Blanchard LeaderChat

“Money”…”Clutch”…”Nails”…Maybe you’ve used (or heard) one of those phrases to describe someone who seems to deliver when it matters most. It’s the go-to person that everyone trusts to get the job done on time, on budget, and with good quality. Why do those people engender so much trust from others? It’s pretty simple, right? They produce results!

We rarely have the conscious thought of building trust when we go about our daily jobs, but the fact is that our track record of results, or the lack thereof, contributes dramatically to how much we’re trusted by others. One of the quickest ways to erode trust with people is to not be productive in your role and provide positive contributions to your team and organization. Read more…

Managers and employees should work together as teammates and share accountability for the employee’s performance says Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 in a new article just published in the May issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.  Drawing on some of the key concepts from his 2009 book with Ken Blanchard, Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A,” Ridge explains that leaders need to:

• Establish goals, objectives and performance standards. “People need to know what is expected of them,” he explains. “All good performance starts with clear goals. If employees don’t have dear expectations, they sit and quit, meaning they show up for work but do not give their best because they are unsure of what to do.”
• Provide day-to-day coaching—or what Ridge calls execution. This is where a manager observes and monitors the performance of his or her people, praising progress and redirecting where necessary. At WD-40 this process includes a series of formal, quarterly conversations during which employees sit down with their supervisors to discuss how things are going.
• Take a partnership approach to performance reviews. As Ridge explains, “What we do is have a one-on-one conversation during our quarterly meeting and review each person’s assessment of himself or herself. If the leader disagrees outright with an employee’s self assessment, we always ask, ‘What’s going on in your life and your business that is not allowing what we expected to happen? How can I help?’ No finger-pointing is tolerated. It’s a partnership. We don’t play the blame game, because we know leaders are accountable and responsible, too.”

When Leaders Help People Win At Work, Both the Organization and the Employees Benefit

Is employee performance a shared responsibility in your organization?

“When employees have clear expectations, meaningful work and day-to-day support, it impacts their level of engagement,” Ridge explains. ”At WD-40, our engagement score is 93 percent, which means that 93 percent of our people globally get up every day and go to work doing meaningful work–work they find is adding value to them and the company on a daily basis.”

To learn more about Ridge’s approach to performance management, be sure to check out Building a Performance-Based Culture in this month’s issue of Chief Learning Officer.

Trust, commitment, and morale all took a hit as many companies struggled through the economic downturn of the past two years.  Ken Blanchard believes that there are three key strategies that leaders can employ to return a wounded organization to full health:  

1. Be a bearer of hope
2. Make your people your business partners
3. Become a servant leader

In this short video Ken describes how re-establishing trust, creating a compelling picture of the future, and getting everyone aligned and moving in the same direction is the quickest path to accelerated growth.  To see Ken’s full presentation on this subject, check out Healing the Wounded Organization.

Join best-selling author and consultant Ken Blanchard for a complimentary webinar and online chat beginning today at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12:00 noon Eastern).  Ken will be discussing strategies for leaders in a special presentation on Healing the Wounded Organization: Rebuilding Trust, Commitment, and Morale. The webinar is free and seats are still available if you would like to join over 800 people expected to participate.

Immediately after the webinar, Ken will be answering follow-up questions here at LeaderChat for about 30 minutes.  To participate in the follow-up discussion, use these simple instructions.

Instructions for Participating in the Online Chat

• Click on the LEAVE A COMMENT link above
• Type in your question
• Push SUBMIT COMMENT

It’s as easy as that!  Ken will answer as many questions as possible in the order they are received.  Be sure to press F5 to refresh your screen occasionally to see the latest responses.

We hope you can join us later today for this special complimentary event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.  Click here for more information on participating.

Differences are inevitable when passionate people work together. Eventually, after a team gets through an initial orientation with a new task, members usually come to the realization that working together to accomplish a common goal is tough work.

This occurs in the “dissatisfaction” stage of team development when the team recognizes the discrepancy between what is expected of them and the reality of getting it done.   

It is not a pleasant stage.

As a leader it’s important to differentiate between the different types of conflict teams experience and to have a plan for helping the team move forward.  Here are four examples of team conflict and some advice on how a leader can intervene properly from Dr. Eunice Parisi-Carew of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Conflict over positions, strategies or opinions

If two or three strong, but differing, positions are being argued in the group and it is getting nowhere, a leader might stop the group and ask each member to take a turn talking with no interruption or debate.  The rest are just to listen and try to understand where they are coming from and why they are posing the solution that they are.  It may go something like this. 

Leader: “Let’s stop for a minute. I want each of you state what is underneath your argument.  What is your desire, your concern, your goal, your fear or your need that leads you to that conclusion?”

In this instance, the leader’s job is to make sure everyone is heard. When the exercise is completed the leader should look for concerns or goals that people have in common. Once all are uncovered, the leader can build on any interests that are shared.  In most cases this becomes the new focus and it turns the situation from conflict to problem solving.

Mistrust or uneven communication

If some people on the team are dominating the conversation while others sit silent or appear to have dropped out, a leader might stop the process and ask each person what they need from others to feel effective in the group and how others can help. 

Another simple practice is to appoint a process observer whose job it is to focus on how the team is interacting.  If the teams gets out of kilter—it might be tempers are rising or communication is not flowing—the process observer is allowed to call time and point out their observations.  For example, “In the last five minutes we have interrupted the speaker 10 times,” or, “We keep talking over each other.”  Just knowing this fact can alter the team’s interaction.  Soon the team will catch itself.  It is harder to misbehave once you know what the impact of your behavior is.

Personality clashes

If personal styles are very different and causing conflict among team members, a team leader might administer the DISC, MBTI, or another behavioral assessment tool to help people better understand each other and learn to work together.  These tools help people understand what the other person needs.  They can also provide a common frame of reference for dealing with individual differences.

Power issues and personal agendas

Conflict that involves power issues, or strong personal agendas must sometimes be dealt with also.  The reality is that some people just do not fit on a team and a leader needs to be willing to remove them or offer them another role. This doesn’t happen often, but occasionally it is needed.  The good news is that once it is dealt with, the team usually takes a leap forward.  This should be an option only when other attempts to work with the person have failed. 

Conflict can be healthy for a team when it is channeled properly.  The challenge for leaders is knowing how and when to intervene. 

PS: To learn more about Dr. Parisi-Carew’s approach to successfully resolving conflict on teams be sure to check out her thinking in the article Don’t Leave Collaboration to Chance or in the recording of her recent webinar on Why Teams Fail—Dealing with Friction and Dissension

Money often serves as a proxy for other issues that may be happening in a work environment. That’s why so many people ask for more of it when they feel short-changed in other areas. It’s sort of a “They don’t pay me enough to put up with _________.” (Fill in the blank.)

When people can’t put their finger on other aspects of the work environment that are troubling them, they will often look to pay increases as a short term fix to make up for it. This impact never lasts very long and pretty soon you’re back to your same levels of dissatisfaction.

If you want to create a compensation plan that works for most people, be sure to address these needs identified by authors David Sirota, Louis Mischkind, and Michael Meltzer in their book The Enthusiastic Employee. People want—and expect:

• A decent wage that allows them to live the lifestyle they feel they deserve
• A fair return for the work they provide
• A signal from the organization that it values them

Just a little bit above the prevailing rate does the job 

The good news according to the authors is that people are generally reasonable when it comes to pay and do not expect compensation wildly beyond what others receive for comparable work. You only need to pay a little bit above the prevailing wage to create high levels of satisfaction with pay. A small premium above perceived prevailing rates will do wonders for attracting better candidates, keeping the good people you already have, and encouraging people to live up to their above average pay scales.

At all costs, what you want to avoid is the perception that your organization pays slightly below the prevailing rates. When that occurs, you are sending the wrong message to your employees. Now it looks like you are trying to obtain their services at a discount, and are putting your needs over theirs. Don’t be a cheapskate when it comes to compensation. People always have the ability to dial down their work performance to the level they feel is commensurate with the pay they are receiving. You don’t want below average performance. Don’t insult people with below average pay.

What if you are paying above average rates, but nobody thinks so?

First, remember that reality is in the mind of the perceiver. If you are paying slightly above prevailing rates and employees don’t perceive it that way, take a moment to see what you can do to help employees accurately understand the total value of their compensation package. Sometimes employees will compare base pay rates without taking into account the value of other compensation elements such as medical, dental, 401(k)s, etc. Help employees understand how your total compensation package measures up against other companies in your industry and in your area. Make sure that employees understand the total value of the package you are offering. Show people the numbers, and respectfully challenge the misconception that you are paying below industry averages.

Get compensation right and then move on

Finally, once you’ve made sure that you’re slightly above industry averages with your total compensation and that you’ve done a good job communicating it to employees, do everything you can to put the issue to bed and get on with other things. Money should not be the primary reason people come to work. It needs to be a foundation, but it shouldn’t be an incentive in most cases. Pay people fairly and then move on to some of the other items that make a motivating work environment. Remember that compensation is just one of the factors that people look into when evaluating a work environment. Don’t make it the sole focus.

Years ago, business owners were asked, “If you had to choose between a fire that wiped out your facilities versus having all of your people quit and walk out at the same time, which option would you take?” Almost everyone said they’d rather lose their buildings and equipment because to rebuild their human organization would require a lot more effort and be more difficult to accomplish.

In the latest issue of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Ignite newsletter, co-founder Ken Blanchard shares how the recession of the past two years put many organizations into a position of having to decide between people and profits in order to stay in business. Some of those decisions were painful, and in some cases, the way decisions were made had an adverse impact on the human side of the organization. The facilities and the equipment are intact, but the people are not present in the same way as before.

As a result says Blanchard, “People are looking for clues to see if their organization is only interested in the bottom line, or if they are equally concerned with the people side of the business.”

For leaders looking to rebuild trust, commitment, and morale in their organizations, Blanchard recommends senior leaders focus on creating a compelling vision, while immediate managers work to implement plans by connecting individual work to overall goals. 

As Blanchard explains, “Senior leaders need to create a compelling vision that defines or redefines the organization’s business. The key here is to have a clear focus on the customer and make that everyone’s goal. During the past recession, people saw what looked like self-serving behavior on the part of a lot of leaders. In many organizations, it seemed as if top leaders saw the organization only as a way to achieve personal ends. In contrast, when senior leaders identify a compelling vision of the future and align the organization’s goals and values toward this vision, everyone can move in the right direction and focus their energy on the customer.

“Frontline managers need to make sure that each and every employee’s work is connected to an overall department or organizational goal and that the employee can see how their work has an impact. To build trust and respect with direct reports, frontline managers should schedule regular one-on-one meetings with their people. Managers should use these sessions to clarify expectations, solicit input, answer questions, and provide feedback. Nothing shows that you care and respect a person—and their work—more than spending time with them, checking on their progress, and providing help when necessary.”

To read more about Ken Blanchard’s thoughts on rebuilding trust, commitment, and morale, be sure to check out the complete article here.  To participate in a complimentary webinar Ken Blanchard will be conducting on this topic visit the information page for Healing the Wounded Organization.  The webinar is free and hosted by Cisco WebEx.  Click here for details.

When I was a kid I loved watching reruns of Get Smart, the TV series (1965-1970) starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, the bumbling Secret Agent 86. Anyone who has seen the show or watched the movie spin-offs knows that Agent 86’s partner, the lovely Agent 99, is the competent one who always bails him out of trouble. Their boss, “Chief,” is frequently frustrated with Maxwell Smarts’ ineptitude, but he has an extreme amount of trust and faith in Agent 99 to keep Smart out of too much trouble and avert mass chaos and destruction.

The reason that “Chief” had faith in Agent 99 was that she had expertise in her role that warranted a high level of trust. She had the skills, relevant experience, and knowledge required to get the job accomplished. Think about the times you haven’t trusted someone. How often has it been because you felt the person didn’t have the expertise to get the job done? Perhaps you didn’t trust an auto mechanic because he didn’t have the know-how to repair your car the right way? Maybe it was the not-so-handy handyman you hired to do some home repairs that turned into a nightmare? Or, bringing it closer to home, maybe you don’t trust your boss because he doesn’t have a clue about the work you do, yet he pretends he does?

The TrustWorks! ABCD Trust Model provides a common framework for building trust in relationships. Trust consists of four elements: Ability, Believability, Connectedness, and Dependability. Developing your expertise and demonstrating competence is a critical component of Ability. You are trustworthy when you have and apply the task knowledge and skills for your job. You can be trusted because you constantly learn and build expertise in your chosen field, and you use your skills to assist and teach others. Having expertise in your job allows others to have a higher level of trust in you because they can be confident that you’ll get the job done right.

So what can you do if you think you have room for improvement in building trust by increasing your Ability? Find a mentor in the area where you need to improve and come up with an action plan to help you develop the skills and knowledge that you need. Seek out continuing education, volunteer for projects that will force you to learn new skills, or work with your boss to set goals around learning and development. In other words, Get Smart!

This is one in a series of articles on the TrustWorks! ABCD Trust Model and building trust in relationships and organizations. Be sure to “like” TrustWorks! on Facebook or follow on Twitter @TrustWrks.

Are you driven to achieve?  Are you overly concerned with the opinions of others?  Ken Blanchard left a reminder on voice mail the other day that if your self-worth is dependent on your accomplishments plus the opinion of others you are in trouble, because that means your self-worth is up for grabs on a daily basis.

We all have bad days.  We are always going to rub some people the wrong way.  Should that really be the measure of our sense of well-being? 

If you are still answering yes, consider that those two viewpoints are consistent with two of the four warning signs that you might have an overactive ego that is holding you back in other areas.  In their wonderful 2007 book, Egonomics: What Makes Ego Our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability), authors David Marcum and Steven Smith identify the following warning signs that your ego may be out of balance. 

1. Constantly seeking acceptance—you find yourself becoming overly concerned with what other people think.
2. Feeling the need to constantly showcase your brilliance—you go beyond “tooting your own horn” to making your brilliance the center of attention. 
3. Being overly comparative—instead of being your own individual best, you find yourself focusing instead on just being better than someone else. 
4. Being overly defensive—instead of defending an idea, you find yourself making things personal.

One key point in the book is that an out of balance ego doesn’t feel dramatically different from an in-balance ego.  In fact, you might not even notice at first—even though other people will.  That’s because ego takes your strengths and subtly changes them into close counterfeits.  Now everything seems a little self-serving and things that people appreciated about you—like being able to come up with an alternative viewpoint, being able to objectively compare your point of view to someone else’s, brainstorm good ideas, and seek and welcome feedback—things that make you a good team member—are subtly changed. 

So how do the authors of Egonomics recommend rebalancing your ego?  Three ways:

1. Humility: Don’t think less of yourself—just think about yourself less.  Remember that too little ego is just as much out of balance as too much ego.
2. Curiosity: Ask, instead of tell. None of us is as smart as all of us.
3. Veracity: Find truth-tellers in your life.  People who will be straight with you and tell you what you need to hear.

Ego can be our greatest asset, or it can be our biggest liability. It’s all about keeping it in balance.