Building Healthy Organizations and Leadership Teams

The facilitator at a recent breakfast meeting brought the topic of healthy teams for the group to discuss. He framed his presentation and subsequent group exercise around Patrick Lencioni’s 2012 book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business.

A smart organization is one that has a defined strategy and has teams and processes in place for marketing, sales, financial health and technological resources. A healthy organization has minimal politics – the focus is on the team; clarity throughout the organization – everyone knows where the firm is going, how they are going to get there, and what their roles are; high morale – employee engagement is strong; consistent productivity; and finally, low employee and customer turnover. So how do you get there?

Randy Taussig, our facilitator shared Lencioni’s five-step process. It begins with trust, vulnerability-based trust that is authentic. When a leader can be vulnerable and show his or her humanity, it sends a powerful message. If trust is absence, well pack your bags and leave.

The second element or step, once trust has been established, is healthy conflict – Don’t forget The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook!  Too often, conflict is perceived as negative, but the ability to have passionate, positive debate moves the organization forward. It’s not about personal gain or winning an argument. Rather it’s about giving everyone the opportunity to have their say so ideas and issues can be presented, decisions made, and then allow everyone to move on. When there’s fear of conflict or unhealthy conflict, the result is the avoidance of issues, passive-aggressive behavior, and lack of engagement.

Healthy conflict leads to the next step – true commitment. Healthy conflict provides input. When all team members know and understand all opposing points of view, they will be able to commit to team decisions and buy into them. It avoids those situations that we’ve all witness in organizations, where everyone shakes their heads in agreement, then leave the meeting and voice discontent or just don’t stand behind and support the decisions.

When true commitment exists, accountability can be embraced – that is the willingness not just to be accountable as an individual, but to hold others on the team including the leader accountable. If accountability is avoided, feedback does not take place. It’s the old adage of telling the boss (or anyone on the team) what you think he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear – withholding vital information.

This leads to the final step – results – collective team results that supersede any departmental or personal objectives or pursuits. If there is inattention to results, the team loses track and misses what was possible.

Test if your team is a healthy one. You can do this exercise alone, but it’s more powerful to do it with others:

1.     Describe a time when you were part of a team that exhibited some or all of these behaviors. What stands out about the experience?

2.     Then, describe a time when you were you were part of a team that did not exhibited these behaviors. What stands out about the experience on this team?

3.     Generally, how good were the outcomes and results in both of the above?

4.     Looking back, how important was the “health” of your team in achieving the overall results you expected in the scenarios you described.

Teaching Employees To Solve Their Own Problems

The following is an excerpt from our article that was published by FastCompany.com on September. The full article can be found at:  http://www.fastcompany.com/3051480/know-it-all/how-managers-can-teach-employees-to-solve-their-own-problems

Managers often find themselves trapped in the middle of situations that aren't theirs to solve. Arbitrating certain disputes robs your team members of developing their own conflict management skills.

One of your other jobs as a manager is to help your team grow, both individually and together. To do that, you need to help them resolve some of their own issues collaboratively. Here are five tips to help managers do just that.

1. Know When And How To Intervene

Different circumstances call for different responses. If one employee’s weak performance is preventing other employees from getting their jobs done, you most certainly have a role to play. Address the performance deficiencies of that team member.

But if the matter comes down to disagreement over strategy or tactics involving a certain project, that might be a time to step back and encourage your team members to sort it out. You can and should give guidance, but you don't always need to make a final call from on high.

2. Give Your Employees Room To Grow

Employees need the freedom and authority to solve problems that relate to their work. So give them the opportunity to learn conflict management techniques and develop problem-solving skills. In the midst of a dispute, your team members can get frustrated and aren't always likely to see it as a teaching moment. That's where you come in.

3. Recognize When Egos And Emotions Get In The Way

Define the problem and the impact it’s having in the workplace—tempers and egos aside. That won't calm everyone down automatically, of course, but it will help your team members focus on the issue itself and not how they feel about it. Remember that the dispute could involve someone's passion project. If emotions flare, help your employees control them so they don’t interfere with the resolution.

4. Facilitate, Don't Dictate

As a manager who takes this approach, you’ll be a neutral observer. From that vantage point, you can help mediate the discussion. […] define roles and set ground rules. Again, the employees are the primary players here, not you.

5. Make The Conflict Mean Something

When team members butt heads over a project-related issue, it's sometimes the sign of creativity and innovation trying to break through. Employees who are close to the work often have great ideas for better solutions. So help them brainstorm these ideas, then help them evaluate and prioritize them.

That employee who asks you to step in and resolve an issue may not know it at the time, but they're really asking for help to grow. So embrace the conflict, don't solve it. When everyone on your team can step up and own the issues they confront by working together, everyone benefits.

This article was published on FastCompany.com on September 25. It is adapted from The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Any Manager, Team Leader, HR Professional, or Anyone Who Wants to Resolve Disputes and Increase Productivity (Career Press, September 2015) by Cornelia Gamlem and Barbara Mitchell.

Dining In The Dark

Two separate events had similar outcomes, namely how we experience things differently when we draw on different senses.

The first was a morning meeting lacking sufficient caffeine – a lesson on mindfulness. The facilitator instructed us to pick up the small cup containing the strawberry. Look at the strawberry, closely. What do you observe? Now pick up the strawberry, feel it and smell it. What do you observe? Each step, each question was focusing us on how we use different senses, sight, touch, and smell to experience the same thing. Finally, close your eyes and take a small bite of the strawberry. What do you notice? With eyes closed and in a quiet room it was amazing. The strawberry was one of the sweetest tastes I can remember - a natural and succulent sweetness. It melted in my mouth.

The purpose was to widen our awareness and make us think about where our attention was at a particular moment – one moment when you’re looking at the strawberry, another when you’re touching it, etc.  Just like you strengthen your muscle memory, you can strengthen your awareness.

The second event was a dinner sponsored by the Foundation Fighting Blindness. After a reception of sushi and wine - plenty of stimulation - the dinner began. The salad and wine were served, while the lights were still on. Then preparation for the main course began. All attendees were given a "Mindfold" - a black blindfold with foam cushioning for comfort - and asked to put it on – the main course would be served and eaten in the dark. Quick, take note - wine here, water next to it. Close your eyes and practice picking them up. Do the same for your knife and fork. Memorize where all these items are relative to your reach. Strengthen your awareness.

Once the dinner came, there was a great deal of chatter in the room. I would have preferred quiet so I could focus more of my senses - taste and touch. So many similar events in hotels prepared me for a meal that would consist of a protein, starch, and vegetable or two. Being a sighted individual, I even had a pretty good sense of where on the plate each item would be located - muscle memory at work. No surprise, the protein was chicken. Clue: the knife was an ordinary table knife. Steak would have required a different knife – more challenging in the dark.

The starch was risotto - I could tell by the texture in my mouth. The strawberry experience prepared me for that. I was grateful for the chatter, however. It alerted me that one of the vegetables was cooked spinach - not a fan. As I ate a piece of asparagus, I began searching with my folk for the spinach to no avail. I put the folk down, reached for a glass - good, it's the wine - and took a sip. Then I ran my fingers over the back of the plate and discovered the spinach. Yes, now I know where it is and I can avoid it. I finished just in time for the announcement that the main course was over. We could remove the “Mindfold” and get ready for coffee and dessert – which appealed to all the senses.

This month is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Individuals with disabilities have the courage to stare into the waves, know the limitations of some senses and rely on the others. Organizations can be courageous too. Understand the reasonable accommodations individuals with disabilities need to succeed in the jobs for which they qualify!

Legal Eaglets

While visiting my friend Donna this summer, we drove past the building in her home town that once housed the law office where she worked as a legal secretary right out of high school. Donna went on to become a legal assistant and was part of the movement to first certify as a legal assistant in her state. She was surprised when I told her what I’d read recently about the State of Washington, where the legal profession is taking a page from the medical profession’s songbook and authorizing a new class of professionals called “limited license legal technicians” (LLLTs). Essentially, LLLTs are the nurse practitioners of the legal field.

Washington state was inspired to implement this ambitious experiment because of the high number of people with civil legal problems -- 80 to 90 percent -- who never consult an attorney because the cost is prohibitive. The government is required to provide counsel for criminal cases, but for consumer, employment, real estate, and family law, people are on their own if they can’t afford a lawyer.

To qualify as an LLLT, individuals will have to take classes at a community college, sit for a licensing exam, and apprentice under a lawyer for 3,000 hours before they open their own practice. This will entitle them to prepare court documents and perform legal research, just as lawyers do, but at a significantly lower cost. Revolutionary and groundbreaking, except that legal secretaries, paralegals and legal assistants have been doing this for years under the license of the law firm that employed them. While LLLTs will be able to fill a void, they will not be able to represent their clients in court.

Not surprisingly, economic issues are driving this evolution of the legal profession. The cost of the program is estimated at $10,000 -- far less than the cost of law school. Lawyers incur tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of educational debt and need to charge high fees just to pay it off. Clients often can’t afford to pay these fees. On the other hand, there is a glut of law school graduates competing for limited positions. The irony: too many lawyers and too many clients being underserved. Over time, as the program grows, the services LLLTs may be able to offer could expand. More individuals who are drawn to a career in the legal field may opt to become LLLTs rather than invest in a pricey law school education.

It’s not only organizations that have to innovate if they want to remain vital and grow. Professions also have to look for ways to change and open up opportunities -- not only for individuals to join the profession in new roles, but for consumers to receive the assistance they often need.

Video Interviewing—Good or Bad Idea?

I love learning new things so when I was asked to do a webinar for BLR on tips for using video to interview candidates I said yes.  I thought I knew I something about this topic because I‘ve been in HR for a long time and recruiting is my favorite part of HR. However, as I began to research the topic in order to prepare my slides for the webinar, I found out there is more to this than I imagined.

That got me to thinking about how often I just jump in and start doing something before really giving it thought or doing research.  I’ve always been this way—it would never occur to me to read the instructions before putting something together. I remember the last car I bought and the sales person making me sit in the car before I left the dealership while he went through the driver’s manual. It was torture for me but paid off the first time one of those dashboard lights came on—I knew what it was and didn’t panic.

Wish I could tell you that now I always read the manual before turning on a new appliance but at least I now know it pays to keep those instructions manuals in a place where I can find them if needed.

Back to video interviewing—I had no idea that organizations are using videos to replace phone screening interviews.  What a great idea to send applicants 4-5 questions and ask them to record their answers on a video and email it back—since everyone is so good at short videos from watching YouTube, most applicants are happy to do it.  In fact, research shows that less than 2% refuse and most of them, I think, hope that by saying no to the video, they will get a face to face interview with the hiring manager—which is probably faulty reasoning!

Then, two way video using technology like Skype or Facetime or Google Hangouts is a great way to interview a candidate in another country or even in another town—so much more cost effective than flying people in before you know if they have the skills you need.  Better to do a video interview to probe for their strengths before you go to the expense of bringing them to your location.  Another benefit of video interviews is that the hiring manager can share the tape with others in the organization to get additional reads on the candidate’s qualifications.

Of course, the same good interviewing skills are needed whether it’s a face to face or video interview.   Interviewers need to know how to do a fair and legal interview and how to ask open ended questions.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again—there is nothing more important than bringing the right people into the organization and video technology can be a real asset to making that happen.

The Red Suitcase

I was getting ready to board a flight with my husband, the second leg of a flight to our final destination.  I travel light and carry my luggage on board.  With me was my red roller-bag – the one that has an interesting, deceiving contour.  It slopes up, but the highest part of the case is the same height as a normal roller-bag.  It fits in the overhead bin, handle first versus wheels first.  It’s the same size as all the other roller-bags.

The gate agent stopped me and said, “You’ll have to check the bag – it won’t fit.”  “Yes it will,” I said.  “Wheels first?” he asked.  “No, it fits ….” I started to reply before he cut me off.  “Then you’ll have to check it,” he scowled.  As I began to measure it to prove that its dimensions were a standard fit, my husband joined the conversation. “It fit in the overhead bin just fine on the last flight.”  The gate agent finally acquiesced, after wasting precious time during the boarding process – all because my suitcase had a slightly different look.   I understood his concern – that if I placed it in the bin horizontally it would take up too much room.

We were early to board, and after settling in my seat, I observed one gentleman very nonchalantly placing two bags horizontally in the overhead bin – not appearing to care about other passengers.  I couldn’t help but wonder if he was scolded by the gate agent as I was.  I observed a woman place a carry-on bag that should have gone under her seat in the overhead bin without a care in the world taking room where another roller-bag could have gone. 

We make assumptions all the time.  Sometimes they are based on people’s characteristics, sometimes prior experiences.  We make assumptions about new or different things or ideas because we've had no experience with them. Ninety-five percent of what we do, we do with an unconscious mind. The gate agent was so focused on the shape of my suitcase, he lost sight of the other passengers. Focus is good – I certainly want the pilot focused on his job. When focus becomes rigid, it runs the risk of taking all judgment out of the process.

Bottom line is that when we make assumptions, we're looking backwards and making judgments.  We're blocking our ability to see how the person, thing or idea can contribute to the organization.  We're letting our biases overshadow our thinking.  We’re stifling creativity and creativity and innovation are important in today's business environment. 

Keys To Success

Never did I think I would be writing about success and chicken soup—but a recent article in USA Today on May 12, 2015 was about the 10^th anniversary of The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield, co-creator of the very popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series, changed my mind.

In this book, the author has some very good advice—he says, “If I could live my ideal life, what would I be doing?”  Or, he suggests you think of someone whose life and work you admire, and then think of how you might create something similar in your own life.

Think about all the career advice you’ve received—this is so simple but I think he is really on to something.  In this book, he discusses 67 principles for success and in the formula he uses in all the Chicken Soup books, he tells stories of people who’ve applied these principles to their lives.

Some of the principles he discusses are:

1.     Take 100% responsibility for your life.  You can’t blame others for the parts of your life you don’t like.

2.     Take action. He says, “When you take action, you trigger all kinds of things that will inevitably carry you to success.”

3.     Develop four new success habits a year—one at a time.  Consider what habits you either want to change or develop.  For example, I’d like stop (or at least limit) procrastinating.  He says it takes three months to change a habit—guess I will start on that tomorrow!

4.     Commit to constant and never –ending improvement. He says that successful people are extremely curious and commit to learning something every single day.  They are often voracious readers (and as an author, I love that!)

5.     Face what isn’t working.  He says, “A lot of people don’t deal with what’s not working, because it means they’d have to do something that is uncomfortable. They stay in jobs they don’t like because they think they can’t get another one, but instead they need to get out and get training to get another one. If you gave up one hour of TV a day, that would be 365 hours or 9 and ½ 40 hour weeks of additional time to exercise, read, go back to school for your master’s degree and take on-line courses.”

6.     Be a class act.  He says, “Class acts leave places better than they find then.  They are always positive. They are always willing to help.”

7.     Find a way to serve.  He says that “research shows that people who volunteer live longer, recover from illness faster and report being happier.”  I know this to be true—my mother volunteered until she died at age 94.  She even asked us to tell people at her memorial service that volunteering was important and reminded us that when you volunteer, you get back even more than you give.  Mother was a great role model for me and so many others!

These keys to success ring true for me—how about you?