Leverage Gripes and Complaints

17 01 2013

Guest Post by Barry Rush

coaching-revolution-how-visionary-managers-are-using-david-logan-paperback-cover-art

One of the profound lessons I learned from the book, Coaching Revolution (David Logan & John King) p.121, is that we need to turn complaints into requests and requests into agreements.  The idea is that some of the gripes that people infest the organization with as they gather in the break room can become damaging to the working environment and to the organizational culture.  The constant gripes that usually bring laughter … “we spend hours in evaluation but nothing ever changes” … can be cancerous.

What is the solution? Answer:  Leverage those gripes! 

We as leaders can harness the learning behind those gripes.  Leaders who listen, rather than react, will hear the request behind the complaint and ask questions to find the root issue. 

As a team member, I have used this several times and before going in to meet my director, I listed my complaints and turned them into requests and wrote down some of the issues surrounding that complaint.

The leader may say, “I hear your complaint.  What is your request?”  Or, she might say, “Tell me more about this problem you have surfaced.”  Once the request is made the next step is to get to agreement.  For example:

Team member: “Would it be possible to schedule our meetings to end at 4:30pm instead of 5:00pm.  Many of us are in carpools and sometimes people have kids to take to sports or school functions.”

Leader: “That is doable.  That means that we need to make sure every team member is on time to begin the meeting and we need to start meetings immediately after lunch in some situations.”  “Is there anything else?” (Asking for more in order to learn)

Team member: “Actually, several have said that we have a lot of time wasters in our meetings, lack of clarity on the goal of the meeting, the process for getting the work done.  Is that something we can get a group to work on and make recommendations to our facilitator?” (Clear Request)

Team leader:  “Yes, I will look at your recommendations and work with the facilitator.  I just need you to be patient as we are just breaking him in as a meeting facilitator, so give him some time to learn the role.” (Compromise and Agreement)

Here’s my suggestions for you:

  • First, as a team member, list your complaints and turn them into requests (decide which are most crucial to bring to your boss).
  • Second, as a leader, listen aggressively to your people and their complaints/gripes … take time to turn those into requests … or say, “I hear your complaint.  What is your request?” 
  • Third, follow through!

Hope it works as well for you as it has for me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Barry Rush has been in leadership with CRU for the last 35 years, 20 years in the U. S. and in the last 15 years has been serving the CRU VP for Leader Development as a Geographical Representative focusing on Eastern Europe and Russia, North Africa Middle East, Central Asia and West Africa. He has spent the last 8 years helping build a strategy used on campuses overseas, the EQ Workshop – A Two-Day Emotional Intelligence Workshop that has been pioneered in the above Areas.  You can connect with Barry at:  barry@theeqworkshop.com

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WHAT’S ON YOUR SCORECARD?

29 10 2012

Guest Post by Mark Miller

People love to keep score. Leaders help people keep score. These two facts both contribute to improved performance. However, improvement is not automatic; a key driver in the process is the scorecard. Today, I want to address the fundamental question every leader and every team has to struggle with: What’s on your scorecard?

On the surface, it seems like a simple question. In reality, it can be one of the most difficult and important questions a leader has to make. An effective scorecard enables a leader and the team to quickly identify critical issues and to monitor the impact of their work.

I often draw the picture above and share the following story to stimulate the conversation regarding what should be on the scorecard…

Suppose you’ve been stranded on a deserted island for 5 years. When they come to rescue you, you ask, “How’s the business (or church, or school, or whatever you’re charged to lead) doing?” The response: “Which 3 numbers do you want?”

That’s all you get – not an annual report, not an Excel spreadsheet, only 3 key numbers. Which ones will you choose? The numbers you choose are your leading contenders to be on your scorecard. Without even realizing it, if you’ve chosen wisely, you’ve identified the primary health indicators for your business/team.

Often when I lead a group through this exercise, there are questions. Here are some of the most frequently asked ones and my responses.

Q: Can we have more than 3 numbers?

A: For the purposes of the exercise no – in reality, sure. Be careful – too many metrics on the scorecard diffuses focus and can negatively impact your results.

Q: What if we really want to track dozens of different performance metrics?

A: That’s great. You can track anything that you believe will enhance your performance; just don’t put them on page one of the scorecard.

Q: Is there a second page?

A: There can be. Think about a major league baseball pitcher. On page one of their scorecard you might find: Wins and Losses; Earned Run Average (ERA) and Innings Pitched. However, on page two, you might find: pitch count, pitch location, pitch selection and even release time to the plate. If you aren’t getting the outcomes you desire, you can often find clues on page two.

Q: Can the scorecard change?

A: Absolutely. I’ve seen many scorecards that are anchored by a few constant metrics; but also contain one or two key numbers that change over time as the needs of the business/team change.

These are just a few of the questions that you and your team can think about. At the end of the conversation, be sure your scorecard embodies the outcomes you desire because… what gets measured gets done.

Note from Bob:  You were probably hoping that Mark would give you the answer to “What are the 3 key numbers you should ask for?”  By now you have realized that he did not!  So, what are the 3 key numbers that you would ask for?  

Please share your answer below!  Thanks!

Mark Miller is the V.P. Training and Development at Chick-fil-A and a best-selling author and communicator.

Mark Miller’s Books:

Would you like the link to Mark’s blog? greatleadersserve

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Would You Like to Know How the Walt Disney World Textile Services Lowered Their Annual Employee Turnover Rate from 85% to less than 10%?

25 10 2012

Last week we took took a group of our “Emerging Leaders” on the Business Behind The Magic Tour at Walt Disney World.

 

Our first stop was the laundry.    I bet you are thinking, “Wow!  The Walt Disney World Laundry – How Exciting!  NOT!!!”

With future stops at Epcot Cast Services where all of the Cast Members report in for work and change into their costumes and then with a visit to the The “Utilidor” System (tunnels) underneath the Magic Kingdom, I was hoping that the stop at the laundry would be quick so we could get to the more exciting locations.  Turns out that this first stop shared the best Leadership Story of the day:

The annual employee turnover rate at the WDW Laundry services was approximately 85%.   WDW was considering outsourcing laundry to another company.  But as their leadership met they decided to try another approach. They decided to push leadership down to the Cast Members (all employees at WDW are called Cast Members).  Leaders at the WDW Laundry met with all of the Cast Members and asked them two questions:

1. What can we do to make your job easier?

2. What changes would you recommend to serve our Guests better?

They shared that it took some time before the Cast Members began to respond.  Initially Cast Members did not feel the freedom to share their thoughts – they feared that their responses would be viewed as criticism.  It took about six months of asking before the Cast Members began to engage.

But when the Cast Members began to share their ideas,  Leaders listened and changes were made.  For example, today all Cast Members can raise or lower the platform on which they are standing to an ideal working height.  Air conditioning vents are now directly overhead of their work areas.

There was also a “hook type” tool that they were using to empty the dirty laundry carts – which was tearing a lot of bed sheets.  Engineering was brought in and with the Cast Members help they re-designed this tool, saving several hundred thousand dollars a year.

They have machines that automatically fold sheets and towels.  This machine has bands that move the sheets and towels forward – but there was a problem – the bands quite often break – stopping the whole process.  One of the Cast Members who had recently left the Navy had an idea!  He had learned to tie a special knot in the Navy that he thought might be able to be used to tie together the ends of a broken band.  It worked!  Annual cost savings over $100,000!

Laundry Cast Members suggested some cross training with the Housekeeping and Restaurant Cast Members – where they got to see exactly how the room linens and restaurant linens touch all their Guests.  WDW calls this cross-utilization and is intended to have the different teams really “live” in the other teams’ job for a few days.  When  Housekeeping and Restaurant Cast Members spent a few days working in the Laundry they came back with new appreciation for their counterparts and the daily challenges they face.

The Disney leaders also shared with the laundry Cast Members how significant their contribution is to every Guest – without the laundry done well – everything at Walt Disney World would come to a complete stop.

Today Cast Members set their own Production Goals –  Turns out they set higher production goals than their leaders would and have demonstrated they are more likely to actually achieve those goals than if their leaders had.

But the really amazing part of the story is that today Annual Cast Member Turnover in the WDW laundry is less than 10%.  Cast Members get hired and stay until they retire!  And it all started when Leaders began asking the WDW Laundry Cast Members two questions!   WDW calls this “Employee Engagement.”

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Gene

4 10 2012

Excerpted with the permission of the author of Love Works – Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders from Chapter 5.2

Gene

I have interviewed hundreds of people in my thirty-plus years in business, and I have seen almost every situation imaginable. However, over lunch with Gene, who was being interviewed for a senior leadership position at Herschend Family Entertainment, I saw something new.

Our lunch was going very well. He was working for a larger competitor, and he clearly knew his field of expertise. Not only that, but he seemed to like our direction, growth strategy, and culture. As we talked, however, I couldn’t understand why Gene was interested in joining the HFE team. He already had a great job that paid very well, and joining us would probably require a pay cut and moving his family.

“Gene, you don’t need to sell me any more on your capabilities,” I said. “It’s clear you have the skills and the drive that we need. But why do you want to leave the company you’re with?”

He looked at me, and tears welled up in his eyes. With his voice quivering, he said, “They cut one-third of my team in a mass layoff.” And after a long pause, he continued slowly, “And they didn’t even ask my opinion. They didn’t trust me enough to ask me.” Then he was silent. He could no longer speak without crying.

Gene’s leaders lost his trust because they made a major decision without his input. He was willing to leave his company because of a lack of trust. One of the best ways a leader can demonstrate trust and respect is to listen to and involve team members in the decision that affect them.

The best decisions are always made with, not for, and showing that kind of trust is a true attribute of leading with love.

Joel Manby President and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE) At HFE, the largest family-owned theme park corporation in the U.S., Manby and his team have proven you can get financial results and lead with love, generating a 14% annual return to shareholders while also helping thousands of employees in financial need via the company’s Share It Forward Foundation. 100% of the royalties from the sale of Love Works go to this foundation.

You can find out more about Joel and Love Works at:   joelmanby.com

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You Are Only as Great as the Questions You Ask

20 09 2012

Guest Post by Jorge Barba

Leaders lead through questions.

Farnam Street published a post about the art and science of asking better questions. The post includes some good tips on how about asking great questions, so be sure to check it out after you are done here.

Anyway, this got me thinking…

I like listening to interviews of any kind. Ever since I was a kid I like to watch and listen to the post-game interviews of sports events like the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl. Sometimes it is repetitive, but listening to these interviews helped me understand what makes a good interviewer. It also helps me understand how to ask and when to ask questions.

I also watched late shows like Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan, etc. And also watch Charlie Rose every now and then. I like watching them because they are in the business of getting people to talk.

There are all kinds of questions. From sports, business, life, etc. And as a leader, having that arsenal in your head is very potent because…

If you want to lead, you need to re-frame

For innovators and leaders who want to unleash innovation inside their companies, developing the ability to ask great questions is imperative. To be able to re-frame a problem in a way that sparks different answers is a very valuable skill. And, it is probably one of the most difficult skills to master. Of course, for innovators it all starts with the known suspects: “why”, “why not” and “what if”.

But, there are more specific questions we can ask. And, even more profound ones.

For example, here are 46 Questions to help innovators know what customers want. These were taken from the table of contents from Tony Ulwick’s book What Customers Want:

Formulating Innovation Strategy
1. Who Is the Target of Value Creation and How Should It Be Achieved?
2. What Types of Innovation Are Possible?
3. What Growth Options Should Be Considered?
4. Where in the Value Chain Should We Focus to Maximize Value Creation?
5. How Do We Handle Multiple Constituents with Potentially Conflicting Outcomes?

Capture Customer Inputs
6. Why Should Companies Gather Customer Requirements?
7. What Three Issues Plague the Requirements-Gathering Process?
8. What Types of Data Do Companies Commonly Collect from Customers?
9. What Customer Inputs Are Needed to Master the Innovation Process?
10. What Methods Should Companies Use to Obtain the Necessary Information?
11. How Do You Know Which of the Three Types of Inputs You Should Capture?

Identifying Opportunities
12. What Is an Opportunity?
13. What Three Common Mistakes Are Made in Prioritizing Opportunities?
14. How Should Companies Prioritize Opportunities?
15. How Do You Identify Underserved and Overserved Markets?
16. How Dos Value Migrate Over Time?
17. What Implications Does the Outcome-Driven Paradigm Have for Competitive Analysis?

Segmenting the Market
18. What Is the Purpose of Segmentation?
19. How Has the Practice of Segmentation Evolved?
20. Why Are Traditional Segmentation Methods Ineffective for Purposes of Innovation?
21. What Is Different About Outcome-Based Segmentation?
22. How Is Outcome-Based Segmentation Performed?
23. How Does Outcome-Based Segmentation Address Development and Marketing Challenges?
24. How Is Job-Based Segmentation Different, and When Should it Be Used?

Targeting Opportunities for Growth
25. What Is Different About Targeting for Innovation?
26. What Types of Broad-Market Opportunities Are Likely to Be Attractive?
27. What Segment-Specific Targeting Strategies Are Effective?
28. How Does a Targeting Strategy Result in a Unique and Valued Competitive Position?
29. Why Do Companies Fail to Target Key Opportunities?

Positioning Current Products
30. Why Does Messaging Often Fail to Tout a Product’s True Value?
31. What Are the Prerequisites for an Effective Messaging Strategy?
32. What Messaging Will Be Most Effective?
33. Should a Company Message Along an Emotional or Functional Dimension?
34. How Does the Sales Force Have Immediate Impact on Revenue Generation?
35. What Is the Advantage of an Outcome-Based brand?

Prioritizing Projects in the Development Pipeline
36. What Issues Do Companies Face When Prioritizing Projects?
37. What Method Is Used to Identify the Winners and the Losers?
38. Which Efforts Should Get Top Priority?
39. What Other Factors Affect Project Prioritization?

Devising Breakthrough Concepts
40. Why Does Traditional Brainstorming Often Fail to Produce Breakthrough Ideas?
41. How Are Breakthrough Concepts Successfully Generated?
42. What Are the Mechanics Behind Focused Brainstorming?
43. Why Do Traditional Concept-Evaluation Methods Fail?
44. How Is the Customer Scorecard Used to Evaluate Product and Service Concepts?
45. How Are These Methods Applied in Practice?
46. What Is the Role of R&D in the Innovation Process?

More and better questions equal more and better solutions.

So, how can start asking great questions?

Here are three tips:

  1. Identify and collect great questions. Questions are everywhere, and it is as simple as storing them in a notebook. You can find them on surveys, books, white papers and even on Quora. There is an endless source of supply.
  2. Use a tool like the Reframing Matrix. Reframing is about shifting perspectives, this simple tool helps you do that in a visual way.
  3. Use other people’s brains. If you have a diverse set of friends with different backgrounds and professions, use their brains. How would they see your problem from their point of view?

Jorge Barba   @jorgebarba Innovation Insurgent who’s all about making change happen. Creativist. @disney Fanatic. Passionate about creating a smarter world. Chief Strategist @blumaya

http://www.game-changer.net

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Curiosity Did Not Kill The Cat!

10 09 2012

Guest Post by Andy Uskavitch  (originally posted to Linked2Leadership.com)

In order to help your employees grow you have to know about them. You have to know what they’re capable of – not only in your eyes, but in their eyes. You have to know what they enjoy doing – both at work and at home.

  • What do they consider a job well done?
  • If they were given time, what types of projects would they want to work on?
  • What resources do they need that you’re not aware of?

“Curiosity might be the most under-the-radar and undervalued leadership competency in business today.” This is just one of the thought-provoking and meaningful quotes from the new book, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want, by Beverly Kaye & Julie Winkle Giulioni (releases Sep 18).

Fairness is Not Fair

We always hear, from employees, about how things have to be fair. But everyone is NOT the same so you can’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same schedule, raise, or attention.

The solution?

Be curious so you can determine just what is fair to each individual person.

Think about how “fairness” affects you and the organization.

Say you have one employee (A) that always has a positive attitude, has initiative, always exceeds expectations, and generally outperforms other employees (B). If you treat employee A and B exactly the same, with the same pay, raises, and perks, there will be no incentive for employee A to continue performing so well.

Is this being fair to employee A?

Being the Sincerity Role Model

You, of course, know that you’re a role model, right? Well you should. If you’re more curious, it’s going to trigger your employees to be more curious.

They too, will find out more about their own teammates and become more curious (ie, ask questions, plan) about how projects may pan out – fixing possible problems before they happen.

Don’t forget that your curiosity needs to be sincere.

Kaye and Giulioni go on to say this: “Quality questions asked without curiosity will signal to employees that you’ve just come back from training. Quality questions asked with the spirit of curiosity will facilitate conversations that will literally allow others to change their lives.” An a-ha moment, to be sure – one of many in their book.

How to Be Curious

Some basic questions you can ask, according to Margaret Heffernan in her Inc. Magazine article, Inspire Your Workforce: Be Curious:

  1. Find out 10 things about your employees that you could not find on their resumes
  2. Learn the names of each of their spouses or significant others
  3. Find out how many pets belong to your workforce
  4. See if you can find out one book each team member has recently read
  5. Identify a favorite food (or drink) that each person likes

Ask these questions and you just may gain more enthusiasm and respect for your team. Heffernan said one CEO came away with far more creative ideas about how to motivate his employees, and by knowing what excited them, was able to connect better with them.

An effective environment is supported by high quality relationships between managers and their employees. Employees will work their hearts out only if they want to, and that’s determined mainly by the quality of the relationship with their managers.

A Curious Case in Point

Way back when, when I was working retail I worked with another manager that would always complain to me about one of our employees – we’ll call her Betty – no, Veronica. She’d tell me that Veronica was lazy, unmotivated, and disregarded her “power.”

On the other hand, I’d describe her as just the opposite. When we sat down one day to figure out why we described Veronica so differently, it quickly became obvious that it all had to do with our leadership styles. Where I asked Veronica about what work she liked and wanted to do, and about her family, and her future – my counterpart could have cared less.

I worked WITH Veronica’s strengths and worked ON her weaknesses. She was a model employee with me and a royal pain-in-the-arse with our other manager . . . all because I was curious. Wow, what a concept?

  • How is your relationship with your employees?
  • Are you curious enough about your employees to find out more about them? (you should be)
  • What can you do today to become more connected?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Andy Uskavitch is a Certified Manager (CM) specializing in leadership/staff development and quality excellence programs at OneBlood, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL.

http://supervision-motivation.blogspot.com/

http://linked2leadership.com/author/andyuskavitch/

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Questions as the Ultimate Leadership Tool

3 09 2012

Excerpted with the permission of the author from Leading with Questions pages 22-23

Another example of a leader who makes effective use of questions is Commander D. Michael Abrashoff.  Through what he calls “Grassroots Leadership,” Commander Abrashoff turned around the operations of the USS Benfold, one of the U.S. Navy’s most modern warships.  His methods were not complex, yet the results were astounding.

Under Abrashoff’s twenty-month command, the Benfold operated on 75 percent of its allocated budget, returning $1.4 million to the Navy coffers.  The promotion rate of his people was two and a half times the Navy average.  The predeployment training cycle, which usually takes a total of fifty-two days, was completed by the Benfold crew in just nineteen days.

A third of all recruits don’t make it through their first term of enlistment, and only 54 percent of sailors stay in the Navy after their second duty tour.  Commander Abrashoff had 100 percent of the Benfold’s career sailors signing on for another tour.  It is estimated that this retention alone saved the Navy $1.6 million in 1998 (Crowley, 2004).

What did he do to stage such a turnaround in less than twenty months?  As he himself remarks, he continuously:

  • Asked questions
  • Listened
  • Then he acted on what he heard

Almost immediately upon taking command, he had a fifteen to twenty minute personal interview with each of his staff of three hundred.

He asked each person these three questions: 

  1. What do you like best about this ship? 
  2. What do you like least? 
  3. What would you change if you could?

Abrashoff acted as quickly as he could to implement the ideas that came from these questions.  He realized that simply following existing procedures and doing things the way they had always been done could no longer be effective.

Abrashoff set the vision and trusted his crew.  He helped people take pride in their work.

Whenever I didn’t get the results I was looking for on the Benfold, I tried to look inward before flying off the handle.  I also asked myself three questions each time:  

  1. Did I clearly articulate the goals I was trying to achieve? 
  2. & 3.  Did I give people the time and resources they needed to succeed? 

Eighty percent of the time, I found that I was part of the problem and that, through my actions alone, I could have altered the outcome significantly.

Abrashoff questioned every rule.  He noted that when an officer or sailor came to him for approval or a signature on something, his first questions was always, “Why do we do it this way?”

If the answer was, “Because this is the way it’s always been done,” I would say, “That is not good enough.  Find out if there is a better way to do this.”

After a while, people began doing their homework before they ever brought issues to me.  And they could explain, “This is why we do things this way.”  Or, “We’ve thought of a better way to get this accomplished.”  It drove my officers crazy, but by creating a culture in which we questioned everything, we were training our people to keep their eyes open to new ways of doing business [Abrashoff, 2002].

Now three questions for you:

A.  When you you going to ask yourself:

  1. Did I clearly articulate the goals I was trying to achieve? 
  2. & 3.  Did I give people the time and resources they needed to succeed? 

B.  When are you gong to ask your staff:

  1. What do you like best about working here? 
  2. What do you like least? 
  3. What would you change if you could?

C.  What are you going to do with the answers you receive?

Michael J. Marquardt is the President, World Institute for Action Learning and a Professor at George Washington University. Mike is the author of 20 books and over 100 professional articles in the fields of leadership, learning, globalization and organizational change including Action Learning for Developing Leaders and Organizations and Leading with Questions.

http://www.wial.org

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Find Your “WHY” to Improve Performance

30 08 2012

Guest Post by Sean Glaze

What is your motivation?

“WHY” do you lace up your shoes in the morning?

One of the things every great performer does to improve performance, regardless of their field, is find their “WHY.”

Imagine if I told you about a hidden suitcase, across town, that  was filled with 800,000 dollars and I told where it was located, and that you could have the cash if you were able to get to the suitcase in the next three hours… would you find a way to get there?

Would traffic stop you?

Would you care about the weather or less important things on your schedule or other people wondering why you were so determined to get across town?

Would you waste time and complain about the obstacles along the way, or just get past them in order to reach the suitcase and get what was inside?

Now, imagine I told you the suitcase was full of “Monopoly money” instead.

Would that suitcase be your only priority and motivate you to overcome obstacles?

You see, the difference between the two suitcases, and what is likely your very different levels of motivation when considering going after them, is the why. When the “WHY” is big enough or important enough, the “HOW” normally becomes much easier to figure out.

But if the “WHY” in your life is just “Monopoly money” – if it isn’t really something you are passionate about – you will come up with excuses or busy yourself with distractions and be far less motivated to overcome obstacles in your path.

Some people are motivated by money – but that only lasts so long… Carrot and stick reward systems are the least effective of all motivators.

Some people are motivated by excitement or fear… they are either so excited about where they are going, or afraid to stay where they have been, that it becomes a powerful “WHY.”

But the most powerful “WHY” you can identify is loyalty to a person or cause that you love.

When you are motivated to do something for others, you rarely let anything get in the way of achieving your goal.

What is your “WHY?”

If you haven’t asked and answered that question, you will always be at a performance disadvantage when you face competition who has answered it.

Chris Paul was raised in North Carolina, and his grandfather had a large hand in raising him.

The day after Chris Paul signed his scholarship to play at Wake Forest, his grandfather was murdered at 61 years old… outside the gas station where Chris had grown up working with him.

For the next game his high school team played, he vowed to honor his grandfather by scoring 61 points… one point for each year of his life.

He had never scored more than 39 in an entire game before.

But Chris Paul scored 24 in the second quarter alone. He had scored 59 with 2 minutes left in fourth quarter – and after driving to basket and making the layup, he was fouled.

He missed the free throw on purpose and left the game with the 61 points he had pledged to score for his grandfather. His team won the game.

So how did he score so many points?

He had a “WHY!”

If your “WHY” is big enough your “HOW” becomes easy.

When you get tired, or frustrated, or begin to doubt… it is your “WHY” that will give you the energy you need to keep going. Your “WHY” won’t let you give up.

Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not lose heart.”

What is the “WHY” that will keep you focused and not allow you to lose heart?

Find your “WHY!”

As an experienced author, speaker, and team-building coach, Sean Glaze engages and influences audiences with a unique blend of dynamic content, interactive activities, and practical action steps. If you are interested in team development or need a team building speaker for an upcoming event, you can reach him at sean@greatresultsteambuilding.com.

(You can also follow him on twitter for teamwork insights and resources!)

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Power of Questions

20 08 2012

Special Note:  In 2006 I was browsing in a (now closed) Borders Bookstore and came across Leading With Questions by Michael Marquardt.  I only had to peruse a few pages before declaring to myself, “This is a Keeper!”  This book changed forever how I lead!  Recently I have had the privilege of interacting with Mike and he graciously agreed to do several guest blogs and has given me his “cart-blanch” permission to excerpt from Leading With Questions in future posts! Thank You Mike!

Guest Post by Michael Marquardt

Questions can elicit information, of course, but they can do much more. Great leaders use questions to encourage full participation and teamwork, to spur innovation and out-of-the box thinking, to empower others, to build relationships with customers, to solve problems, and to change culture. Questions wake people up. They prompt new ideas. They show people new places, new ways of doing things. They help us become more confident communicators. Most successful leaders use questions frequently.

There are two types of mindsets that may reside in the questioner: the learner and the judge.

In the learner mindset, the questioner seeks to be responsive to circumstances. Thus, she is more likely to think objectively and strategically. The learner mindset seeks and creates solutions, and relates to others in a win-win manner. Leaders with a learning mindset tend to be more optimistic and presuppose new possibilities, a hopeful future, and sufficient resources. They exude optimism, possibilities and hope. They are thoughtful, flexible and accepting. Their relationships operate in a collaborative and innovative mode. They encourage workers to be more flexible, more open to new possibilities, and less attached to their opinions and the need to be right. Such leaders seek to strengthen people’s ability to be conscious of their choices and responsible for their thoughts, feelings, behaviors and outcomes.

The judge mindset is reactive. It leads to over-emotional thinking and behavior. Leaders with the judging mindset tend to be more automatic and absolute in their actions; they emphasize negativity, pessimism, stress, and limited possibilities. The focus is more on problems than on solutions. Judging questions are inflexible and judgmental. For the judger, questions are more likely to be reactive to the situation, and thereby lead to automatic reactions, limitations, and negativity. Judging questions result in win-lose relating as they all too often operate in an “attack or defend” paradigm. Such questioners often deny self-responsibility and search for other people or circumstances for blame. Leaders with the judging mentality believe they know the answers already anyway,

Despite the evidence questioning is a critical competency of a leader, few leaders practice the art of asking questions for three main reasons:

  1. Negative experience with asking or answering questions that has generated a fear and discomfort with inquiry
  2. Lack of skills in asking or answering questions based upon lack of experience and opportunity, lack of training, and limited or no models
  3. Cultures that discourage questions, especially those that challenge existing assumptions and policies.

Michael J. Marquardt is the President, World Institute for Action Learning and a Professor at George Washington University. Mike is the author of 20 books and over 100 professional articles in the fields of leadership, learning, globalization and organizational change including Action Learning for Developing Leaders and Organizations and Leading with Questions.

http://www.wial.org

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To Succeed You Must Ask The Right Questions

16 08 2012

Guest Post by Daniel Newman

Our businesses are full of smart people, and we are supported by even smarter technology.

This has opened a world of possibilities for the organization. Real time on demand information that tells us everything that is going on with our business.

Real time sales, financials, analytics, and a world of other reports. Where you want it, when you want it.

These tools can all be great for business. However, the keyword here is “Can.”

From the time I was a child my father used to always tell me, “The numbers don’t lie.”

He was an entrepreneur. One that pulled himself up by the bootstraps and built a successful business out of sheer grit and determination. With little formal education beyond high school he became convinced the numbers were the story.

I’m pretty certain now that I’ve gained a bit more experience that much of what he said was correct. The numbers do not lie. In fact, they are the most completely accurate representation of what is going on in a business.

However, the fact that the numbers don’t lie, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are useful. The numbers that are spit out at us via ERP, CRM, EDI, and a vast array of other systems are the words that tell a story. This story requires deciphering via a word key that is generated by the organizations people. Every report, the balance sheet, the income statement, the revenue analysis; all of them tell a story, but how do we determine what that story is.

Here is where better businesses set themselves apart.

For business is not determined by the answers because we all have them right in front of us. Business is determined by the questions we ask.

With the right questions we are able to recognize trends, identify plans and strategies, create KPIs, and execute to our plan. The continuous flow of data to our inbox allows us to continue shaping our visions and determine what the next question should be. It is from those next questions that we continue to arrive at better outcomes. In short with the right questions we can control our circumstances.

However, if we ask the wrong questions, or perhaps worse yet no questions we become constrained by our situations. Moreover our circumstances begin to control us.

Take for example a three year revenue trend. Let’s say that the report shows sales rising by 5%.

For some companies they will look at that and assume that everything is good. Revenue is up, and life is grand.

Here is another way it could be looked at and I suggest this method as a way to begin asking the right questions.

Big Picture Question: Why is revenue up?

Second Level Questions: Is it related to new customers (Width), more business from current customers (Depth) , Did margin increase or decrease (Profitability), or was there one or two significant (perhaps beyond normal) large deals that created the higher revenue (One Time Deals)?

Third Level Questions: What trends can we identify (External, Internal Environment)? What if there are no giant deals next year (Risk Assessment)? What customers fell off (Opportunities)?

The depth of questions could go on and on, but with the “Right Questions” comes better business insight which propels an organization forward.

With this in mind, let’s talk a bit more about the example above…

If the answers to those questions showed that the business growth was related to one extremely large deal from a current customer that is highly unlikely of happening again. You may come to realize that your run rate business was actually down year over year and that you need to generate a plan to off set this. Further you may have realized that several large customers saw significant drop off in business and that they need some attention because they may have moved a portion of their business to someone else.

And with that lies the foundation of the story and the root of better business execution.

Everyday we are bombarded with data that can be used to help us run better organizations and drive more desirable outcomes. However, do not be fooled about the path.

The results do not lie within the data you are provided, but rather within the questions that this information drives.

Smart systems and smart people can give you all the tools you need. But only smart leaders know they must ask great questions.

So Dad, you were right when you said that the numbers don’t lie; however I hope you realize it was the questions you then asked that made you a success, and not just those numbers themselves.

Daniel Newman serves as the CEO of EOS, a quickly growing hosted IT service provider. Daniel is also VP of TMD connect, EOS’ parent organization. TMD is a national distributor for Cisco Systems. At TMD Daniel is responsible for the company’s strategy and business development activities.

You can follow Daniel’s blog at:  www.millennialceo.com

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