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Great Leaders Communicate at the Level Of Our Beliefs

  By Christina Lattimer • February 24, 2012 - 9:59 am
Understanding how people tick is essential for a leader, especially on the level of our beliefs.
Beliefs create our individual and collective worlds.  Millions of pieces of information are available to us at any one time.  Our beliefs and the parameters which are then laid down by our beliefs determine which pieces of information we receive.  Our beliefs determine which pieces of information we accept or reject.  If we don’t believe it, then we simply don’t perceive it, or won’t allow ourselves to perceive it.  In the words of the song

“No matter what they tell us

No matter what they do

No matter what they teach us

What we believe is true”

Beliefs come in all sorts of packages and create all kinds of effects in our lives.

  • When conflicting beliefs come into our awareness it can create confusion
  • Holding opposing beliefs at the same time can cause internal conflict
  • Limiting beliefs can prevent you receiving what you want
  • Subconscious beliefs appear to control your behaviour and make you feel  helpless
  • You can bring subconscious beliefs into your awareness
  • You can choose your beliefs.  No belief is ever fixed
  • The key to changing your world and experience is to change your beliefs
  • How you interpret reality around you can inform and shape your beliefs.
  • Beliefs are simply an interpretation that you choose to determine as true
  • Beliefs can be changed.

I’m not suggesting that every Leader or Manager needs to get a psychology degree.  Nor am I suggesting that it is your job to change people’s beliefs.  And certainly we need to make sure we respect people’s beliefs, particularly in the arena of equality.

So why  is an understanding about beliefs vital for people managers?  You know that your people act and react in accordance with their beliefs and uncovering those beliefs to enable positive growth is extremely powerful.    Brainwashing people or trying to force people down a different route is not ethical, and it is not what I am suggesting.  Everyone has a free will, and this must be respected.  But it is useful to know,  how and what you need to do to understand when your employees are holding unhelpful beliefs about themselves or others which can help you to influence and persuade your employees to more positive beliefs.

I’ll give you an example.  I worked hard for a couple of years engaging with a particular team and helping them to think and feel like a successful highly motivated team.  In those days I was pretty idealistic and hoped that I would win everyone over, and that everyone would enjoy working in the team.  But there was a core of people, who no matter what,  were still unhappy.  They habitually criticised and caused negative waves.  Simply put, they had fixed beliefs about their working lives and maintaining their belief was more important to them then changing beliefs.

I was talking to one of the employees who could be particularly negative.  I asked her why she seemed so resentful and was there something I was doing which was causing this particular resentment?  Her reply was a real eye-opener.  She told me that it was nothing to do with me at all.  I had come in and she observed that I was trying to get the team on board.  However, she didn’t like management, never had and never would.  She went as far as to say that nothing I would ever do would persuade her otherwise!

We did come to a somewhat uncomfortable compromise in the end, which limited her impact in terms of negativity within the team and how our relationship would work in the workplace given her fixed and unrelenting views.  Not ideal, but then, not my job to change her beliefs.

The real power of understanding beliefs and belief systems is when managers are instigating change.  Work on drawing out existing individual and team beliefs and then understanding how to help people see things through a different lens for the better within the workplace is the key to fundamental and lasting success.

Encouraging your employees to reach positive beliefs about themselves, their contribution and the meaningfulness of your vision and task are the building blocks to brilliant success.

Incidentally for the sake of clarification:  in the Equality Act; belief is defined as “including philosophical beliefs, such as humanism, which are considered to be similar to a religion. Other categories of beliefs, such as support for a political party, are not protected by the Equality Act.”

This blog underpins the work being developed for my leadership programme which will be released later this year.  If you’d like to be updated when this is available,

 

 

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Values – an Important Way of Working

  By christinapd • February 20, 2012 - 9:22 am

ValuesValues  –  A Question of Integrity

I have always been a values driven person.  During my early years I wanted to make a difference and to help people become happier and more satisfied.  As a result I went down the path of people management.   Although I found I had a gift of business acumen and creating successful teams, it was the people underneath who inspired me and where my focus lay.

I remember also a time when my intrinsic values were challenged.  A lady who I was assigned to deliver a project with had somewhat different values to me.  At that time I believed in equal opportunities for all.  I believed that fairness, openness and transparency were paramount. I realised the potential to indirectly discriminate, and also about the power of our minds to subconsciously discriminate on appearances.  I believed in being honest, doing the right thing and respecting everyone.

I also at that time thought that everyone shared some if not all of these fundamental values.  I was mistaken.  The project manager who was leading a programme I had been appointed to work on was very different from me.

Working along side this person, I recalled a story my friend had told me about a boy at her son’s school.  When caught cheating by copying some exam questions from another, his response was “its not cheating, it’s simply getting the answers by an easier route” Or words to that effect.  We laughed at his audacity.  But in my naivety I didn’t think this expedient approach would appear in my world of work.  Again I was mistaken.

The project manager I discovered was tough, ruthless and had the same principles as the boy at school.  Her philosophy was that the end justified the means.  That you sometimes had to make tough decisions which overrode any values you might have cherished upon the way.  You eye had to be on the end result and all that mattered was the result.  What’s more I found that senior managers and people of influence bowed down, respected and encouraged this approach.

For some of you reading, I guess you might think that my own values were soft and unrealistic in what can be a ruthless world.  And as I came upon this stark contrast to my own way of doing things, I spent 6 torturous months, re-evaluating my approach and what this new information meant.  It was a steep but necessary learning curve for me.  I began to doubt my own values and began to feel ineffective in the wake of someone who steam rollered over all my suggestions about how things should be done.

This period of self doubt and discomfort is often a necessary stage of learning and growth, and one which I had often sidestepped.  After all it’s much easier to make the other person wrong rather than admit you might well be.

What I learned in this time was this:

  • Examining others values and incorporating their philosophy into your own values can actually help you grow.  I am glad I didn’t reject the values I was being faced with; I learned a lot about myself and others through this process.  I would urge you to look at this in this light.
  • I always had a :  So for example, I would respect that sometimes the boundaries between my employee’s personal life and work sometimes encroached, particularly during stressful life events, but that the business could only bend so far to accommodate.  We had a business to run.  I learned that other people had a much shorter bottom line, and that was their prerogative.
  • That organisational values and ideals could and would erode when faced with crisis or major change, and that senior managers could and would often support this.  This can arise quite often when faced with a financial crisis, or a battle for survival.
  • I realised that I could respect other people’s values even when they weren’t my own.  I might not agree with them, but there were occasions when I had no choice but to accept them.

Even in times of crisis or change, your values don’t need to actually change, indeed to maintain the credibility and trust of your customers and employees; this is the time you need to demonstrate your commitment to fundamental values even more strongly.  But you must also be diligent and articulate your bottom line.  So for example, you might have a policy around family friendly policies, but that if your business is on the verge of bankruptcy, you might have to review these and ask people to do more.

The lady in question wasn’t a cheat.  She just valued outcomes more and the way people came along with the change came second.  She wasn’t dishonest, just didn’t value the input of others because it would slow the process down.   She got the job done, but she didn’t make many friends upon the way.   Did it make financial sense?  Yes in the short term.  Did it earn the respect of the employees affected?  No, not in the long or short term.

In the process of my learning, did I change my values?   A big resounding no.  I realised that a values driven approach can be seen as slow and soft.  It isn’t.  What I learned is that having a commitment to values, with a clear and transparent bottom line is essential to gaining credibility and commitment.

What I don’t do, is dismiss other people’s values because they are not the same as mine, or indeed judge them.   I consider them in the context they are being applied.  If I am working with people whose values don’t coincide with mine, I try to put myself in their shoes.  If I am standing in their shoes and still feel so uncomfortable I can’t walk, then I simply walk away, in my own shoes with my own values intact.

What do you think?  Are you able to respect others values when yours are in question?  Do you think its imperative for employers to maintain their values even in times of great change?  How important is it to have a values driven philosophy?

 

 

 

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Building Reputation Through Your Employees

  By christinapd • January 26, 2012 - 10:26 am

Building Reputation through your Employees is always the first step

It is even more important to encourage behaviours and demonstrate values which enhance your reputation.  There is a lot of competition out there.  Businesses are growing stronger through the power of networking, collaborating and becoming social.  Great businesses have already caught on to the fact that building reputation is a multi-faceted process which of course includes customers, but also stakeholders and employees.  Increasingly employees have a voice and it is being heard.

You and I both know that when we do business with a company, it’s not usually the leader or the marketing manager we are transacting with.   It is the people who work in that organisation.   We all have tales of great customer service and poor customer service.  And people in the organisation are the experience we remember.

Many of your people will be great at what they do:  Some will know what to do, but won’t always, and some will likely need more information.  In some respects the levels of ability are a bit of a red herring, because what will be infectious is your employees’ attitude about you as an employer.  I would rather have a room full of people who loved the business, bought into the concept but needed some training, than fully trained employees who were luke-warm or even disliked the organisation.

Not only will customers get the vibes off your employees; It can’t be helped, energetically we are all giving off vibes;  even more importantly, your employees are likely connected in a way they have never been before in human history.  Such is the power of social media.

Knowing that my employees were a kind of social media business card for my business could well fill me with horror.  The truth is, if as a business you make a gaffe that is newsworthy, then it’s entirely possible many many people  would know about it in seconds.  We all know bad news is inevitable.

Consider the potential for either sharing good news or bad news.   All of your employees have friends, family, social networks, whether they are online or not.  What your employees are saying about you, your business, your product, your service, is vital.

It follows that it’s increasing vital to know what you are building with your team.  What do they think? What are they saying to friends and family and potential customers about your business?

I talk to people a lot about their work.  I ask them whether they like it or not.  Whether they believe in what they do.  I can honestly say that I have met people who love what they do, they are enthusiastic, and they believe that the organisation’s mission is their mission.   These are the people we would all love to have working with us.

I have also met people who detest what they do.  They don’t buy into the company values; they don’t respect what the company does.  But they come to work because it’s a job; they need to feed their kids.  You can usually spot these people in your team.  They can’t help their attitude.  While this is a problem, it’s an easily identifiable problem, and you can do something about it.

But what about the people who are in the middle?   They quite like their job; they are rubbing along quite well.  They aren’t too bothered about what you do, it pays well, and as far as their own responsibilities go, they do what they have to do.  Are you content with the messages they are giving?  If your employees are pretty neutral about the work they do, then it will come as no surprise that those who should be the biggest resource building your reputation are not talking about your business in the way you would like.

Your employees are one of your biggest advertisements.  What they think say and do is totally representative of your organisation.  Your business is the sum total of all of your employees, like it or not.

If you don’t know what your employees think about your organisation, ask them.  Don’t make assumptions.   Just because you think your idea’s are the best thing since Edison invented the light bulb, doesn’t mean your employees share that thought. If they don’t think much of your business, then you have work to do.

 

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Strategy – Set Your SAT NAV

  By christinapd • January 20, 2012 - 4:55 pm
StrategySet  Your Strategy: Set  Your SAT NAV

I am afraid I am a strategy geek.  What’s wrong with that? You might ask.  Well nothing except when you start developing a healthy eating strategy instead of a diet, or a university funding strategy instead of saving for your child’s uni course, it’s a bit sad.

Well no, even I’m not that bad, although it’s been proven that many of us take our work pattern home with us, but that’s a whole different blog post!

I wish there were other words in the dictionary to describe strategy.  The Oxford dictionary definition of a strategy is “A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim:” Thesaurus results have unhelpful words like “plan, approach, tactic and even scheme” as alternatives. As you can see it’s very difficult to inspire you with such mundane language.

Setting a strategy that works inspires me.  I know I am in a minority about this, but please bear with me.  Setting a strategy involves so many elements and requires a sharp skillset.  If it is going to be successful that is.  If you have an organisational or team strategy and it’s lying in a drawer waiting for someone to blow the dust off it, then it probably isn’t going to work.   In reality there are many components involved in setting a strategy, too many to mention, so I will concentrate on the vital components.

So what are the vital components of a successful strategy

  • You have to have vision.  If you want to achieve something, then you need to be able to describe, what it looks like, where it is, who is involved, when you want it to happen.  You need to be able to see it, hear it, feel it, smell it and taste it.  You need to be able to describe your vision so it becomes real in your imagination.  Once you have visualised what you want and articulated, this then becomes your goal.   It’s pinpointing exactly where you want to go and every strategy needs at least one.
  • The next part is to plan out how you are going to get to your goal.  Now I know from experience that we are all different.  Some of us love detailed plans with lots of milestones and deadlines.  Others like some key milestones along the way, and don’t want to bother too much with the detail.    Some of us don’t need a plan at all, but that might be a leap of faith too far unless you and your team are wholly committed.  The truth is, the structure of the plan doesn’t matter too much.  If you think about most projects or outcomes you have delivered, there are many ways to skin a cat, or many different routes you could have gone down to get there.   The real trick about having a plan is twofold. Firstly it keeps you focused on achieving the outcomes and secondly, it keeps you moving forward.   That’s why a plan is essential; however you want to detail it.
  • You need someone to make sure you achieve the milestones and to review what is happening so that you can keep on track.  The owner of the strategy needs to be an opportunist and be innovative.  These skills are absolutely necessary when the original plan of how to get there becomes unstuck. The owner will always navigate you back to the right road, so that you will get to the right destination or achieve the right goal.
  • You need to check on progress, and this is preferably someone different from the owner.  Someone who can provide a fresh pair of eyes, or a different perspective, but someone who also wants to reach the goal as passionately as the owner.   In other words your back seat driver.
  • And finally, you need to be able to feel the discomfort of uncharted terrain.  If the plan doesn’t unfold the way you thought and the route you planned out doesn’t look like you imagined it would, don’t panic and stop.  Don’t go back to the beginning either.  You need to trust that sometimes unfamiliar territory is exactly what you need in order to get where you need to go.

So my proposal as a new term for strategy is as you will have guessed by now “SAT NAV.”

You pop in your postcode (goal)

You have a general idea about the direction, timing and route, so you can take money for petrol, or time for a loo break etc. etc. (a plan)

You start driving.  When you take a wrong turn, the SAT NAV prompts you and takes you back to your original route.  (owner)

Your back seat driver will observe as you are driving

A great strategy is like correctly setting your SAT NAV.  You need to be able to trust it will get you where you want to be, you must enjoy the journey, but be vigilant about taking wrong turns.  You need to be flexible about taking another route if you do take a wrong turn.  Sometimes your plans will have to be changed if you want to reach your goals on time.  After all if you’ve ever put in the wrong post code, then you will know how long sometimes it takes to dawn on you that you are going the wrong way.

 

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Employee Surveys, 10 Ways They Fail

  By christinapd • January 14, 2012 - 11:30 am

Employee SurveysEmployee surveys can be costly mistakes

Despite the heading, I do not advocate ditching your employee survey.  Employee surveys are great ways to find out globally what your employees think about your organisation, their experience as an employee and also how bought into your vision, values, mission etc they are.

The problem is that an employee survey can become the big elephant in the room and create even more embedded views by the very people who should be advocating your business.  If your employees feel obliged, or even worse cynical about completing an employee survey, then you should be picking this up from the survey results or lack of them.

I once ran an employee survey for an organisation about how well a team was doing “living” their vision and values.  One of the values was, “Employees views will be surveyed about how well we are doing.”   You would think that the team would rate that quite well, given they were going through an exercise which was doing just that.  But no, about a third of the employees voted negatively; the team weren’t living up to that value.   You can’t get away from the fact that, their denial was pointing to a deeper problem.

I have heard many managers dismiss employee surveys.  If they don’t believe in them, well you can’t blame their staff.

So if your employee survey displays any of the following characteristics, my advice to you is to ditch it and start again.

  1. You have a lower than 70% return rate
  2. If the focus of the survey is to get a good response rate
  3. If more than 50% of your staff state in the survey that they don’t believe something will be done about the results of the survey
  4. If your managers believe that employee surveys are a waste of time
  5. If following the survey, there is no real or lasting research or work completed on the results
  6. If the questions on the employee survey don’t actually tell you anything meaningful
  7. If you don’t give your employees dedicated time to complete the survey
  8. If the employee survey is your only means of getting staff feedback
  9. If you dismiss even one single response in the survey as being a whinge
  10. If your managers don’t understand or aren’t mature enough to deal with the negative results from a staff survey and turn it into a positive experience.

I hope you found my list useful.  If you have any reasons to add, or any views, I’d love to hear from you.

 

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If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.