate.”

To read the full article, click here.