Archive for the ‘Workplace Satisfaction’ Category
Listening Skills and Executive Personal Development, Addendum
There were some lovely gems from the cadre of leaders that are worthwhile to share. The responses didn’t fit into any of the three questions asked, but they add insight from the people who took a few minutes to be with us.
Before we get to those gems, following are some answers to queries about the group’s average age, gender, geography, kind of jobs, how I know these folks.
- While I don’t know everyone’s age, I’d say the range is early 40’s to mid 60’s and the average somewhere in the 50’s.
- Seven males and four females.
- European and North American by current location, although most of the group has worked or resided in every continent (well, not sure about Antarctica) during the span of their career.
- Their current job titles are listed with their names, but I’d venture to say there’s hardly an organizational job that hasn’t been held within the group.
- I know each person well enough through coaching, collaboration or referrals, to be confident that these are the right leaders to interview about personal development.
The gems:
- Oh, and I like myself better too.
- The more I work on myself the more positive the atmosphere around me.
- I went on a retreat, no phones, computers, music—you get it, no technology. I nearly bailed, but I’m so glad I stuck it out. For the first time in my adult life I looked inward, didn’t necessarily like the future I saw, and resolved to be a much more compassionate person and conscious, caring leader.
- Listening to other’s views whether they are colleagues, customers or family members is often missed.
- This work opens up new doors—everywhere.
- When I retired (the first time), I heard over and over, “You are the best boss I ever had.” I know that’s true because when I moved from job-to-job some people came with me and others asked if they could.
- My job security comes from the success of others.
- Every time I’m in a new role I have to do more to adjust my style to others than to expect them to adjust to me.
- My son, just one year out of college, is in a management program and they’re starting him on this journey. He’s so fortunate.
- I never thought that awakening could happen in the workplace—it has.
- For twenty-five years I’d say I was committed to the job. I still am, but this year, 2012, the focus is on me.
- Everyone should live and work in another country some time in their careers. I can’t even begin to tell you all the things I learned, but a big one is that my job was to translate centralized organizational decisions to the local customs. Some goals from corporate cannot/should not be applied locally. Try to sell that upstream—that takes skilled leadership!
- Don’t turn away from the gifts that are presented to you.
Listening Skills and Executive Personal Development, Part 1 of 3
During my debrief conversation with a senior executive who took our Hear! Hear? Your Listening Portfolio® assessment I was amazed at how much he knew about the brain. He told me that he decided some time ago to make changes in the way he interacted with people, and to do that he had to learn about many aspects of human development.
Our conversations so piqued my curiosity that I wanted to know what factors caused many of the leaders I’ve worked with to travel on their own personal development journey. So, I asked a dozen successful leaders I know if they would answer a couple of questions, and I promised it would take about 15 minutes.
Following is a compilation of their answers, without identifying who said what. There are recurring themes as well as one-offs. My goal is to share their interesting reflections for others to be able to examine how they might answer the questions.
The names and titles of the people who responded are at the end of the document. We all owe them a big “huzzah” for taking the time and effort to reflect and share a bit of their stories with us.
The questions:
- What prompted you to engage in a personal development journey?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- How has your personal development journey impacted your work?
Note: Some people stuck to all three questions, others went off in a different direction. Everyone answered the first question. Each of the three posts will address one question.
What prompted you to engage in a personal development journey?
Themes and quotes:
“Personal development occurs when you are exposed to new people and new challenges.”
Being a better person
- The more responsibility I have in my job, the more I want to be a good human being, father, husband/wife, manager
- I must learn about myself to be a role model for others
- I can’t stand executives who send others off to training without diving in themselves
- When I help others, I feel so much more valuable
- I had a boss (another said mentor) who made me realize I want to operate in a way that is beyond the norm
Lifelong commitment
- I don’t remember ever being any different
- Not one single thing prompted the journey, but I knew I was ready
- Life is a learning journey—that’s my philosophy
- I get a THRILL out of learning especially when I come upon something I don’t know so I can go learn it
- Einstein said his success was less about brilliance than about passion
- When I was a kid and in sports I did what the coach told me, and that lead to success, so I’ve done that ever since. Now I continue to earn the right to coach others.
Turning point
- You get to a point you want to learn more because there’s something propelling you to do better
- I switched out of teaching where I had the authority into HR working with front line people where I was not an authority. I had to help them succeed while learning to go from “sage on stage to guide on side.”
- I got to a point where I needed to know/learn more. It was like I entered a hallway and six doors opened, then they led to six more—like a Pandora’s box of learning
- Being put into new scenarios that are new/foreign. You have to develop, personally and professionally
- When I was 6-7 years old my grandfather said I was too young to saddle-break a horse. I had to show him I could—I’m still at it—conquering challenges
- I concluded I needed to be a different person to do the kind of work I wanted to do
- I took a job at a company that was #1 in sales training, and then I was tapped to be a sales trainer for them. That opportunity offered a lot of personal development for me and everyone I came to manage.
- I’d say that a super-challenging event often propels people towards self-examination. It could be a role in transition, derailment, surprising failure, no longer having all the answers—the trick is to recognize it’s happening
Feedback
- It’s hard to hear someone say you’re not very approachable or flexible. Those words, plus being told I had the makings of a great manager, propelled me into personal development.
- There’s no easy way to say this, but my boss told me, “You act like a jerk sometimes. Fix it if you want to be here next year.”
- I took a workshop, and when we were deep into it, the leader said, “You don’t flex your curiosity muscle.” That shifted everything for me.
- To recognize strengths and flaws in others, I had to see into myself first
- When people have gone through a good bit of a career with little disturbance, and then those reliable behaviors aren’t working anymore, they need to ask: how do I adapt, what do I need to change, what happened?
No option
- When I was nine I was sent off to boarding school, on my own and cut off from parents—sink or swim, and swim I did. I learned how to be self-reliant. Now I’m having to unlearn some of those behaviors to function at a higher level.
- Management sent me to a workshop that had a lot of personal development built in. While there I learned about myself and others. As a result I sought out a coach and continue the efforts.
- Immersion into another culture leaves little choice. The new culture can be another part of the world, department, company, and that change presents a whole other world to examine.
And a couple mentioned by only one person:
- Unplugging. Stepping away from the hyper-plugged in world allows something else to drop in. That changed direction.
- Many people will not admit to being quite lonely as a CEO or as President. It is refreshing to meet with Peers from sometimes very different backgrounds. One can hear from others what their main challenge and successes have been and more importantly how they dealt with these.
Following are the names and titles of the executives who shared their insights:
- David Carder, VP, Executive Consultant, The Forum Corporation
- Iain Duffin, Chairman Origo Service Group Edinburgh, Non Executive Director of the Scottish Leather Group and Director of IDD Associates Ltd.
- Carol Ryan Ertz, AVP, Enterprise Leadership Development, Unum Corporation
- Ron Griffiths, CEO Network Green Deal Ltd and RG Direct Association Ltd.
- Larry Hart, Chair, Vistage International
- Jim Mikula, Managing Director, Hotel Madeline and Inn at Lost Creek
- Susan Moseley, VP Member Service Corporation, NFIB
- Vivien Price, VP Solutions Design, The Forum Corporation
- Helaine Suval, President and Founder for Suval Consultants
- Frank van Dyke, Regional Marketing Leader, GE Oil & Gas
Elon Musk, Simplicity and My Soapbox
Elon Musk at the Tesla grand opening in Menlo Park. Photo taken by Brian Solis.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, as reported in Time Magazine, June 18, 2012, successfully launched and landed a rocket, in record time and with streamlined resources. While I read the article I kept correlating the situation with my thinking about workplace productivity.
It’s perfectly clear to me that communication is a major factor in their ability to pull off such an impressive fete. I hope I can make the connection for you.
First of all, there’s Musk’s call for simplicity: “If you want to change something or fix something, just stalk to Elon. It keeps the signal-to-noise ration high.” When the lines of communication are narrow like that, there’s less room for misinterpretation. Think of how different it would be in many organizations if an employee has a question and can go to the person who is most equipped to answer it, rather than to someone designated on the org chart.
Simplicity also shows up in design. I’m not as interested in the mechanics of the rocket as I am in the process behind arriving at those mechanics. They’ve hired people from other venues who had to have prior experience with bloated and convoluted decision-making, so what’s different here that there’s so little bureaucracy? Musk says, People ask how it’s possible to be safer but also more cost-effective. It’s possible because complexity is the enemy of both.” At his three companies the norm is to ask questions, inquire, debate, prototype, problem-solve, challenge until everything is stripped down to the essence—the simplest form. From there they build, adding as little as possible to achieve the required results.
I know all this because Tesla Motors used to have a showroom here in Boulder, and I had the opportunity, as a member of International Business Circle, to spend an evening with some headquarters staff people and Elon on the phone (he could not attend in person because he was in a tobogganing accident). No doubt what he told us about the development of the Tesla automobiles applies to all his ventures.
Secondly, there’s consistency of purpose. I know some people who work at NASA and they talk about constant changes in messages, decisions, and priorities. In Musk’s case, although I don’t know this first-hand, there’s a clear direction and unwavering drive to arrive at it. “I believe,” says Musk, “that I have a design in mind that would enable the colonization of Mars.” Remind you of John F Kennedy’s famous race-to-the-moon speech?
Finally, there’s the Control issue. When I’m on my soapbox I say that Creativity loves Structure and hates Control. Most of the employees of SpaceX don’t have offices, including Musk, but they have discipline, rigor and priorities, so they don’t have to spend their creative juices trying to figure out boundaries. They don’t have creative constraints and rules, rules, rules, so there’s little that gets in their way towards innovation.
Streamlined, uncluttered, open communication is worth billions of dollars.
How do you think this kind of work environment would effect listening skills?
Tortoise and Hare Listening: Defining Listening Skills
Recently when I was conducting a webinar, one of the very insightful participants surfaced a great question: “What’s the right pace for good listening? Since we can listen faster than we can talk, what’s the best balance?” After some probing we determined that what he was really asking was just how much attention must be paid in an interaction before the interaction is too long and interest wanes.
While there’s not a formula for balancing listening to speaking, our webinar attendees did consider who wins the listening race—the tortoise-listener who moves slowly and deliberately, missing very little on the way to gaining complete understanding; or the hare-listener who moves swiftly in preparation to decision-making and action.
The tortoise-listener is the embodiment of the “move slow to go fast” rule. She asks many questions, gathers facts and data, digs for underlying motivations and concerns, and weaves it all together to develop the most comprehensive thorough understanding of the situation before making recommendations or developing a plan.
The hare-listener is seen more commonly in organizations. He asks just enough questions and gathers just enough evidence to make a decision or plan and recommend his ideas as the best path forward.
Can’t you see them both in a meeting? The hare loses patience with the plodding approach of the tortoise, rolls his eyes, fidgets in his seat, checks email, and tunes out. The tortoise looks stoic, ignores the hare’s obvious frustration, and continues to seek more information. Both are convinced they’re right and that the other doesn’t listen. By the end of the meeting, one usually wears down the other, collaboration hasn’t happened, and it’s doubtful they’ve arrived at the best results.
Our webinar group decided the only way to get these two polar opposites to work effectively together is to acknowledge their differences at the start and develop some listening ground rules. (I need to think about what those ground rules might be and I’ll write them up in the next post—it would be great if we could develop a community list.) When teams have taken Hear! Hear? and seen their group reports, they inevitably come away with much deeper appreciation of how their listening styles impact communication. The tortoises and the hares can talk about the consequences of too much inspection or too much speed and how to balance their tendencies to arrive at best fit for the situation.
Too fast and the hare-listeners finish ahead of everyone else, alone and without enough fuel to run the next race. Too slow and the tortoise-listeners cross the finish line after everyone else has gone on to the next race.
The Classic Trap of Experience—Listening Case
Jonathan, the senior VP of Sales, and Francesca, the senior VP of Marketing, have had a contentious relationship for the year Jonathan has been in his job. At first their peers thought it was a matter of getting clear about roles, responsibilities and territory, and that it would smooth over, especially since working with Francesca was never a problem.
Yesterday at an Executive Committee meeting, Francesca presented three ideas for a new marketing campaign and asked the EC for feedback. Jonathan swiveled in his chair and said, “There’s nothing new here. We did almost the exact same things at my last company without success. Why didn’t you come to me beforehand? I could have saved you a lot of time and effort.”
Everyone in the room was stunned. The CEO pulled himself together and said, “Jonathan, let’s hear Francesca out, then we can discuss the ideas. Your response seems hasty.”
Unfortunately, interactions like those happen much too often in the workplace. Of course, there’s more than one explanation for what happened, but a big one is that Experience gets in the way of Listening. Because Jonathan sees himself as an expert, he reverts to what he knows and closes off new information that doesn’t match with anything in his past that has brought success.
Some considerations:
- New information is perceived to be a threat to what has been tried and made true
- Prior experience has been repeated enough to be trusted
- It takes time and effort to assimilate new information
- Success speaks for itself; there’s no need to start again from the beginning
- Reputation is built upon replicating winners
What advice do you have for the people in this case?
Scary Statistics about How Employees View the Workplace
While I’m skeptical when shown absolute numbers about the condition of the workplace, I do accept the premise behind them: few people are really happy at work.
Following are some of the dismal figures from studies:
Towers-Watson, Global Workforce Study
- 20% are engaged (they don’t say though that 80% are disengaged)
- 50% don’t feel inspired by leaders
- 53% don’t feel leaders are trustworthy
- 58% don’t think senior management cares about talent development
- 61% don’t think leaders deal effectively with poor performers
- 62% don’t feel leaders have interest in their well-being
Gallup, Workplace Study
- 49% are not engaged and 18% are actively disengaged
- $350 billion per year cost of disengaged workers to the US economy
Great Places to Work Institute
650% ROI to stockholders from the organizations on their list
There is:
- Low turnover
- High engagement
- Constant innovation and agility
- Ever-growing customer satisfaction
The numbers in these studies don’t tend to change year-after-year, nor do the questions asked that determine the answers. Still, some other findings do support the results. When people are exchanged from the best to the worst places to work, they change. There’s evidence that says when top performers are put into a low performing environment, they gradually falter and fail. But there aren’t a lot of studies done on the poor performers going to a top-notch outfit. Have you known people who said they were failing where they worked before coming to your organization and flourishing? Share those stories.
I tend to believe that the purpose in life and leadership is creating value. I once heard a very inspiring motto that I feel is the best way to articulate that belief and be a positive influence, anywhere/anytime.
What choice can I make and action can I take, in this moment, to create the greatest value?
My choice was to write this post to you, someone who is not one of the negative statistics, but someone who adds value.