Letter Published in April Edition of Management Today

MOCCASIN TEST

I'm with the 'female business grandee', commenting on the venom being directed at Sir Fred Goodwin ( Editor's blog 06-March-09)

It reminds me of my father's reaction to, recently turned 60 pop idol, Lulu - "She can't sing for toffee!" That was about forty years ago and the fact that she was presenting her, prime time, Saturday night TV show to millions of viewers, seemed to have passed him by.

Sir Fred Goodwin, Gordon Brown, George W Bush, Margaret Thatcher; it appears that almost everyone will tell you how useless they all are or were. We, the public and the media all seem to find great pleasure in negatively criticising almost everyone else, be they Chief Exec, Politician or Pop Star. 

I haven't a clue whether it's entirely Sir Fred's fault that RBS are in their current position or that Gordon Brown is wholly responsible for the economic state of the nation. I don't have all the information to make that decision; just as, I can't support the negative criticism of a friend who has recently left his wife. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, be it No 10 or RBS Headquarters.

What I do know is, that put all those critics in the job, be they Joe Public or Opposition politicians, then things won't necessarily be better. Of course, people have to pay for their mistakes and we have to learn and move forward.

However, we'd all do a great deal better if we concentrate on the factors we can influence rather than criticise what other people do or don't do.

 Let's not vilify everyone and anyone without, to use an old Indian saying, "walking a mile in their moccasins."

How to Change Your Beliefs and Expand Your Comfort Zone

I was listening to, TV presenter, Fearne Cotton being interviewed on breakfast television last week. She was talking about a nine day trip, made recently by herself and eight other celebrities. They climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, and raised over £3 million for charity. In the weeks before the trip, they trained hard, but it was a gruelling climb and some of the people in the team suffered badly from altitude sickness. Fearne was one of the ones to receive injections for the sickness; however, she made it to the top along with all the others. Well done and good for her!

When asked by the interviewer, "what happens next?" She talked about a similar challenge, still to be finalised, later in the year.

What's happened here is that, Fearne, who has done nothing like this in her life, has now expanded her comfort zone.

You may not want to climb any mountains, cross any deserts or explore the Amazon jungle, but I'm sure there are other goals and objectives, that you would like to achieve in either your business or personal life.

Think about what you're doing each day and ask yourself –

"Is what I'm doing now getting me to where I want to get to?"

If the answer is "No" then do something different. Change your beliefs and expand your comfort zone

The psychologist Abraham Maslow said –

"If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being; then I warn you that you will be unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capabilities, your own possibilities."

I hear people saying; "I'm too old, I don't have the qualifications, it's not the right time!"

It's never too late to make that change

There's the famous story of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds. He was over fifty when he started making money. Kroc was a paper cup salesman, who obtained the marketing rights to a multi-mixer invented by Earl Prince. He criss-crossed the US for seventeen years selling these mixers until he met up with the McDonald brothers. Dick and Mac McDonald ordered eight of his mixers and had them churning away all day. Kroc was entranced by the effectiveness of the McDonald's operation and started thinking about building McDonald's restaurants all over the US. He thought he could then sell more multi-mixers. The McDonald brothers weren't too keen on the idea, so they franchised the restaurants to Kroc. He ultimately bought out the McDonald brothers, and as they say - the rest is history.

Ray Kroc's belief in himself was unshakeable, as he noted later – "I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland." Kroc didn't allow his age or his physical condition to hold him back. Are you going to allow anything to hold you back?

Listen to the negative things you say to yourself and the beliefs you have about yourself – DO NOT allow them to hold you back.

If you do have negative beliefs about yourself, here's a way to change them.

Your subconscious will always attempt to move away from pain and towards pleasure. So start to associate massive pain to your negative belief.

Think about how it will hold you back and stop you achieving what you're trying to achieve. Think about how miserable you'll feel if you don't even try.

Old people rarely regret what they've done in their life, but they do regret what they haven't done. So think forward to when you're 75 or 80 years of age and imagine how you'll feel if you've never tried.

Then start to think of the pleasure you'll receive in fulfilling your beliefs. Think about how good you'll feel when you achieve what you set out to do. If when you're older you look back and think about things you didn't achieve, at least you'll be able to say – "I tried, I gave it my best shot and I didn't sit on the sidelines."

So start thinking big – the size of your success is determined by how big you think. If you think small you'll have small achievements. If you think big – you'll have big success and that's just as easy, if not easier than small thinking and small achievements.

 

How to Remember Names

Feedback; The Good, The Bad and The Delivery

How do you feel about feedback? Do you receive it from your manager; do you give feedback to your team, your colleagues or your friends?

We all feel different about feedback, because we are all different. Some people love it, others are okay with it, and others just hate it.

I'm sure that you have colleagues or people on your team who always want to know "how they're doing." They come and speak to you and show what they're doing. "Is this okay, am I doing this right?" They're constantly looking for reassurance that they're doing the right thing. Then you'll have others who never come and speak to you at all, and get most uncomfortable whether you're giving them the good news or the bad.

Feedback is one of the Top 3 Factors that motivate people at work. The majority of employees want to know when they're doing well and when they could be doing better.

There are managers who are happy to receive feed back and resultantly, are comfortable giving it to others, because they believe everyone feels the same way they do.

And of course, if you look at it the other way round; managers who are less comfortable receiving feedback, tend to believe that their team feel the same way. This is often the biggest danger because many managers don't receive feedback from their manager and subconsciously feel – "Why should I give feedback to my guys when I don't get it?"

Whether you receive feedback or not; whether you feel uncomfortable giving it or not – you still need to do it for your people. Just be aware that they're all different individuals and they might react in different ways. Almost everyone wants feedback – how much, is just a matter of degree.

There are two types of feedback and a way of doing it.

The Good

This is what we call, Confirming feedback; telling a team member that you support whatever you've seen them do or heard them say; it's a compliment or a thank you. It's about 'catching people doing something right.'

Successful managers realise that almost everyone reacts positively to Confirming feedback. They feel better about themselves and they feel motivated to repeat the behaviour. There is a saying that says – "You get more of what you reward."

If you tell someone that you like the way they have completed some aspect of their work, then you'll find that they continue to do that work in the same way or probably even better.

Confirming feedback is worth a fortune to you in terms of motivating your team and achieving your goals and targets.

The Bad

This is what we call, Productive feedback on behaviour you're not happy with. As you spend time with people, you're going to hear and see things that may not ensure your outcomes. Ask yourself; "Is this something that is going to stop me achieving my outcomes of a happy and motivated team who achieve their targets?" If the answer is "no" then you're going to have to do something about it.

There are various things you can do; you can ignore the behaviour you're not happy about, you can reprimand the person, or you can coach them.

Coaching is not a soft option; it's about finding out the cause of poor performance or behaviour and discussing with the other person about how to put it right. You tell the other person what you're not happy with, listen to what they have to say and agree a way forward.

The Delivery

Whether you want to reinforce behaviour - Confirming feedback, or change unacceptable behaviour – Productive feedback, there are certain steps you need to follow to make it work.

You need to do it as soon as possible and in private. Tell them how you feel about their behaviour, not how the organisation or anyone else feels. It's important to focus on one thing at a time and don't confuse the other person with a whole list of behaviours.

You need to be specific and get input from the other person. And most importantly; don't leave them low!

If you get all of this right, you'll have a highly motivated team who, increase customer satisfaction, boost sales and make a positive contribution to your business.

More Customers, More Sales in 2009

Focus on Strengths Not Weaknesses

Let me ask you a simple question – what do you believe a manager's job is all about? What is it that managers do on a day to day basis?

Now, if you're a manager, or you probably work for one, then you'd almost certainly be able to list a whole range of actions and activities. They might include – interviewing, solving problems, dealing with customers, planning, report writing, analysing data, dealing with complaints and hopefully, leading and motivating the people who report to them.

Many managers seem to believe that, over and above these activities, the prime function of their job is to identify weaknesses in members of their team, and resolve them. In other words, they relentlessly focus on the 'negative aspects' of an employee's job. They do this, at worst, by criticising, and reprimanding or, at best, by coaching or training. I am aware of managers that spend a great deal of their time exploring an employee's performance looking for some perceived fault or aspect that could be improved. Parents often focus on the negative aspects of a child's school report rather than the positive.

Too many managers are spending too much time trying to change people.

They seem to believe that if they train people, tell them what to do or even threaten them with disciplinary action or the sack, then they can get them to change.

The successful manager concentrates on developing the strengths of their team members – not trying to correct their weaknesses. Sometimes you have to manage around a weakness, but you can't make people what they're not.

When I was a teenager, my father sent me for piano lessons for about three years. He was determined that I would learn to play the piano. To this day I can not play a note. I realise now, as an adult, that I am just not musical. Strange as it may seem, I'm not particularly interested in music. My CD collection consists of about 6 CD's which I rarely listen to. If I had attended piano lessons for even more years then I'm sure I could have become competent, however, I would never be any good at playing the piano.

It's a waste of time trying to correct weaknesses that can't be sorted. Some people just can't build relationships with customers, others can't work as fast as you need them to, others can't write a report to save their life, (and 'certain other people' will never be able to play the piano)

Your most productive time as a manager will be spent focussing on strengths and how to develop these further. If you give people feedback on what they do well; then it is often the case that there is an improvement in what they don't do so well. By focussing on the positives, they feel more motivated to improve the negative aspects of their performance.

So there you have it; whether in your business or personal life, focus on the positive aspects of other people, not on the negatives.

Remember: People have one thing in common; they are all different.

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