Blanchard LeaderChat

Earlier this year, I wrote about the importance of making sure that everyone in an organization understands their role and feels some ownership and pride in what a company does, or produces. For some reason, this posting has remained quietly popular throughout the course of the year.  With very little fanfare, it has continued to draw interest week in and week out from people who come upon it through online searching. I wanted to revisit the concepts in that article one more time before we close out the year. 

The article focused on a concept that Ben Zander, the highly regarded conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra shared with our company a couple of years ago. Ben had spoken at our annual Week of Excellence all-company meeting and encouraged all of us to replace “downward spiral thinking” with “possibility thinking” instead.  Ben also cautioned us not to fall into the trap of thinking that leadership is just for those people at the top of the organization.  For an organization to truly move forward together, everyone has to be involved and feel that they play a role. 

To illustrate his point, Ben told the story of an accomplished cellist in his own orchestra who was disappointed when she found herself ranked as the 11th cellist among the twelve seats available.  It was the kind of position where it would be easy to get lost and feel insignificant.  Zander knew it was important not to let that happen and so he made a special effort to reach out to this woman. At Ben’s urging, she eventually volunteered an idea of how to play a certain section of a symphony the orchestra was scheduled to perform. 

“From then on,” he continued, “this cellist who sat in the 11th seat played like a completely different person.”  Instead of just being technically correct, her playing took on an added dimension that she hadn’t displayed before.  When Ben asked her about this, she explained that ever since that night when she first saw the possibility that she could influence the orchestra from her modest position in the 11th chair, she felt like she had been leading the orchestra every night since then. 

Would that type of attitude be helpful in your organization?  Is your company encouraging people to seek out and lead from their position in the company?  If not, you’re missing a great opportunity for innovation, alignment, and passion.  No matter where we sit in the organization, we all have an opportunity to contribute.

Organizations want their employees to be more intrinsically engaged at work.  They want their employees to be more creative, more innovative, and to take more risks.  One of the ways organizations are supporting these initiatives is through the use of incentives.  While incentives can be a good way to drive short term behavior, you have to be careful that they don’t undermine long term motivation in your organization.

In his book, Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes author Alfie Kohn points out that when reward and recognition is conditionally based, it can actually undermine performance by: 

• Setting up a competitive atmosphere where some people win while other people lose 
• Discouraging risk taking when employees fall back on what has worked in the past instead of trying new things which may or may not work 
• Eroding natural interest by replacing intrinsic motivators with extrinsic ones

Perhaps most importantly, improper use of rewards and incentives can sometimes get in the way of good management.  This happens when managers rely to heavily on the use of rewards and incentives instead of drilling down on the reasons why employees may not be performing up to level. 

For organizations looking to improve the creativity, innovation, risk-taking and intrinsic motivation of their employees, Kohn recommends that leaders focus on three areas: 

1. Rethink financial incentives.  Instead of putting so much emphasis on pay-for-performance, pay people a little more than industry norms and then do everything in your power to help them put money out of their minds. 
2. Reevaluate evaluation. Make performance evaluation an ongoing process instead of a once-per-year event.  Make sure that it is a two-way conversation that is separate from conversations about compensation. 
3. Create the conditions for authentic motivation.  Kohn recommends focusing on collaboration—helping employees work together, content—design meaningful jobs and help people find the value in their work, and choice—wherever possible, give people the opportunity to determine how the task will be accomplished.

Kohn is a provocative thinker in this area. For leaders looking for the complete picture on the use of rewards and recognition in their organizations, he offers a great alternative viewpoint on the use of incentives.  I highly recommend him to you and invite your thoughts and comments here.

Last week I re-tweeted a blog post from Tom Peters, the best-selling business management guru.  In Appreciation! “Tool” No.1 Tom shares his own growing appreciation for a quote by the American psychologist, William James who said, “The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

Tom goes on to talk about the power of appreciation and his belief that bosses-managers-leaders (not to mention parents and teachers and spouses) should express appreciation more often.

So why don’t people recognize others more often?  That was a question Senior Consulting Partner Mark Paskowitz of The Ken Blanchard Companies asked 650 people who joined him for a webinar on Reward & Recognition on a Limited Budget earlier this week.  Mark asked participants to choose from among the five reasons he hears most often in his work with clients.  81% of the audience responded.  The rank ordering?

1. Lack of time (25%)
2. Not part of their personality style (20%)
3. Lack of awareness (15%)
4. Lack of skill/competence (15%)
5. Afraid of leaving someone out (6%)

The general sense is that recognizing and expressing appreciation can seem like a complicated process sometimes.  It doesn’t have to be.  A quick word of appreciation, a sincere thank you, and just noticing on a daily basis is all that is required in most cases.  For more ideas on how to get started, check out yesterday’s post on Don’t Overthink Recognition and Praise.  For a more complete look at the entire subject of reward and recognition, check out the recording of Mark’s webinar.

Catching People Doing Things Right Twitter Contest Winner!

Congratulations to Lance Dumigan, today’s winner in our Twitter contest to “catch people doing things right.”  Lance was recognized by Deborah Mourey.  Lance will be receiving a personally autographed copy of his choice of one of Ken Blanchard’s latest books.  Congratulations Lance—and good on Deborah for taking the time to recognize him!

Managers can be shy or unsure of themselves when it comes to recognizing and praising others at work.  That’s some of the feedback we’ve been getting as people have been participating in our Catch People Doing Things Right Twitter contest (see details below).  Part of the reason is that leaders are concerned that they won’t do it right—or that it won’t be received well.  These fears are mostly groundless.  Everyone loves to be praised.  For managers looking to catch their people doing things right, there are really only two things to keep in mind:

1. Be Immediate and Specific–For a praising to be effective, it must be immediate and specific. Tell people exactly what they did right as soon as possible. For example, “You submitted your report on time Friday, and it was well written. In fact, I used it in a meeting today, and that report made you and me and our whole department look good.”

Use examples such as “I see productivity in your department is up ten percent” or “Your report helped us win the contract with the Jones Company.” Comments that are too general, such as “I appreciate your efforts,” “Thank you very much,” “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” and “Keep up the good work,” are less likely to seem sincere and thus are unlikely to be effective.

2. State Your Feelings–After you praise people, tell them how you feel about what they did. Don’t intellectualize. State your gut feelings: “Let me tell you how I feel. I was so proud after hearing your financial report presentation at the Board of Directors meeting. I want you to know how good I feel about your being on our team. Thanks a lot.”

Recognizing people and expressing appreciation doesn’t have to be a laborious, drawn-out process.  In fact, many times your best praisings are the informal, spur-of-the-moment opportunities that happen throughout the course of the day. 

Get started today.  Catch someone doing things right.  It’s a powerful way to show someone you care and it can be your best management minute of the day.

Twitter Contest–Today’s Winner!

Congratulations to Christie at Mississippi State’s Women’s basketball program.  She was recognized by Coach Joey Burton and is the winner of today’s prize of a personally autographed copy of one of Ken Blanchard’s latest books. 

If you’d like to participate and recognize someone you know for a job well done, just follow the instructions below.  We’ll be choosing one more winner tomorrow.

Instructions for “Catch Someone Doing Things Right” Twitter Contest

1. Go to www.twitter.com  and post the name of the person you would like to catch doing things right along with a very short (140-characters or less) description of why. Include the following code in your message @leaderchat

For example: @leaderchat  Nick Peterson—for your work in developing our new press release program and keeping everyone up-to-date on a regular basis.  Thank you!

 2. Push the UPDATE button

It’s as simple as that.  Every day between now and Friday we’ll randomly choose one lucky person among those entered to receive a personally autographed copy of one of Ken Blanchard’s latest books.  Each day’s winner will be posted at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time right here at www.leaderchat.org

Yesterday we kicked off a special year-end Twitter contest to help recognize people doing things right.  Between now and Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time, we will be giving away copies of a personally autographed Ken Blanchard book to one lucky person each day from among the people nominated during the previous day.

If you’d like to catch someone doing things right—and possibly win them a personally autographed copy of a Ken Blanchard book—just send us your nominee’s name along with a short (140-characters or less) description of why you’re nominating them. We’ll automatically enter them into our daily drawing.  Be sure to add @leaderchat in your tweet so we can track your nomination.

Here are some examples from yesterday:

@leaderchat recognize Cara Garlock for all she does as our admin to keep us grooving

@leaderchat Janet Powers @divatoolbox for creating the powerful radio network and women’s resource website.

@leaderchat David Means –Thank you for all your work at Horizon House. It’s really paying off!

Recognition is important. Who do you know that deserves to be recognized for a job well done?  We’d like to help you let the world know here at LeaderChat.  Winners will be announced tomorrow and Friday at 6:00 a.m. and contacted directly so they can choose the book they would like to receive.

Today’s Winner!

Congratulations to Keith Hayward of Dillanos Coffee Roasters for being our first winner of a personally autographed book by Ken Blanchard.  Keith was nominated by Dillanos CEO David Morris for “going the extra mile for a last minute trip to Alaska to take care of a customer.”

Join The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Mark Paskowitz  for a live, online chat today at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time. Paskowitz will be answering questions immediately after his webinar on Reward and Recognition on a Limited Budget. The webinar is free and is a part of The Ken Blanchard Companies monthly webinar series co-sponsored with Cisco WebEx.

To participate in the online discussion, stop by www.leaderchat.org  beginning at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time.

Instructions for Participating in the Online Chat

If you have a question that you would like to ask Mark Paskowitz, just click on the COMMENTS link above.  Then post your question and push SUBMIT COMMENT.  Mark will answer as many questions as possible during the 30-minute online Q&A.  (Be sure to press F5 to refresh your screen occasionally to see the latest responses.)

If you can’t stay for the entire 30-minute chat, but would like to see all of the questions and responses, you can always stop by later.  You can also click on the RSS FEED button in the right-hand column to receive updates automatically through email.

Instructions for “Catch Someone Doing Things Right” Twitter Contest

At the conclusion of the webinar Mark Paskowitz will also be announcing a special Twitter contest that The Ken Blanchard Companies is holding this week.  Starting on Tuesday and lasting for 72-hours, The Ken Blanchard Companies will give you a chance to “catch someone doing things right” by entering that person in a drawing for a copy of one of Ken Blanchard’s latest books. The book will contain a personalized inscription congratulating the winner on being caught doing things right.  The contest ends on Friday at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time and you can enter as many people as you would like.  Here’s how to participate:

1. Go to www.twitter.com  and post the name of the person you would like to catch doing things right along with a very short description of why. Include the following code in your message @leaderchat

For example: @leaderchat  Nick Peterson—for doing an outstanding job all year and helping to make this our best year ever! 

2. Push the UPDATE button

It’s as simple as that.  Every day between now and Friday we’ll randomly choose one lucky person among those entered to receive one of the personalized books.  Each day’s winner will be posted at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time at www.leaderchat.org

Don’t miss this chance to say “thank you” to someone who really deserves it.  Participating is a fun, low-cost, and very thoughtful way to let someone know that you appreciate them!

PS: If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, you can sign up at Twitter when you get there.  Just follow the instructions and you’ll be online in minutes.

Most executives instinctively know that strong leadership is essential for overall organizational success. However, in most organizations, there is a lack of urgency to improve leadership skills driven by a belief that an organization’s current leadership capacity—and subsequent performance—is good enough. 

But is it? 

A new white paper entitled The High Cost of Doing Nothing: Quantifying the Impact of Leadership, shows that this is a misguided assumption.  According to Blanchard research, most organizations are operating with a million dollar drag on performance that better leadership can resolve.  As organizations look for ways to improve engagement, productivity, and satisfaction, it is important to remember the pivotal role that day-to-day leadership plays. 

Here are the three areas that the paper looks at along with some initial ideas on what managers can do to improve the situation. Think about your own organization as you review the three areas identified in the new white paper. 

Employee Productivity—Consistently identified as the largest financial drain in most organizations, poor leadership costs the average company 5-10% of potential performance. When employees do not receive the direction and support they need to accomplish their key tasks successfully, the result is wasted time, substandard results, and costly rework. 

Leaders can make the situation better by asking questions.  Does the employee understand the goal and have a clear plan for accomplishing it?  Do they have the knowledge and skill set to be able to perform this task without a lot of supervision or direction?  What is their motivation to work on this?  If managers ask the right questions up front, they can find out very quickly what a direct report needs. 

Customer Satisfaction—Even with all of the recent emphasis on having a customer focus, most organizations still only achieve a 75% satisfaction rating according to national customer service indexes. This translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue growth for the typical company.  How does leadership impact customer service?  By making sure that everyone in the organization is focused in the right direction—towards the customer.  In too many organizations, employees are looking up the organizational chart instead of in the direction of the customer.  Leaders can redirect this attention toward the customer by asking, “What can I do to help you in your job so that you, in turn, can better serve our customers?” 

Employee Retention—A third area where organizations typically see a drain on performance is through the loss of high potential employees. While today’s economic slowdown has dramatically reduced voluntary turnover in most organizations, it’s important that organizations not become complacent. Just because people can’t switch jobs right now doesn’t mean you can neglect people—especially high performers. Good people are always in demand, and you want your best people to know that you value them and want them to work for you.  Leaders can reduce unwanted turnover by 10-30% by checking in with high performers on a regular basis, expressing appreciation, and providing growth opportunities. 

Leadership makes a difference. In the average organization, this translates into over $1 million dollars of bottom-line impact on an annual basis.  As you look for ways to improve performance in your own company, don’t underestimate the impact that day-to-day leadership has on productivity, customer satisfaction, and retention. 

To access a copy of the complete paper, click here. 

If you’d like to try the calculator that the paper is based on, it is also available online at www.costofdoingnothing.com  It’s free, it only takes a few minutes to complete, and you get access to a complete personalized report immediately.

Effective leaders know that there is no one best way to manage people. Instead, they adapt their style according to the development level of the people they are managing. 

In The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Situational Leadership® II Model, managers are taught to modify the amount of direction and support they give to direct reports based on their skill and commitment levels for the task at hand.  To make this easier to understand, Blanchard uses four easy to remember descriptors to identify the four stages of development: Enthusiastic Beginner, Disillusioned Learner, Capable but Cautious Performer, and Self-Reliant Achiever. 

• Enthusiastic Beginner–Can you remember when you first started to learn to ride a bicycle? You were so excited sometimes that you couldn’t even sleep at night, even though you didn’t have a clue how to actually ride a bike. You were a classic Enthusiastic Beginner who needed direction. At this point you had enthusiasm for the task but not a lot of experience. You needed someone to show you how—in a step-by-step process. 
• Disillusioned Learner–Remember the first time you took a fall on your bike? As you were picking yourself up off the pavement, you might have wondered why you decided to learn to ride in the first place and whether you would ever really master it. Now you had reached the Disillusioned Learner stage, and you needed coaching. This is a combination of direction mixed in with a lot of support to help you get through this rough patch. 
• Capable but Cautious Performer–Once you were able to ride your bike with your parent cheering you on, that confidence probably became shaky the first time you decided to take your bike out for a spin without your cheerleader and supporter close at hand. At this point, you were a Capable but Cautious Performer in need of support. You knew how to ride, you just needed some extra encouragement to keep going. 
• Self-Reliant Achiever–Finally, you reached the stage where your bicycle seemed to be a part of you. You could ride it without even thinking about it. You were truly a Self-Reliant Achiever, and your parents could delegate to you the job of having fun on your bike. Just don’t let them see you jumping off of that ramp. 

Developing More Effective Leaders

There are still people out there who think there is only one best way of leading people. Experienced managers know that this is not the case. Take a look in your own organization. Notice what the best managers in your company are doing. Chances are you will see them adjusting their management style to meet the needs of the people they are working with. 

Effective leaders know that there is no one best way to manage people. Managers looking to improve their ability to lead people to higher levels of performance need to adapt their style to match the development level of the people they are managing. It is a proven approach that will help managers lead people to their best performance every time. 

To learn more about taking a situational approach to leading and developing others, be sure to check out the free, on-demand webcast, Managing and Developing People to Be Their Best: The 3 Keys to Becoming a Smart, Flexible, and Successful Leader

Making the bottom line your top priority may not be the best way to improve profitability. That’s the conclusion of recent research conducted by Mary Sully de Luque and Nathan T. Washburn of Thunderbird School of Global Management; David A. Waldman, of Arizona State University West; and Robert J. House, of the University of Pennsylvania, that underscores the risk of single-mindedly pursuing profit.

This finding is based on survey data gathered from 520 business organizations in 17 countries designed to test if a CEO’s primary focus on profit maximization resulted in employees developing negative feelings toward the organization. The result? Employees in these companies tend to perceive the CEO as autocratic and focused on the short term, and they report being somewhat less willing to sacrifice for the company. Corporate performance is poorer as a result. 

But when the CEO makes it a priority to balance the concerns of customers, employees, and the community while also taking environmental impact into account, employees perceive him or her as visionary and participatory. And they report being more willing to exert extra effort, and corporate results improve. 

These results aren’t surprising. When the definition of leadership focuses only on profit what tends to fall by the wayside is the condition of the human organization. Leaders wrongly believe that they can’t focus on both at the same time. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  As this research points out, organizations perform best when they balance financial goals with respect, care, and fairness for the well-being of everyone involved. 

The Four Keys to Better Leadership 

In looking at all of the great organizations that The Ken Blanchard Companies has worked with over the years, we have found one thing that sets these organizations apart from average organizations. The defining characteristic is leaders who maintain an equal focus on both results and people. In these organizations, leaders measure their success with people (customers and employees) as much as they measure their financial performance. 

In these organizations, leaders do four things well. 

1. They set their sights on the right target and vision. Great organizations focus on three bottom lines instead of just one. In addition to financial success, leaders at great organizations know that measuring their success with people–both customers and employees–is just as important as measuring the success of their financial bottom line. In these organizations, developing loyal customers and engaged employees are considered equal to good financial performance. Leaders at these companies know that in order to succeed they must create a motivating environment for employees, which results in better customer service, which leads to higher profits. 
2. They treat their customers right. To keep your customers today, you can’t be content just to satisfy them. Instead, you have to create raving fans–customers who are so excited about the way you treat them that they want to tell everyone about you. Companies that create raving fans routinely do the unexpected on behalf of their customers, and then enjoy the growth generated by customers bragging about them to prospective clients. 
3. They treat their people right. Without committed and empowered employees, you can never provide good service. You can’t treat your people poorly and expect them to treat your customers well. Treating your people right begins with good performance planning that gets things going in the right direction by letting direct reports know what they will be held accountable for–goals–and what good behavior looks like–performance standards. It continues with managers who provide the right amount of direction and support that each individual employee needs in order to achieve those goals and performance standards. 
4. They turn the organizational chart upside down. The most effective leaders realize that leadership is not about them and that they are only as good as the people they lead. These leaders seek to be serving leaders instead of self-serving leaders. In this model, once a vision has been set, leaders move themselves to the bottom of the hierarchy, acting as a cheerleader, supporter, and encourager to the people who report to them. 

The way to maximize your results as a leader is to have high expectations for both results and relationships. If leaders take care of the people who take care of their customers, profits and financial strength will follow. The result is an organization where people and profits both grow and thrive.

One of the biggest challenges teams face is building trust and managing conflict. While you want differing opinions, it’s important that conflict stay focused on content and not become personal. How do you encourage healthy debate?  Here are five team attitudes and perspectives that can help you build trust and keep conflict productive in your work group. 

1. Team members must develop a learning attitude. Everything that happens in the team is “grist for the mill.” There are no failures–only learning opportunities. 
2. The team must build a trust-based environment. Trust is built by sharing information, ideas, and skills. Building trust requires that team members cooperate rather than compete, judge, or blame. Trust is also built when team members follow through on their commitments. It is critical that team members communicate openly and honestly and demonstrate respect for others. 
3. The team must value differences. Team members should encourage and honor differences. Different viewpoints are the heart of creativity. 
4. People must view the team as a whole. By seeing the team as a living system rather than a collection of individuals, team members begin to think in terms of “we” rather than “you” and “me.”  
5. Team members must become participant observers. To work well in a team environment, members should develop the skill of participating and, at the same time, observing. This practice, akin to being in a movie at the same time you are watching the movie, can give team members valuable perspective.  

How’s your team doing in these areas? Knowing the characteristics and needs of a high performing work group is critical. It gives people a target to shoot for as they progress from a collection of individuals to a smoothly functioning, high performing team.