The Flaming Cavalier

 

It happened last week on my drive from Portland to Spokane, WA.   I was cruising at a crisp 78mph along I-84 thinking about the cool work ahead when I was passed by a teal colored Chevy Cavalier.  Hmmmm…. Upon further inspection I noted that the teal mini-beast was sporting a very unique rear window motif.  Across the bottom of the window, a line of brazen flames adorned the glass.  Centered at the top of the window was a white outline of a little butterfly.  Huge flames and a butterfly.  Hmmmmm…

Then it donned on me: I know the driver.  You do, too.  It’s the boss who torches all that lives on their team with their horrific, biting threats and ego-hot pokes all under the guise of “leading the team to perform”.   Just like a blast from a blow torch, the exchange is one-way, oppressive and destructive.  Incredible talent is scorched by these hot heads daily and often it takes a long time for that talent to grow back.  Oh, and the butterfly?  That is the pin hole of light that shows up when this person sitting in a leadership seat (note: I can’t call them a leader now, can I?) says some ridiculous fib like “we value or people” in some fleeting, politically motivated moment.  Huge flames and a butterfly.  Hmmmmm…

This whole month I have been working with dozens of talented leaders to hone leadership skills that engage the team and their untapped talents.  It’s about conversations, relationships, respect and recognition.  Simple recognition.  So many good things are happening every day in our work environments yet in our stress and haste we often only find time to flame and poke at the mistakes.  Simple recognition.  Get some.

It takes less than 30 seconds to recognize a job well done.  What is the power in those 30 seconds?  In the new book, Closing the Engagement Gap, the authors offer, amongst other gems:  “when workers see their managers really get what they‘re doing to help the company and colleagues succeed and take the time to acknowledge it, employee engagement can soar.  This approach can also help build teams of high performers.”   Only a fool would turn down that return on a 30 second investment.

Yes, we learned how to turn the heat up by engaging team members instead of flaming them this month.  The application of our learning is paying off… with big business results.  The teams are more engaged, the customers are, in turn, more engaged, and the cash registers are ringing in record numbers.  Check that, Mr. Flaming Cavalier.  Your torch-toting days are numbered.

Walk away from the computer now and go recognize a great behavior/ result you want repeated.  Watch what happens to your team…and your scoreboard! 

Help us all get better.  Share your recognition story here.

Grand Navigation

It first hit me on a cold rainy day in 1983.  I was a gung-ho, athletic officer candidate at Ft. Benning, Georgia, standing in the rain, 5 miles from the nearest paved road, listening to an Army Ranger prep our company for our “pass-or-get-cut” land navigation test.

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

Five hours and approximately 10 miles of back country hiking and navigating later, about 100 of us passed this test.  Seventeen exhausted, aspiring officer candidates did not.  Hours later their bunks were stripped and they were sent packing.

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

Where are you going?  What does the amazing, incredible future of your organization look like?  What is your dream, your vision, of what could be?

Susan Scott, in her brilliant book, Fierce Conversations, states: “the quality of our lives is largely determined by the quality of the questions we ask – and the quality of our answers.”  So what are the big, bold questions that can define our ideal future?  Susan Scott offers these:

• Where are we going?  
• Why are we going there?     
• Who is going with us?                               
• How are we going to get there?

Imagine what could be possible if you could gain clarity about your desired outcome for yourself, your team, your company.  Let’s add some bold action to this bold thinking.  Once you have this clarity, what could you do with it?

Leaders inspire a shared vision.  Great leaders do this frequently according to Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge.  Keyword = shared.  That means it gets translated from brilliant leader brains into conversations that enlist others in the vision… conversations that engage others in co-creating the amazing, incredible future.  It’s more than words. Vision gets translated into action. Around here we call it BOLD action.

A strong vision will have an effect on actions you take every day.  Frequently shared, a strong vision will help your team members make better choices every day.  Result = waste is eliminated.  Frustration and burn out are diminished.  Innovation explodes.  Talent is applied.  The team scores together, more frequently.  Everyone wins.

I dare you.  Answer the 4 questions.  Dream.  Share.  Live it.  Create something no one has ever created before.  Go get it.

So, where ARE you going?  Share.

You, your team, and the rear view mirror

Most days, the world is whizzing by your ears so fast that you barely have time to peek over the horizon much less get a chance to glance in the rear view mirror.  Leaders on the ground, waist-deep in the fight can easily get overwhelmed in the work of successfully navigating the team through the day.  Are we running too fast to get better?

Peyton Manning isn’t.  I love watching Peyton on the field but I am most intrigued by his work during the game while the Colts’ defense is in play.  Peyton intensely flips through fresh-off-the-printer pictures of the last 4 downs.  He is taking a quick glance in his rear view mirror to study his team’s performance against the opponent’s defense.  In 20 seconds he looks at what happened, what worked, what didn’t.  He learns.  He applies that learning next time he runs out onto the field.  Simple?  Yes.  Huge?  I think so.

The habit of reflection, either self-reflection or reviews with teams, groups, or units, is a habit of champions.   We all want to win but how many of us really take frequent, quality time to reflect and recognize what is bringing us closer to our goal or our dreams and what is getting in our way?  Sure you can sit quietly and contemplate for hours.  You can also use a solid 60 seconds to hit pause and zero in on what is working, what isn’t and what learning you can take forward to improve your performance.   In fact, I know you are busy so I crafted a 60 second tool to-go that you can use for yourself and your team to crank it up.  Check it out: 6 simple steps to better performance  .  

How did the tool work for you?  Do you have another cool process you use to learn from past performance?  Better yet, send in those success stories about how using what you learned from past performance made all the difference for your team.  

Its almost football season.   I bet Peyton is studying those films as we speak.