Centered Leaders and Criticism

Do you think it's the role of a leader to criticize?

There is a big difference between analyze and criticize. Leaders do have the responsibility to provide clarity to their teams, and clarity requires a certain level of analysis.

But to criticize implies a tearing down, tearing apart, deconstructing of performance that may contain some nuggets of use but truck loads of side-effects. How do YOU like to be relentlessly criticized?

You can always find things to criticize if that's what you're looking for. That does not build confidence or strength in your team.

What does build confidence and strength?

- Debriefing team members on what went RIGHT
- Building a culture of continuous improvement
- Providing opportunities for people to operate from their strengths
- Knowing the strengths of your people
- Developing people
- Providing frequent, instant feedback (and finding more positive points than critical ones)

What other ways can you think of to build confidence and strength on your team?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Learn more in the workshop: Communicating for Results

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No Complete Failure

"Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker." -- Zig Zigler You know that we can learn from our mistakes. You might also know that failure carries many valuable lessons. I like the expression that comes from NLP (Neurolistic Programing) "there is no failure, only feedback." There's always something to learn. Any effort that results in learning is not a complete failure. So it's up to us. While we would never choose to fail at anything (oh horrors!) sometimes we will. Whether we learn or not is completely up to us. Find the learning. Find the success. What have you learned today? -- Doug Smith

Leading Relationships

While looking for something else, l found this quote: "Appreciate you without judging. Join you without invading, Invite you without demanding. Leave you without guilt." -- Virginia Satir It reminded me that part of a leader's role is in leading relationships. That's not the same as directing or controlling them. Leading relationships has more to do with taking personal responsibility for what you bring to a relationship -- whether that's at work, in the community, at home...anywhere. Relationships can not be taken for granted. To truly lead, we must remain attentive to the kinds of relationships we are co-creating. Appreciate you without judging We don't always have the answer, but we usually think that we do. Effective leaders listen with their whole being. We bring our soul to the game. We wait to be touched before reaching out to correct. We appreciate and allow for differences. Courageous leaders correct dangerous situations, but hold ...

Extremes

Do you know what it is like to work for an unreasonable boss? When no matter what you do is ever good enough it can become demotivating, even crippling. We do need to challenge our teams, but not to esteem crushing extremes. Unreasonable expectations cause disappointment. High performance? Yes. Perfect performance? Not attainable. -- doug smith

Talk About What Scares You

Have you ever avoided talking to someone about something? You know it's important. You know it's likely on their mind. Until you talk about it nothing will change. And yet, there's so much anxiety or apprehension attached to the result or the relationship that you both keep quiet. Things don't change until you talk about them. Fear about talking about something is usually unfounded. Maybe we're shy. Maybe we feel unqualified. Maybe we don't want to feel pushy. I've been in those types of situations and what I've discovered is the conversation is usually nothing at all to fear. What tends to happen is a great sense of relief from getting the subject out in the open, real progress on the issue at hand, and a deepening of the relationship. What will it take to talk about the things you're afraid to talk about? If we want to communicate for results, we need to find ways to overcome our fears. -- Douglas Brent Smith

Win The Game

It would be nice to win the game. But, do you ever feel like you're in a game that keeps shifting the rules and making it easy to make progress but impossible to win? You've probably noticed lots of game elements creeping into service. Points, incentives, expiring coupons followed by new expiring coupons, leader-boards...on an on a relentless attack on service comes from playing a game designed -- you guessed it -- to maximize profit. If the customer is happy, fine, but the point is to make money. Not to put too fine a point on it but that's a lousy point. What if there could be something better? What if customer service excellence became playing a game where the customer always wins and that makes you happy? You don't have to. "give away the store" to achieve a winning game for all of the players. Just stop stacking the rules against customers and watch how much more they will want to do business with you. -- doug smith

What to Blame

It's better to blame the product than it is to blame the customer because you cannot fix the customer. -- doug smith

The Benefits of Supervisory Training

When was the last time you had any leadership training? How often do the supervisors in your organization get training? If you are like most organizations, it's never enough. Some teams go without any supervisory training at all and expect supervisors and managers to learn as they go, on the job. Unfortunately, while it is memorable to learn from your mistakes, it comes at a high cost. People get tired. People leave. Important accounts go away. Customers complain. And teams struggle without the skills and knowledge it takes to build cohesive teams that are capable of solving problems, improving performance and achieving goals. Admittedly, I can be expected to support training since I'm in the business. Still, take a closer look at your own leadership career and decide for yourself. Are leaders better off with more training and development or with less? Supervisory training can generate benefits that pay off long after the training is over. Here are just a few of the things sup...

One Kind of Choice

It is not always the answer, but surprisingly often it is: It's easier to hire a motivated worker than it is to motivate an unmotivated one. That's not the end of the story. It could be great hiring advice though. Whatever the technical skills are for people you are interviewing to hire, be sure to ask some questions about motivation that can't be answered with a yes or no. Questions like: When were you the most motivated in your life? What kinds of work motivate you? What's your approach to a work day when for one reason or another you don't feel very motivated? If you had been here for one week, what would we see that shows us how motivated you are? Start there, and follow-up with more questions. Give each candidate time to convince you whether or not they will bring motivation to your organization. You can teach people almost anything, but it's always easier if they are already motivated. -- doug smith

Big Problems, Big Success

Is it hard to see the value in problems? No one asks for problems. But the really big ones offer great opportunity for change. The really big problems create such a disturbance that the status quo just won't do. We do something about them. Sometimes a box full of problems can lead to a warehouse full of success. One solution leads to another. One burst of creativity builds more capacity. New standards are set and people grow. Where are you in your box of problems? -- Doug Smith

Keep Perspective On Your Problems

Do your problems ever seem bigger than they really are? It could be a wonderful day filled with opportunities and fascinating connections with other people and someone we get fixed on a problem that gives us permission to feel unhappy. That seems like a poor choice to me. I've done it though. Have you? One thing I've learned about my problems -- even as I work to solve them -- is to keep them in perspective. Compared to other problems, how do they look? Compared to other people's situations, how dire is this really? Especially knowing that with the right process and resources I'll be no doubt solving my problem, what exactly is troubling me? I served for a while as a volunteer fire fighter. There's nothing quite like moving into a burning building or carrying a power saw on a roof to cut a hole in the top so the fire can get out to give you a sense of perspective. Suddenly, the little problems of the day fade away. My oldest son is a paramedic. Every tim...

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