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Is your workplace plagued with petty behaviour?  Is your team culture negative and filled with too much stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with getting the job done? 

As ever I would love to hear your thoughts…

Jules

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If, like me, you are one of the 2.5 million viewers of the Channel 4 programme Undercover Boss I wonder how many of you reflect on this programme in relation to your own workplace?  I’m sure you do.  The comparisons will be really easy to make.

I love the fact that someone deserving gets something nice at the end of the programme.  I usually think  ‘oooh how lovely’ and have a bit of a cry.

However, if every CEO and Managing Director in the country really wanted to know what was happening on the ‘coal face’ in their organisation it’s extremely unlikely that they would be able to disguise themselves sufficiently with a new haircut and a pair of glasses if there were only 20 people in the company.

Good CEO’s and Managing Director’s recognise that without their people not a lot actually happens in their organisation and it’s in their interest to know how staff feel and what it’s really like to work for the company.  However, how do they find out if they can’t get an offer of a TV crew and some plastic surgery?

My experience tells me that the only sure way to know how your people are feeling is to ask them.  I don’t mean staff surveys that give people limited choices in what they’re allowed to answer or suggestion boxes that can be percieved as paying lip service to listening.  What I’m suggesting is that each person in the organisation is given the opportunity to express their views about how they feel and what they would like to see improved and what follows is an active exploration of those views with some clearly owned actions and some resulting activity.

Resulting action is critical to ensure, again, that you haven’t conducted a ‘lip service’ activity.  ‘Actions speak louder than words’ is a great maxim to live by.

There may be things that we don’t want to hear, that make us feel uncomfortable but we all know that a ‘clearing of the air’ is generally a good thing to do.  Obviously this needs to be done with respect, care and compassion but adopting this approach will pay huge dividends.  There may be issues raised where it’s just not possible to effect change but if you know about it you can at least provide an explanation of why it can’t be changed.

As your organisation expands and a few more layers of management structure become necessary it becomes even more essential that you, as the leader of your organisation, have fostered an open, honest and direct culture.

I have been working with a manager recently who told me about his team of ‘complainers and whiners’.  When I asked him to write down what they were complaining about the piece of paper I gave him stayed blank.  He explained that he didn’t know one thing they complained about because he had learned how to cut the conversation short assuming that all they were doing was complaining.  Further exploration revealed that there were actually some real, if fairly minor, business issues that needed to be addressed.  Even if the eventual outcome wasn’t what the individual was looking for they would at least be able to see that a genuine attempt at finding a resolution had been made.  This improved relationships dramatically.

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to listen to them.  Really listen.  How often have you felt that you wanted to get a really important point across but you knew the person that could make a real difference wasn’t listening?  From a human perspective it’s soul destroying.  From business perspective it can build a culture of mistrust, demotivation and stress.

How does your organisation ensure that you know how your staff feel?  I would love to hear your views and hopefully you won’t have to go undercover to know how your people feel about working in your company.

Jules

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In this video Jules asks how do you deal with stresses of birthday cake buying in your workplace?  Is it a source of stress, or have you adopted a share and share alike attitude – even if one person in your team refuses to buy cakes on their birthday.  Teams work best if you can cultivate an atmosphere of open, honest communication.  Is that your team?

Without positive feedback from your team it’s very difficult to know whether or not you are getting it right for them.  You need to be a little bit brave and willing to improve on the feedback you get but the benefits will far outweigh any dent in your ego.  This video explains why getting positive feedback can improve your performance and make your team happier.

If you want to go through this exercise with your team please email me at jules@uturntv.co.uk and I will send you the questionnaire and the guidelines which will help you make this a positive experience.

Hope to hear from you.

Jules

The following blog is taken from a Project Management website owned by a friend of mine.  He is the best Project Manager I have ever worked with and is the only one I know that can bring in an IT project on time and on budget.  Whilst Ian focuses on ensuring efficiency within the project management tasks it is great to see that he also recognises the need to ensure that the emotional needs of staff need to be taken into consideration too.

The constant focus on hard tasks, deadlines and outcomes above all else is often a recipe for creating unhappy staff.  The best managers take an holistic approach to their teams and make sure they check in on the ‘happiness monitor’ on a regular basis.

You can visit Ian’s site at P M Advice.  I hope you enjoy his blog as much as I did and as always I would love to hear your thoughts.

Push, Push … and SNAP!

I work with so many programmes and projects that run to tight deadlines and suffer from mistakes that cost the programme days even weeks of delays. Why is it so hard for managers to understand that constant over working of staff will result in mistakes, in re-work, in lost time due to having to fix the mistakes. Management must recognise that driving staff to do excessive hours only works for short a period, in my experience, about two weeks, then mistakes start happening that cost more time than that perceived to be saved by pushing on.

So, remember as a professional project manager, you are only as good as the team around you, so it is your job to manage their hours to avoid over working and the impact of mistakes. This month I have witnessed a massive push to hit a, made up, deadline that has resulted in mistakes and problems causing over 3 weeks worth of delays. Added to this is the personal impact on each individual that will last longer, as sickness lost further time and damaged personal relationships outside the office are also damaged.

Remember a happy team, works far more effectively than an unhappy worn out team.

Teams often spend too much time running around like headless chickens and call it work.  In the majority of cases someone avoided making the time to put some stabilising foundations in place which would ultimately save time and money.  Is your team like that?  Do you spend all day sticking Elastoplasts on broken arms?  This video might help.

What a funny old week.  I have had several meetings and training sessions this week with clients and business associates where the conversation has turned away from the main reason for the meeting onto more personal subjects.  As someone who is always willing to lend a listening ear to anyone in need I often find myself furiously scribbling book titles, website, music and organisations that have supported me in my personal development over the last 11 years.

In my work with middle management and teams, looking at who I am in a positive way and learning new and better ways of approaching life has made a big difference to how I work so as you can imagine I’m a big fan.

I thought it might be useful (and save me some time!) to list below what has inspired me over the years.  I’m not claiming that these things are ‘the answer’ – they just happened to work for me.  If they work for you that’s great.  If not then I hope you find what you’re looking for somewhere.

The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure – This book by James Redfield was the first one I read that was in the personal development genre.  At the time it blew me away and it’s still one of my favourites.  I had no idea that you could ‘be better’ or ‘be happier’ by reading anything so it was a revelation on many levels.  Looking back, I now know that because it was presented in story format it made it easy for me to accept and acknowledge the concepts you are encouraged to consider.  The blurb about the book is “THE CELESTINE PROPHECY tells a gripping story of adventure and discovery, but is also a guidebook that has the power to crystallize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life–and to direct your steps with a new energy and optimism as you head into tomorrow.”

The Power Of Intention: Change The Way You Look At Things And The Things You Look At Will Change: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way – Wayne Dyers book is pretty well described in the subtitle of this book.  I found it incredibly useful for looking at the world differently than I ever had done.  It certainly helped me to see how much of the negative stuff in my life was being created by me.

The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Certainty – I love Jack Canfield (obviously not like that because that would be weird seeing as I don’t know him).  I love his practical, useful and down to earth style that tells it like it is in the nicest way.  The Power of Focus is great if you want to get control over your life but don’t even know how to start a To Do List.

Ludovico Einaudi is a classical pianist and composer who is still alive.  He writes some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.  Taking time to relax and chill out is an essential part of staying sane and this music is just perfect for that.  There is peace and beauty in this music that takes you to another place.  (Mines always a hammock on a tropical beach.)  My favourite albums are Divenire, Einaudi: Le Onde and Nightbook which is his latest release.  If you ever get the opportunity to see him play live it will be well worth it.

In what sometimes seems like a mad mad world His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living is a great book for challenging your thinking on how the world should be.  I would never call myself a bhuddist but there is a huge amount of wisdom in this book that will apply to everyone’s life.

In order to keep my skills and head in the right place I work with a wonderful woman called Jane Lumley.  Describing what she does would take all day so beyond saying she is a Health Kinesiologist I would strongly suggest checking her out.  Her site is Reflecting Health and I would encourage you to explore what she does.

Reading Nelson Mandella’s auto biography makes you realise that when you have belief anything is possible. Although I would always recommend reading any books about inspirational people, Nelson Mandella’s strength of character shines throughout this book. A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

I have just realised as I have been writing this that I could end up making this blog the longest blog in history!  There is so much out there that can inspire you to change whatever aspect of your life you feel needs to change.  Perhaps the list above will give you some starting points that will lead you to exactly what you need.  I certainly hope so.

I would love to know what inspires you.  Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below so that anyone who reads this can have wider choice.

I hope wherever you are you are well and fine.

Much love

Jules

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Delivering one to one management training, you would think, would be a fairly straightforward activity once to you are practiced and expert at what you do.  However, I found myself in a very unusual situation with client last week that really took me by surprise.

The previous week I had spent two days with this client and their team delivering my team building event called Moments of Clarity.  Two days with the same group of people giving them the time and space to explore all of their team issues gives me the chance to really understand what makes them tick, how they work together and what their main issues are.

In my experience, the manager is usually at fault for many of the issues teams suffer.  Lack of consistency in the application of the ‘rules of operation’, failing to share the vision and avoiding dealing with conflict situations for fear of further disruption or not being liked are all fairly common.  In many ways this team were no different, so when I was preparing for the first one to one session with the manager I felt confident that I had a good idea of how the session was going to shape up.

Cripes was I wrong.  I always use a basic questionnaire as a starting point, part of which asks the client to rate themselves out of 10 in various management disciplines and this always gives me a place to start.  As I adopt a fairly loose and intuitive style with clients I will often find we’ve gone off down a path that I hadn’t planned for but we always end up in the right place, talking about and resolving the issues that really matter.

The beginning of the session was fine and progressed as I expected.  However, after a while I began to notice that as I was explaining ways of tackling certain management situations my client kept nodding and saying “yes, I already do that”.  My client had rated themselves as 5 out of 10 in many of the typical management disciplines such as ‘Conducting Effective Meetings’, ‘Time Management’, ‘Motivating Staff’, etc etc which I could see this was completely at odds with their experience and knowledge.

Further exploration uncovered that this client is actually a very skilled manager, possessing the right skills, knowledge and attitude to take their team forward successfully.  What we uncovered was that they didn’t feel like a good manager.  At first I didn’t quite know what to do but after a little more conversation I realised that this client didn’t need my help.  They just needed to understand and accept that they were actually a good enough manager.

This lack of understanding and acceptance was rooted in personal issues that I am not qualified to assist with.  So we came to an agreement that my client would use the next session already booked with me to do some work with another professional that I work with occasionally who I know would be much better placed to help with the issues we talked about.

Reflecting a few days later I know I have made the right recommendations but it has thrown up some thoughts for me that I would like to share with those managers out there who feel that they could do better.

Please check your knowledge and skill levels by researching management skills on the internet, reading the latest management technique books or revisiting materials from previous training courses – not with the aim of learning something new but with the aim of comparing it against what you’re already doing.  Be brutally honest with yourself – don’t use false modesty as a way of not bragging or being big headed.  If you are doing all of the things that you should be doing, give yourself a tick in the box.  Feel proud of what you’ve achieved to date and celebrate all of the good things that you do for your company and your team.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to talk yourself down because you are the one person you’ll believe – aren’t you?

Obviously, if you have never received any management training then getting some would probably help but don’t automatically assume that because you’ve never had any that you’re not a good manager.

If you are very brave you can always ask your team what they think of you by giving them a 360 degree anonymous feedback questionnaire to complete.  It’s not for the fainthearted and if you’re interested get in touch and I can send you the questionnaire and talk you through it.

It often seems to me that we live in a culture of regularly pointing out the negative and worst in people.  Our newspapers and TV are full of ‘not good enough’ messages from not pretty enough, not thin enough, not skilled enough, not nice enough – the list is endless.  So much so that it’s easy to see why many of us think we might not be good enough managers.  My client is a good manager and if you are having doubts about your skills and competency as a manager maybe you should give it a little more thought and give yourself a bit less of a hard time.

As always, I would love to know what you think and more particularly, whether this has struck a chord with you and whether you are actually good enough as a manager.

I look forward to hearing from you and if you need a bit of inspiration to help you along the way this always does it for me (If you don’t feel comfortable with the word ‘God’ feel free to replace it with ‘universe’ or ‘the world’ as you prefer – it still works):

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This inspiring quote by Marianne Williamson is from her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191).

The following management tips will help improve your managment style and take it to a higher and more human level:

Be More Compassionate

The next time you feel a flash of irritation at something one of your team has done incorrectly try to stop yourself from reacting and imagine that the person in question is a very dear friend or family member.  Imagine how you would deal with the issue if they were someone that you cared about deeply.  By adopting a more compassionate attitude towards them you will begin to build bridges and better relationships.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.  Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Separate the Issue from the Emotion

When things go wrong and teams are not functioning, too much time is spent dealing with the emotional effects of a business issue that needs to be resolved.  Phone slamming, crying in the toilets, bitching about the boss (you!) are all symptomatic of underlying issues that are not being addressed.  Try asking your team members why they are behaving that way instead of telling them their behaviour is inappropriate.  Whilst it is important to acknowledge the emotion and accept that it is valid it is wasteful management spending time trying to train someone not to behave inappropriately – you are not their parent.  Understand the cause and a solution can very quickly be found.

“In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships.” – John Gottman, Ph.D.

Empathise

Make it part of your management strategy to spend time truly understanding the stresses and strains of your teams’ work.  I’ve never believed that you should be able to do everyone’s job in your team to be a good manager but I do know that being able to empathise with their perspective will instantly make you a better manager.  Ask them how they feel about their job, their environment, their colleagues, the team as a whole and as they answer your questions imagine you’re in front of a mirror and it’s you saying it.  Spend time afterwards checking in on how you felt.

Empathy is full presence to what’s alive in the other person at this moment. John Cunningham

Be Authentic

When you are operating every day as the authentic you it allows you to show your team (and your senior managers) the best of you.  The real you will make decisions that are for the benefit of all: you, your team, your senior managment and your organisation.  If you hide the real you with  a mask of insecurity or artifice I believe that those you work with will see it, even if it’s not consciously understood, they will always have that niggling feeling that ’something isn’t right’ and will never trust you.

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” – William Shakespeare

Be Straight and Honest – Always

You always know when someone is lying to you, or being nice rather than hurt your feelings.  Even if you are never 100% sure what the lie was, something in you will walk away from the conversation with a ‘feeling’ that something wasn’t quite right.  If you acknowledge this to be true then it follows that it will be the same for the people you work with.  We often fear the consequences of giving someone a piece of news that we feel would hurt or anger them.  This does not give the person you are talking to any credit for being able to deal with the absolute truth.  Practice in front of a mirror a difficult conversation you need to have without dressing it up, masking it or adding your personal view and edge to it.  Then practice it on a trusted friend who will give you feedback on how you came across.  Even if you need to deliver distressing news, human beings all deserve to be respected by giving them the truth so that they can have an opportunity to react appropriately.  To deny them this opportunity is wasteful and creates unnecessary emotional reactions which make your job twice as difficult.

Where is there dignity unless there is honesty? Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

Be Genuinely Kind

A genuine act of kindness will always be seen as just that.  Your ability to be genuinely kind will dramatically improve your relationships with your staff.  Perhaps one of your team would really appreciate the chance to leave 10 minutes earlier this week to help with a particular childcare problem, or perhaps you can offer a non-judgemental listening ear to someone who is having relationship problems?  Even the smallest act of kindness such as making the tea will be appreciated, even by the most cynical.  If you can do this without any expectation of compensation or return your team will be loyal to you and go the extra mile when you need them to.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Challenge your perceptions

Always remember that even if you are all in the same room, everyone will have a different view of it.  We all have our own particular viewpoint on any issue presented to us but rarely take the time to check what others see or feel.  When you ask someone their perspective you can often be surprised by their take on an issue.  Remember that no-one’s view is right or wrong we all just have different perspectives on things.  Asking your team their views and, wherever possible, incorporating them into your solutions will make your team feel valued and respected.

Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view. – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Many thanks to Brian Johnson at www.philosophersnotes.com for providing a wonderful quotes resource.

Jules asks – is the managing of your staff being hindered by a need to be liked?