Blanchard LeaderChat

Competent leaders build trust with their followers. Leaders can be experts in their particular field of technical expertise, but if they aren’t competent in the skills of leadership, followers will lack trust and confidence in their ability to lead the team to success.

A friend and former colleague, Danise DiStasi, has recently co-authored a book with J. Ford Taylor that provides a helpful model for leadership success. In The Hike – The Missing Link to Transformational Leadership, DiStasi and Ford share the story of a struggling corporate executive, Stuart, who discovers new personal and leadership insights that turn his life around while on a weekend hike in the mountains. Part of what Stuart learns is the V-STTEELE model, a tool to build leadership competence which in turn builds trust with others.

Vision – Developing and communicating a vision is a foundational role for successful leaders. It’s easy to get twisted up in the distinctions between vision and mission statements, but suffice it to say that a vision is a compelling picture of the future that describes the destination the team is trying to reach, the purpose of why the team exists, and the values the team will use to carry out their work. Casting a clear vision answers the “why?” question of what leaders do.

Serve – Some people hear the words “serve” or “servant leadership” and mistakenly associate them with concepts of weak, mamby-pamby, touchy-feely leadership. Servant leadership is quite the opposite. Servant Leaders are committed to serving the best interests of their people and organizations by teaching, training, equipping, and empowering team members to be the best they can be. Ken Blanchard says it’s turning the organizational pyramid upside down where leaders serve the needs of others rather than being served.

Teach – Teaching is one way that leaders serve others. All successful people have reached their station in life due to the efforts of others teaching them along the way. Great leaders understand that their success is perpetuated by teaching others how to be successful. Teaching is an ongoing process where leaders impart knowledge to others by their example or by guiding the development of the follower, perhaps through a mentoring relationship.

Train – Successful leaders develop others by providing training and skill development to be successful in their roles. As opposed to teaching, training is more short-term focused on specific skills, projects, or goals that a person needs to learn or accomplish. Providing specific direction on a task by showing and telling how it should be done are primary ways leaders train others.

Equip – Equipping others involves providing the tools, knowledge, training, time, money, and other resources for your team members to succeed. I’m sure you can think of your own personal experience where you’ve been asked to complete a task or goal but haven’t been given the resources to do so. Without properly equipping your people, you hamstring them from success.

Empower – Just like the word “serve,” empowerment has gotten a bum rap over the years. We shouldn’t let that distract us from the fundamental value of the concept which has resurfaced in different contexts lately. Daniel Pink’s best seller, Drive, is essentially about empowerment. According to Pink, you unleash someone’s inner drive or motivation (i.e., help them be self-empowered) by providing them autonomy, mastery, and purpose in their roles. Successful leaders empower (literally “invest with power”) their team members to do what they were hired to do.

Let Go – At some point leaders have to relinquish control and let their people work on their own. I remember teaching my oldest son how to ride a bike, running alongside him while holding on to the seat to help him balance, and then that scary moment of finally letting go to let him ride on his own. Letting go as a leader means trusting your people to do the right thing. If you’ve done a good job in serving them by teaching, training, equipping, and empowering, then you can let go with confidence.

Evaluate – Everyone needs effective feedback, both positive and corrective, to help them improve their performance. Leaders build trust with their followers when they learn to communicate effectively, are candid yet caring, provide reward and recognition, and create a culture where mistakes are viewed as opportunities to learn rather than reasons to punish.

Trust is the foundation of all successful relationships and one of the core elements of trust is the demonstration of competence. Leaders can build competence and trust by using the V-STTEELE model to live out their leadership purpose.

This is one in a series of LeaderChat articles on the topic of trust by Randy Conley, Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies. For more insights on trust, visit the Leading with Trust blog or follow Randy on Twitter @RandyConley.

In a recent blog post, Gen Y: The Doom of Middle Managers? Entry-Level Rebel Jessica Stillman points to data that suggests Gen Y workers might not need traditional middle managers. 

Why? 

Changes in technology, attitudes, and the nature of work eliminate the need for supervisors who only see their job as telling people what to do and then evaluating performance at an annual review.

If that is what’s happening in your organization, consider asking senior leadership to create a higher standard for managers.  Setting goals and conducting performance reviews are just the beginning of a middle manager’s job.  Their real value is in their ability to access resources, remove obstacles, and provide day-to-day coaching for the people who report to them. 

If your manager is not providing you with the support that you need to succeed, here are three things to ask for (and a proven way on how to ask for it.)

What to ask for

1. A clear sense of how your job impacts key departmental goals. Everyone needs to know that their work is meaningful and to have some clear alignment between what they do and what the organization is trying to accomplish.  If you can’t point to a key departmental objective and how your work is impacting it, you do not have the alignment that should be in place.
2. A well defined job that includes some routine and some challenging tasks. In a healthy work environment, you will typically have 3-5 goals that you need to accomplish.  If your job is structured properly, some of those tasks will be very achievable with your present skills while others are more of a stretch that you cannot accomplish with your current skill set and resources. This mix is an essential component of a satisfying job that also encourages career growth.
3. A clear agreement with your boss about where you are at and what you need to succeed.  For tasks where you are self sufficient you need an agreement with your boss to give you the autonomy you deserve to accomplish the task as you see fit.  No one likes being micromanaged on tasks they are capable of achieving on their own.  For tasks that are beyond your current skill level and immediate resources, you need an agreement for the direction and support that will help you access the budget, training, and expertise you need to get the job done.

How to ask for it

• Use “I need” statements.  One of the most powerful ways you can get the help you need to accomplish your work goals is to use “I need” statements.  For example, “In order to process customer orders more efficiently, I need a higher level of access into our customer database,” or “In order to create the type of social media campaign and metrics that we are talking about, I need some additional training.”  For best results, pair any “I need” statement with three possible solutions.  Very few bosses will turn down this type of request—especially when it is in pursuit of legitimate departmental goals.

A good middle manager or front line supervisor takes strategic directives and turns them into results.  Is that the role your immediate manager is playing?  If not, expect more.  Use “I need” statements to make sure that your job is aligned,  that you have a mix of routine and stretch goals, and that you have an immediate supervisor committed to helping you access the resources you need to succeed.

Good middle managers will never be obsolete.  That distinction is only reserved for managers who see their role as assigning tasks and evaluating others.  That truly is obsolete, not just for the next generation of employees, but for all employees.

“One of the big challenges for new managers is learning to recognize and appreciate that not everyone approaches work the same way that they do. Some of the most dangerous words for a leader to use are, ‘Well, if it were me, this is what I would do.’ When we do that, it keeps us from understanding, embracing, and working successfully with other people’s behavior,” says Ann Phillips, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies.

In a recent article entitled Top Challenges for New Managers, Phillips explains that many people are promoted into managerial positions because they were great individual contributors. Because they had so much success with a certain way of working—be it strong planning or attention to detail or great execution skills—they may have a difficult time understanding that other people don’t necessarily work that way.

For these managers (and others who may be new to leading others) Phillips identifies three additional challenges:

Doing the work yourself. It’s not easy for new managers to let go and trust that the work will get done without their direct intervention. When things don’t work out as planned—or are taking longer than expected, new managers tend to step in and do the work themselves rather than work through the process and learn how to let others run with the ball.

Not setting clear roles and goals. This is especially challenging for new managers who have been promoted from a group of their peers.

“Managers need to walk a fine line,” explains Phillips. “You want to maintain the relationship, but you have to separate yourself so people see you no longer as a peer, but instead in your new role as a manager.

“All good performance begins with clear goals and all good relationships begin with clear roles. If a manager is promoted out of their peer group, they need to sit down with their former coworkers and talk about how their roles have changed. ‘Here is how I am going to behave differently and here is what I expect in return.’ Otherwise there are always misunderstandings and surprises.”

Balancing accountability and caring. Sometimes new managers think you have to choose between people and performance.  Phillips recommends that new managers balance high expectations with equally high levels of support and caring.

“People need to know that you have their best interests in mind, that you are setting them up to win, and that you mean them no harm. Things are always going to come up. When people know that you truly care, that can cover a lot of situations and people will forgive your mistakes and continue to follow you.”

To learn more about Phillips’ advice for new managers, read Top Challenges for New Managers here.  Also, check out a free webinar that Phillips is conducting on September 22, A Primer for New Managers: Respect, Trust, and Accountability. It’s a free event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Whether you’re delivering a difficult message, giving tough performance feedback, or confronting insensitive behavior, handling a challenging conversation can strike fear and trepidation in the heart of a leader. If handled with skill and care, these situations are prime opportunities for leaders to build trust with those they lead.

The SPEAK model is a helpful tool to navigate challenging conversations.

S – State your concerns directly. Speak in private and face-to-face whenever possible and use “I” language to voice your concerns, thoughts, and feelings about the situation. A common myth about handling challenging conversations is that you should be objective and only stick to the facts. While you certainly want to be factual, you also need to share your feelings, without blame, so the other party understands the impact of the situation. Don’t make sarcastic or belittling remarks and be sure to share the consequences if the issue isn’t resolved. How it sounds: “Since we missed our deadline, I’m concerned that we may not meet our project goals.”

P – Probe for information to gain deeper understanding. Talk with an open and interested tone of voice and use open-ended questions to probe for more information to help you understand behavior that may seem incomprehensible. Pause long enough to give the person time to respond and listen with the intent to understand and be influenced by her point of view. How it sounds: “I’m confused about why we missed the deadline. Can you tell me more about what you thought our agreements were?”

E – Engage each other through whole-hearted listening. Be mentally present and intentional about listening. When people feel fully heard, they are more open to creative solutions, alternatives can be explored, wounds healed, and defensiveness lowered. Paraphrase to make sure you’ve heard and understood correctly and be sure to reflect the person’s feelings and values. How it sounds: “So you are saying that when I spoke with you about your performance that I was not clear about your goals and responsibilities?”

A – Attend to body language. Make sure that your body language matches your words. Sometimes leaders force themselves to be too relaxed when the situation is actually quite serious and that sends confusing signals to the other person. Pay attention to the other person’s body language and challenge inconsistent verbal and non-verbal messages with “I” statements. How it sounds: “I’m confused. I hear you saying that you think we don’t have a problem, yet I notice you sitting in a way that I’m interpreting as being angry.”

K – Keep forward-focused when possible. Once past issues have been addressed and the air cleared, focus the conversation on what each of you are going to do moving forward. Ask directly if the other person is ready to move forward, and if she isn’t, return to step E to explore any other issues or concerns that may be unresolved. How it sounds: “From my perspective, we have cleared up past misunderstandings. I am ready to move forward if you are. Is there anything on your end that we have not addressed yet?”

Working through difficult situations is an opportunity for leaders to build trust. It’s during these times that followers can feel most vulnerable to leaders because of the disparity of power in the relationship. Leaders who use their power in the service of others by demonstrating care and concern in handling challenging conversations will increase engagement, commitment, and trust with those they lead.

This is one in a series of LeaderChat articles on the topic of trust by Randy Conley, Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies. For more insights on trust, visit the Leading with Trust blog or follow Randy on Twitter @RandyConley.

Over the past 30 years, renowned marriage counselor John Gottman has been able to predict with 90% accuracy which newlyweds he works with will stay married versus getting divorced after watching just 15 minutes of their interactions on videotape. 

The key factor that Gottman looks for is the ratio of positive to negative reinforcement that couples give to each other.  When the ratio is 5 to 1 positive, the couples report the overall relationship as positive.  Anything less than 4 to 1 and the relationship is perceived as negative. 

Why does it have to be slanted so heavily in the positive direction?  The answer is emotion.  The emotional response surrounding each praising or criticism amplifies its impact.  For most people, criticism is stinging and leaves a far larger emotional footprint than positive praising. 

Leaders can promote healthy relationships with the people who report to them by praising and reprimanding effectively.  Here are three tips.

1. Be timely. Nobody likes to deliver negative feedback.  But some managers have trouble delivering positive praising also.  Uncomfortable with the whole situation, these managers believe that by not communicating, at least they are doing no harm.  But the reality is that “not communicating” is sending a message.  If your boss never communicated with you about your work, how would it make you feel?  What message would it send to you?  People want to matter and they want to be noticed.  As a manager, it is your job to make sure that you are paying attention to your people.
2. Be specific. Feedback is best when it is specific.  A general praising of, “You’re doing a great job!” is nice, but a more specific praising of, “The way you ran that meeting today was fantastic.  You really did a good job of having all of the background information ready and also redirecting the discussion when it was getting off track,” is better.  When it comes to negative feedback, it is even more important to be specific.  Consider how damaging a comment like, “You really don’t seem to understand how we do things around here,” is.  Instead be more specific.  Say, “We have a very specific process for approving email that needs to be followed.  Anytime something new is created, please make sure I see it first and have a chance to review it before sending it out.”  This turns criticism into redirection—which is what you’re looking for.  Even though it will still hurt, you want to keep the focus on the behavior that needs to change.  If you don’t, the recipient will only remember how you made them feel and the necessary change will be an afterthought. 
3. Be aware of your emotional impact. Remember that negative feedback is serious business and carries five times the emotional weight as positive feedback.  Anytime that you find yourself having to deliver a reprimand, make sure that you follow it up with a reaffirmation of the person and their abilities.  This doesn’t mean that you backtrack or soften the reality of what needs to change, it just means a reconfirmation of your faith in the direct report to do better and your belief that they can change. 

By mastering the art of positive and negative feedback, managers can strengthen their relationships with direct reports.  Keep in mind both the quantity and the quality of the messages you deliver.  It’s an important skill that will keep people engaged and performing at their best.

In a recent post for Fast Company entitled Managers: Set People Free To Promote Growth And Get Results, Blanchard Executive VP Scott Blanchard makes the observation that knowing when to give people greater autonomy in their jobs is often hard for managers to figure out.

As a leader, it’s important to make sure you’ve set your people up for success before you transfer responsibility and accountability. Here are some of Blanchard’s key points to make sure you’ve done your part.

Share what to do, with clear guidelines

A big part of being a manager is saying, “I’ve done what I can do, and now I need to turn it over to people so they can be accountable and responsible for their own performance.” The reality is that managers can’t watch their people all the time, so at some point their people are going to have to act on their manager’s behalf, consistent with the way that their manager wants them to act. This requires the manager to provide a clear picture of the desired outcome.

Make it a gradual process

Autonomy, when correctly implemented, is a gradual and appropriate empowering and loosening of the reins on people to enable them to take responsibility for what they are doing. For example, if you are a parent, you know that sooner or later your children are going to be out in the world, living and making decisions outside of your expressed views.

If parents don’t let their kids do anything independently and develop their own skills before they turn 18 and leave for college, then they’re asking for trouble. Parents, as well as managers, need to slowly loosen the leash and give more autonomy over time. Otherwise they’re going to see some real disasters because they haven’t built up a person’s capacity to be autonomous.

Employees aren’t children, of course, but this example provides some context that all of us can relate to.

There is a big difference between providing autonomy and abdicating management responsibility. If managers just let people loose without skills, abilities, and boundaries, then they are abdicating responsibility and setting people up to fail. Autonomy needs to be a slow and steady process. Your goal as a manager is to help people learn their job inside and out through thorough training, and then, as they demonstrate competency, give them the autonomy to be flexible. Autonomy without competence is really risky and dangerous, and lack of autonomy when someone is competent can be insulting and demotivating.

Look for the right time

The challenge for a manager, then, is to identify the point at which to turn the job over to the employee. This is the leap of faith when supervisors move from a coaching role to a more consultative role with their people. Parents, again, are familiar with this when they watch their kids drive away to college–they take a big gulp and hope that they’ve prepared their kids to take care of themselves when they get to the campus.

In my own case, I have been known to give people responsibility too soon–sending them out before they really have all the competence and skills necessary. Other people I know have a tendency to hang on too long–then they miss the opportunity to give people a chance to really spread their wings and succeed or fail on their own merit. When managers hang on too long, they can create either dependence, or a sense of frustration, anger, and resentment in employees because the employees feel they are being micromanaged. As a manager, you want to get it right as often as you can, but be aware of the possibility that you may be either too slow or too fast in turning people loose.

In matters that aren’t life and death I would recommend a bias toward turning people loose early. In more critical circumstances you may have to hang on for a more extended period of time, but eventually you still need to let them go off on their own.

To read more of Blanchard’s thoughts on empowering your employees, check out his complete post here at the Fast Company Leadership Experts blog.

A few weeks ago I took my mother-in-law to a doctor appointment and the nurse who helped us had this Chinese symbol tattooed on the back of her neck. When I asked her what it meant, she said that it represented “honesty.” As the Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies, I was immediately intrigued since honesty is a core component of trust. As I did some research on this symbol, I learned that it could represent several concepts including “trust” itself. Yet the formation of this character is a compound word that has the meaning of “a person’s word is to be believed.” I was struck by the clear implication for leaders – are you a person whose word is to be believed?

In order to be a leader whose word is believed, it’s necessary to be honest in your dealings with people. Some would say that it’s unrealistic to be honest in all situations. In fact, just this week I read an article on a well-known management website that advocated the top ten reasons to be dishonest in the workplace, most of which were rationalizations for self-centric, me-first egoism. Being honest and ethical is actually a self-esteem boost for a leader. John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, said “There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.”

If asked if they were honest, most leaders would say “Yes, of course. I don’t tell lies.” Telling the truth is at the core of being honest, but it’s not the only behavior that people interpret as honesty. Sharing information openly, not coloring or hiding parts of the truth to fit an agenda, and delivering tough news with tact and diplomacy all go into someone forming a perception of you as an honest leader. In a recent survey conducted of over 800 people who attended our webinar, Four Leadership Behaviors That Build or Destroy Trust, 57% of respondents said that the most important behavior of a leader to build trust is acting with integrity; being honest in word and deed.

You can’t establish a relationship of trust without being honest. When you behave honestly, others are able to rely upon your consistency of character. Being reliable, consistent, and predictable in your behavior, decisions, and reactions to critical situations allows your followers to have a sense of security and confidence in your leadership. Being honest also helps the bottom line. Kenneth T. Derr, retired chairman of Chevron Corporation said “There’s no doubt in my mind that being ethical pays, because I know that, in our company, people who sleep well at night work better during the day.”

Honesty is like a behavioral tattoo, the indelible mark of a trusted leader. Do you have it?

This is one in a series of LeaderChat articles on the topic of trust by Randy Conley, the Trust Practice Leader at the Ken Blanchard Companies. For more insights on trust, follow Randy on Twitter @TrustWrks, Facebook, and the TrustWorks! blog.

Recently I was channel surfing while watching TV and I ran across a showing of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Larry the Cable Guy was one of the featured performers, and if you’ve seen his act before, you know his signature catch-phrase is “Git R Done!” Now, normally I wouldn’t recommend listening to Larry the Cable Guy for advice on building trust in relationships, but it struck me that if you’re a leader known as someone who can “Git-R-Done,” the chances are you’re considered a trustworthy individual.

Trust in relationships is comprised of four elements: Ability, Believability, Connectedness, and Dependability (TrustWorks!® ABCD Model). Part of being an able, competent leader is knowing how to get things done. Yet with today’s flat organizations and wide span of control, it’s impossible for a leader to know the answer to every problem that crops up.

Read more…

There’s a good reason why more people don’t run and jog to improve their cardiovascular health.  It hurts—especially when you’re just starting out.  For me it occurs at about the 3:00 minute mark.  That’s when the early burst of excitement (and caffeine) burns off and now my heart and lungs are laboring to catch-up with the demands my legs are putting on my body.

It’s a time each morning when I really want to quit—and in a lot of cases I did, because it seems like it was getting worse and worse with no improvement in sight.  But an interesting thing happens if I just stay with it a little while longer.  At about the 6:00 minute mark, my heart and lungs do catch up, my breathing is heavy but measured, and I realize that the worst is over.  I can do this!

The same thing happens at work when people face a new difficult task or role.  There is a moment, after the excitement of trying something new wears off, when we realize that this is going to be more difficult than we thought. 

Seth Godin writes about this phenomenon is his book, “The Dip” and it has important insight for any manager looking to improve growth and retention in their organization.  That’s because “the dip” is a prime time when many employees quit a task or a role because it seems too hard with no improvement in sight.

Do you have any employees who are at or near their “dipping point” on a task or role?  What are you, as a manager, doing to help them get through it?  Here are three tips that can help.

1. Identify where each employee is at with a specific task or role.  Are they an enthusiastic beginner, or has disillusionment set in?
2. If they are an enthusiastic beginner, channel that excitement by having them work on the right tasks, in the right order, to get the job done.
3. If disillusionment has set in, add a strong coaching component into the mix.  In addition to clear direction, you are going to have to provide them with a lot of support while they work through “the dip.” Encourage them on progress (even when they can’t see it), remind them of the goal, and make time to be there with training and other resources.

Don’t let “the dip” scuttle your plans.  With a little bit of help, people can power through to success.

Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company, still remembers the first time he heard Ken Blanchard talk about how as a college professor he would hand out the final exam on the first day of class and then he would teach everybody the answers throughout the course of the year.

It made Ridge ask himself, “Why don’t we do that in business?”

Ridge turned the idea over in his mind and eventually partnered up with Blanchard to write the 2009 best-selling business book, Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A”

In addition to writing about the subject, Ridge put the concepts into practice. Similar to what Ken Blanchard had done as a college professor, Ridge set out to do the same with the employees at his company, WD-40. He would give each employee a copy of the final exam at the beginning of the year—in the form of annual goals—and then have managers and supervisors partner with their employees to help them get an “A”

As Ridge explains, “In most organizations, after goals are set, managers file the goals away and don’t think much about the people’s performance until they realize they have to do their annual performance reviews. The only other time they think about their people’s performance is when something goes wrong. These managers tend to manage by exception. When a red flag goes up, they go to work and start managing.”

At WD-40 Company, the agreed-on final exam is just the beginning. Now comes the key step: the leader has to keep up his or her end of the partnership relationship on a day-to-day basis, by helping in coaching and supporting the individual to get an “A.”

Leaders and direct reports get together to analyze the employee’s development level on each of his or her goals and determines the leadership style that is a match. This process helps employees ask for the help they need from their managers as they move toward their “A” in each of their agreed-upon goal areas. It provides the basis for the day-to-day coaching of team members.

“You’ll hear people say, ‘I think I’m getting an “A” here, but I think I’m getting a “B” here.’ And then we want to talk about the B’s. We will ask, ‘What is getting in the way of you doing great work? Is it something within the company? Do we need to get some help? Are things just crappy out there? Do we need to adjust a little bit?’

“And so we have these check-in meetings four times a year. And there are no surprises. You know exactly where you are.”

What’s the focus of performance management in your organization? 

Setting goals and monitoring progress is only part of the story.  Helping people achieve their goals is where the action is really at. 

To learn more about Garry Ridge’s approach to performance management, be sure to check out a complimentary webinar Ridge is conducting on February 17 titled 3 Keys to Effective Performance Management.