The IMPACT Blog
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January 06, 2010
January Sucks. So Does September.
It’s official. No one really wants to go back to work in January.
I spend my days talking to people. I am a coach. That is what I get paid to do. A funny thing happens when you spend your days talking to people, you notice trends.
Here’s a trend that I can’t help but notice, January sucks. Everyone I talk to is in a funk. They are re-thinking their career. They feel unmotivated. They are pondering early retirement. Do you know what will happen by the end of the week? Most people will feel better and that will be fine. There is no big hidden issue, you don’t need to change your job – January sucks.
Do you know what else I’ve noticed? The exact same thing happens in September. It gets better too once you get back into the swing of things.
So what? Just remember that in January and September you will feel unmotivated and then go on to remember that you will also feel better.
December 17, 2009
Make Time to Really Enjoy the Holidays
We are all busy at this time of year – preparing for the holidays and making sure everything is ready and perfect. Before we know it, the holidays are over and we are back to work.
This year, clear time for the holidays. Open your house or office, ask people to drop in and just enjoy each other’s company. Don’t worry about being completely prepared. Don’t worry about being fancy. Be spontaneous. Be relaxed, and be there.
Happy holidays from all of us at IMPACT Consulting!
December 09, 2009
Smaller is Better Sometimes
I am currently working with three leaders who are in the midst of restructuring in some way. Two of these leaders ended up with smaller senior teams. They went from a large span of control (10 or more team members) to a small but powerful team of 3 or 4.
I got to see one of those teams in action in the past few days. What I saw was a team that was nimble and able to make decisions quickly. There was deep trust within the team as some team members made decisions that the team supported without needing major detail. Discussions were strategic and remained on track without major diversions. There was an “evenness” to the quality of the input from the individual team members – there were no weak links in terms of talent.
The leader of this team turned to me yesterday and said the following. “It is easier to lead a smaller team.” Indeed it is. Simply, things happen much more quickly with a smaller number of people.
The trend lately has been to “delayer” organizations and expand spans of control as wide as 15 people. The lesson here for me is clear. One size does not fit all. Sometimes large spans of control make sense. They fit the leader’s style. They fit the organization’s needs. Sometimes they cost more in terms of strategic decision making than the payroll costs they save.
As another client said recently, “I added a layer of VPs. I added payroll costs but I increased the efficiency of the group and reduced the overall cost to the organization.” If you want to drive change, consider adding a layer sometimes.
September 29, 2009
Five questions.
Yes it’s true. My best ideas often come from clients. Here’s a great idea one client shared with me recently.
This particular client has a rather difficult boss. Her boss likes to find ways to assert his power with my client. He regularly calls her into his office to tell her what she has done wrong. He will cut her off and correct her in meetings. He has restricted her decision making power to the point where she has to ask his approval to “buy a pencil”. Fun eh?
What has she been doing all of this time? Well my client is no shrinking violet. She has been confronting him with her concerns. The situation has worsened.
When I talked to her last week she had a new strategy. She calls it “five questions”. Rather than reacting when he does something to upset her, she instead forces herself to ask him five questions and they have to be real questions. They cannot be questions like, “what the =#**#@ do you think you are doing?” The questions she asks are real questions—clarifying questions, like, “Help me understand what you mean when you say that…”
It’s a brilliant little technique. As she is thinking of five questions, she is not getting angry. When she asks the questions she disarms her boss as he thinks about his answer. They have better conversations.
My client may not stay in her current situation but while she is there, it will be a little less difficult for her.
September 23, 2009
My next challenge. Do I have the courage?
I have started writing a book and truth be known, I am dabbling. I am running a business, enjoying my family and meeting my personal needs (hanging with friends and getting some exercise). I am walking the talk. I am balanced.
There is one hitch—writing a book is not something you dabble at. You write a little. You edit a lot. You write a little more. You edit a whole lot more. You look at what you wrote and you think,
“Is that it? All that time and that’s it?” I had no idea how much work it was.
That said, I am happy. I am enjoying writing and I want to write more.
I often tell my clients that careers are more like a set of stairs than a hill. You have periods of great growth and then periods of plateaus. I am perched right now on a plateau about to step up to a period of growth.
To really get growth, I need to scale back other things and just write. I need to take that step off the plateau and up that next riser.
Will I have the courage?
I did it five years ago and I will do it again. My next step up. I just have to figure out how.
September 16, 2009
K.I.S.S.
Keep it short _______. Yes I know the saying is “Keep it simple ________.” (I’ll let you fill in the blank - we try and avoid that word in our house).
This is a short simple blog about feedback. Keep all feedback short and simple. Don’t drone on. Don’t make excuses. Don’t try to discuss the underlying issues. Long conversations too often result in a lack of clarity for the person recieving the feedback.
Here’s an example of good K.I.S.S.feedback:
August 21, 2009
Leave your watch at home.
I was leaving for my annual three week vacation and Claire, an IMPACT coach, wished me a good holiday and asked rhetorically,
“I wonder if you will come back and be philosophical like you were last year?”
Well the answer is, “Yes.” I am sitting in the cottage feeling philosophical so I thought I would write about it.
June 12, 2009
Creating a Coaching Culture - Part One
It must be the economy. Every HR person I meet lately is interested in "creating a coaching culture". The way these HR people see it, a coaching culture will mean that everyone will coach more. They want to rely less on external coaches. Makes sense. Why pay someone for something when you can do it yourself? The nice thing about this economy is that everyone is doing more themselves.
I decided to write this blog in order to help my clients create that coaching culture.
This blog will be the first in a series.
May 25, 2009
The Sixty Percent Leader.
I was inspired to write this blog by a meeting with one particular client but I have to say that I had similar conversations with many people all week. Funny how lots of people seem to be thinking the same things at the same time.
This client was frustrated with the shortcomings of one of the leaders in his organization and spent a good part of the meeting complaining about the mistakes this leader had made. Rightly so, the leader is not perfect.
But who is perfect and why do we expect our leaders to be perfect? I'd like to suggest that there are two reasons for our high expectations. One, management literature has done a disservice to all of us in setting up standards around the "perfect leader". We all look for a leader who is inspirational and personally attractive to us. We look for a leader who knows what to do in every situation.
Two, there may be an answer rooted in psychology. We put leaders on pedestals and then are disappointed when they don't measure up. Sound like any teenagers you know? Sometimes when I listen to clients it reminds of Eric Bern and his theory of Transactional Analysis. He says we can analyze our transactions and determine if we are in either Parent-Child or Adult-Adult relationships with our peers. Our disappointment with leaders is much more closely aligned with Parent-Child than it is with Adult-Adult. An angry child might say to a parent "You let me down. You didn't give me what I wanted." An Adult relationship would look more like "Help me understand why you decided to implement this decision." Adult relationships according to Bern are relationships where both parties learn from one another.
There are probably other reasons for this "leader on a pedestal" phenomena. However, if you follow this blog, you'll know that the "why" for me is less important than the "what are you going to do about it?"
Here is what my client is going to do about it. Every time he feels frustrated with the inadequacies of leaders, he is going to think the following, "Sixty percent is good enough." Why did we pick sixty percent? It reminds us both that people (and leaders) are not perfect. Eighty percent seems too close to perfect. It also reminds us that leadership of a large group of people is complex and constantly changing. I work with a large number of very smart people. Not even a very smart person knows the right thing to do in every situation.
Sound like my standards aren't high enough? Maybe, but last time I checked leading an organization is very complex and no one, not even a leader, is perfect.
May 20, 2009
Get Over It
Last week I went to an emotional meeting at my kids' school. There were two groups of parents and two groups of teachers. Both sides were vested, both sides had valid but opposing opinions on a lingering issue, and everyone got more emotional as the evening wore on. Finally one of the parents stood up and said "get over it". It was the one comment that everyone needed to hear - no blame on either side, just get over it. The meeting progressed - we elected a new board, some decisions were made - we started to look ahead.
The evening reminded me of an article written by Marshall Goldsmith in 2008 called “The Best Leadership Advice I Ever Got”. In it, he talks about getting frustrated and bogged down by “stuff” you cannot change and turning into a complainer vs someone who moves forward. Leadership is not about pointing out everything that is wrong. That’s too easy. Leadership is about taking those imperfections and making things better.
So, instead of dwelling on the bad ... let’s just get over it.
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/goldsmith/2008/09/the_best_leadership_advice_i_e.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a38:g26:r13:c0.049112:b22125272
