Category Archives: teamwork

Why Managers Get Fired

Posted on February 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve had a funny month. One of my clients has demoted one of their managers, and fired another. A second customer is considering buying out a minor shareholder who’s also a manager. All of them for either not being able to do their jobs as it relates to managing other people or themselves. It all seems to relate back to feedback, influence, and communication.

I’ll give one example. One of my construction clients had an operator who screwed up and caused unnecessary damage. It was bad enough that the operator suspended. His manager didn’t know how, or didn’t feel confident in doing the suspension himself, and asked the general manager to do it for him.

At this point I’ve got a couple of questions, like how come we’re discussing the fairly straight-forward suspension of an operator at the executive level? Or how come somebody is  a manager (leader) and still not confident confronting poor performance? Or how somebody who couldn’t perform basic managerial tasks without guidance and oversight at every step is hired for a job that is essentially just that. Or how long has this being going on?

Ultimately they decided to let that manager go. After they started digging and asking questions they found other issues. They decided that if that general manager has to do his job for him, then why pay the guy?

Which means that the general manager is now (still) the bottleneck for operations. Which isn’t his role. He has to spend time finding the right gal or guy as a replacement, and run operations in the meantime, while juggling his “real” job of building relationships with existing customers and finding new ones in a new operation in a new city.

How well do you think he’s going to do at hiring a good operations manager with all that on his plate? Oh, yea, he’s also short an operator while the original problem child is on suspension.

So what? Well, if you’re in a “manager”, making your “general manager’s” job easier means handling things at the lowest level possible. If you’re not comfortable at giving specific, fact-based feedback and applying the appropriate consequences, then start now. Yes, you’re going to suck at it and be really uncomfortable with it at first, especially if you haven’t done it before, had a good example of how to do it, or had training. Too bad. All those excuses have a solution, but none of them should hold you back from starting now. Everything is practice until it isn’t. So start practicing.

If you’re the “general manager”, then stop hiring for just experience and knowledge. Look for the ability to develop, coach, and mentor team members. Look for the ability to create teams. For the experience admitting mistakes, fostering trust, taking responsibility, and being comfortable with conflict.

Your Homework This Week: Catch somebody doing something right every day for the next seven days. Give them specific, actionable feedback. If you don’t know what this means then do the research and learn how. *

*hint: I’ve written at least two dozen article on the topic of giving feedback for this blog.

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Posted in coaching, conflict, delegation, developing staff, feedback, mentoring, teamwork

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Improv Rules For Business and Life (Part II)

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Part 2 of Karl & Bernie’s conversation about how the rules for comedy improvisation can and should be applied to business and life. Have fun!

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Posted in behaviour, communications, emotional intelligence, engagement, execution, feedback, focus, listening, motivating, persauding, teamwork

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Improv Rules Applied to Business and Life

Posted on January 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

So my buddy Karl and I finally recorded another podcast on the topic of Improv Lessons for the Corporate World. Give a listen and let us know what you think.

You can also find some previous resources at:

Karl’s guest blog on Give Feedback
Rules of Thumb for Improv in Life and Business: Embrace Failure, Reject Fear 

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Posted in behaviour, communications, creativity, focus, leadership, listening, teamwork

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Creative versus Planner: How to Get Along

Posted on December 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve been accused of being “pie are squared”, a little too much of a colour-inside-the-lines kind of guy. Which is fine. If I’m trying to get something done I set my goal, set out the steps, and start ticking things off my to-do list. That doesn’t mean that I always succeed, but I enjoy the process of steadily making progress towards my goal, and the anticipation of completion.

Which is why I couldn’t figure out why how entrepreneurs were just as successful with their approach. It seemed to me that they couldn’t make up their mind, didn’t know were they were going, and changed course at random. Their approach was puzzling to me until I realized they just go through life in rapid-prototype mode.

They start with were they are, figure out what they have, and try to put it together in strange and interesting ways to see what happens. If something useful comes out of it, so much the better. If not, they’ll quickly drop it and go onto the next thing. They’re the creative types.

So if you’re a planner working with a creative type, remember that they don’t think in terms of process, but in terms of what if. For you this means you have to figure out what you (collectively) are trying to accomplish in the long term, which will give you a context for figuring out where the hell that latest idea came from and what it means to you. It also means that you need to check in with the current environment often, to make sure the plans haven’t changed. Sometimes this means waiting a day or two to see if the latest idea stuck, but also be ready to move quickly on it.

For you creative types working with us planners, please remember you’re working on a team now. If you could do it all yourself you wouldn’t need to hire other people. Let them know where you’re going, and try to cross the finish line with all of your people together. There’s no point finishing the race if the rest of the company is still in the parking lot tying on their running shoes. And remember: all those good ideas mean nothing if you can’t make them reality.

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Posted in emotional intelligence, engagement, relationships, self-awareness, teamwork

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Stop Risking Your Company on Good Ideas

Posted on November 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

When I took my Scouts out on camps, there was always a higher purpose. There were the big ones, of course. Like the 9-day jamboree, the 4-day mountain hike, or the 5-day canoe trip. But not every trip was the trip of a lifetime. In fact, I’ve left kids behind because they weren’t ready for it.

How did I know if they weren’t ready?

Build the Right Skills, Tools, and Experience

Firstly, we’d always had a series of smaller camps throughout the entire year to learn, practice, and try-out the skills and tools they’d need. For example, for our five-day canoe trip, we’d start in a local pool, where everybody had to practice recovering from a tipped canoe. Then we moved on to still water, where they learned basic strokes, working together as a team, and controlling the canoe on water.

Then we’d have them move in and out of a real river – which is probably the riskiest part of river canoeing. Along the way they learned hand-signals, whistle signals, how to throw a rescue line, and other river skills.

Us leaders took an extra level of training, actually practicing the skills of rescuing somebody from the river. We all got a chance to put on a wet suit and be rescued, which was both fun and scary. During the trip we had the Scouts throw us lines in the river while we floated by, and they had so much fun they got into the river too.

We didn’t’ just put the kids in a canoe, with a paddle, and said “see you later, we’ll pick you up in five days.” That’s not leadership, and that’s no way to learn leadership. We planned for the best, made ready for the worst, and had a great time. Along the way I’ve used at least two fire extinguishers, one throw-line, and many, many band-aids in earnest. But we never lost a kids or any of their parts.

Build the Right Team

The second thing we did besides training and planning was evaluating. We wanted to see which kids were ready, which were ready to take on even more, and which ones either weren’t taking it seriously or weren’t mentally or emotionally mature enough to be safe in the wilderness. I’ve learned and truly believe that adding or taking away just one person from any team changes the team in unpredictable, non-linear ways. As adults we’re just better at hiding it.

Which is why it amazes me when companies have a good idea, put so much effort into executing it, and then wonder why it failed. They didn’t try things out to see if their good idea would work before putting all their effort and energy behind it.

They didn’t build up skills and experience needed to give it the best chance of success. They didn’t explain and get buy-in from everybody involved about what it would mean to the company. They didn’t build and test the right team. They just put a bunch of people in canoes with paddles and life-jackets, pushed them into the river, and watched them aimlessly float away.

Even worse is when everybody in the company gets into the same boat and drowns. I hope you remembered to hand out the life-jackets.

Be Skeptical of Good Ideas

Try new things in small doses. Don’t stop having good ideas. Just be skeptical of good ideas – try them in small ways first. Build up your capabilities and give your team or company the best chance of success.

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Posted in continuous improvement, developing staff, execution, leadership, life-long learning, setting goals, teamwork

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Great Leaders Do These Four Things

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Eventually, with most of my clients, we get around to the topic of non-cash motivators. Everybody has to watch the cash-flow, for sure. Plus we all know that after a while it isn’t about the money anymore. Once you’ve started paying enough to make food, clothing, and shelter a non-issue it becomes more about those things higher up Maslow’s Hierarchy.

Plus, you want your employees to be happy, to bond, and to work as  team, right? So we should all go out to paintball, or a ropes course, or just do something fun together. Because cheaper than paying somebody a decent wage, and not a waste of time at all.

Bull.

Happy Employees Are Not Productive Employees

Happy employees do not make productive employees. Productive employees make happy employees. So here are my 4 quick suggestions for making productive, happy employees. Unless you’re running a metaphorical day-care for your extended family. Then feel free to ignore me.

Fire the Creeps and Bums

Firing a non-productive or anti-social (in the destructive sense) member of a team actually increases the team’s productivity by 30 to 40%. Do the math. That means that on a team size of 4, getting rid of the troll the productivity stays the same or gets better and your payroll drops by a quarter. That’s just the break-even point. On a larger team then you’re making money by getting rid of the bully / degenerate  because of the bump to productivity. If they’re at the managerial or executive level your ROI is even higher.

Why are you keeping them around again?

Celebrate Success

If you’re going to throw a party, BBQ, go-cart race, or day at the pistol range (yes, a real-life example) to do some team-building then make it about a specific business accomplishment. Tie the celebration to specific goals, targets, and tangible, actionable company priorities. Just like good one-on-one, feedback is specific and actionable. So to should be the communication at a company party.

“Hey, we opened a new office in that other city, woohoo! Next quarter we’re going to cut costs by 10% without laying anybody off. If we can do that we’ll have another party! Woohoo!” It’s good communication, another thing that most bosses don’t do well enough.

Make It Easy To Do The Job

This is an example of the KISS principle in action: Keep It Simple, Stupid. By the way, the “Stupid” in KISS does not represent the employee. It’s a reminder to us bosses to keep things straight-forward, clear, and do-able. Otherwise we’re being simple-minded.

There is nothing worse than trying to do a good job and not being able to  because there are too many rules, contradictory directions and guidance, processes and procedures, moving parts, and forms that nobody could ever do it right no matter how hard they try – and then getting in trouble for it.

Clear, simple direction give rise to intelligent, complex behaviour. Complex direction gives rise to stupid, simple behaviour.

Give Specific Feedback

This is the guidance that I started writing this week`s post about. The most effective non-monetary impact you can have on any of your employees is specific, actionable feedback that they can use to get better at their jobs.

This means that you might actually have to pull your head out of your  email and pay attention to your employees. Observe their behaviour. Take notes. Ask questions about their aspirations and career goals. Give guidance. Be a leader.

Most times when somebody leaves it’s not really about the money, even if that’s what they tell you in the exit interview. Employees mostly leave because their immediate supervisor is a poo-poo head. They’ll stay for less money if they know that somebody at work cares about them, and they can do their best every day. They’ll mostly get from their direct supervisor, or not. But it’s too late by the time they’re walking out the door.

Do you have a problem with employee turnover? Then see rule #1 “Fire the Creeps and Bums”. Take a close look at those at the top of the company first. Look at your middle managers second.  There`s an old Turkish saying:

“The fish stinks from the head down”

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Posted in coaching, developing staff, engagement, execution, feedback, listening, mentoring, motivating, teamwork

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Who Are Your Best Employees?

Posted on May 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

I got an e-mail from a former colleague of mine, a wonderful if quiet lady who was instrumental in supporting a major bid I was the proposal manager on several years ago. She wrote to ask me some career questions:

Hi Bernie,

I have been reading your articles from your company pages on LinkedIn. Good articles by the way! I quite enjoyed them. I have a question that comes from your article on employees being treated “fairly”. By the way, I totally agree with the philosophy — each person has to be recognized for their contributions, or punished for messing up, in an appropriate manner. The “how” they are praised or punished has to be appropriate for each individual. What I still don’t see is how the person who harasses someone in an office gets the promotion while the person who was harassed got fired. I also wondered at how one person, who works hard all day and has excellent quality, doesn’t get recognized for their work while the person who is exceptional at politics (and doesn’t work all day, less output –with the same quality level) gets kudos for their work. Is this where the interpretation of “unfairness” comes in? This is also where the following question comes in.

Have you done any research on how managers might help people who are not outgoing, i.e., extroverts versus introverts? Another subject that comes to mind are those people who suffer from anxiety and panic disorders. They are so different in how they are (or not) able to interact that they must be handled differently also. How do managers help build up confidence in these people? This question comes to mind because I read some statistics the other day about how 4-5 people out of 10 have physical disabilities whereas 7-8 out of 10 have mental (anxiety/panic, bipolar/schizophrenia and depression) disabilities. This was quite a surprise to me and yet we still don’t address it or recognize it as being a major part of our society and how we function.

I feel managers have a major part in recognizing these employees and should have strategies to help them. After all, extroverts may be the ones to come up with all the ideas but it’s the introverts who are able to carry through and get the work done.

X.

She’s absolutely right. It is the job of managers to get the best out of the people working for them. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Managers get the best out of their staff by recognizing those strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the work-load, training, and coaching to get that best.

The Effect of Poor Promotion Decisions

I see this often in my current consulting work. People have been promoted as a reward for doing good, or because they are good at convincing their boss they’ve done good. You might say their strength is managing the relationship.

This isn’t always what’s best for the company. Especially when the newly minted manager doesn’t realize that their rôle and the skills required have fundamentally shifted. At best they are only mildly effective.

At worst, they are actively holding back the company, wasting time and resources, demoralizing others, and blocking advancement to more deserving employees. Plus the job they used to do so well is being left un-done or done poorly.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: Managers Manage People.

Managers Manage People

They don’t manage departments, or projects, or work product, scope, quality, schedule, or cost. They manage people, and everything else is managed by proxy through those people. Once you’ve gone beyond the level of individual contributor, the tools and techniques will fundamentally change. You now lead the collaboration.

Collaboration, team-work, relationship building- they’re all especially important in intellectual, knowledge-based, and innovative workplaces. It’s only going to get more collaborative as the Chinese and other formerly third-world economies come on line. Everything eventually becomes commoditized and sub-contracted.

One of my clients is currently in India talking to his drafting department. Don’t think he isn’t trying to figure out other ways to reduce his costs, work internationally, and grow his business. They have a low-bid Chinese competitor working on the building next to theirs spurring him on every day. The Chinese product’s installation may suck right now, but their people will get better at it.

Once you’ve gone beyond the level of turning a wrench, running the cash register, or writing that report, you’re effectiveness depends on “using” your people most effectively.

Let the Facts Speak For Themselves

Recognize and develop the people that actually do the work, based on facts and measures. Don’t get suckered into favoring the ones that have the skill to build a relationship with you. You will lose credibility.

I’m not saying that staff shouldn’t have the ability to build relationships. Certainly it’s a strength and a skill. I’m saying they shouldn’t be promoted based solely on the strength of their relationship with you.

As managers we shouldn’t have to judge the people that work for us. The facts, presented fairly, will do that for us. That’s why properly performed performance reviews are not just an annual event. They’re a process. One that you need to pay attention to every day.

Managing Your Relationship With Your Boss

My first response to Lady X (sounds mysterious doesn’t it?) was:

. . . . there’s a podcast I’d like to recommend to you called “Career Tools”. It can be found at http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/career-tools , and also on iTunes if you listen to podcast on your iPod or other technology. Of particular interest to you I think would be the “Professional Updates” episode: http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/11/boss-one-on-ones-professional-updates .

I’ll be writing more next week about how employees can help themselves, and about dealing with different behaviors and personalities most effectively.

In the meantime consider this:

How Should We Judge Managers?

Imagine you’re a manager. The CEO has decided your promotion and bonuses are now based on the fit and performance of the people you hired in the past. In other words, every year you will be evaluated by how well the people you hired into your company are doing, whether they still work for you directly or not.

You’re being evaluated on how well you pick and develop talent. How would that change how you whom you hire and how you lead them?

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Posted in coaching, coaching, developing staff, engagement, influencing, leadership, mentoring, productivity, promotion, relationships, selecting talent, teamwork

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To Touch or Not To Touch

Posted on May 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

I recently got an e-mail from a former co-worker and current friend, who asked:

Do you think managers should be more ‘touchy-feely’? Here is a pretty interesting collection of studies, summaries that have looked at the power of non-sexual touch.

http://bit.ly/hBIOME

Gord

Hi Gord,

I’ve done a little experiment since you sent this link to me. I’ve reached out and touched some of my clients at the end of our sessions – usually a full open palm on the back, shoulder, or arm. It’s had mixed results. Some seem to welcome the touch. They know that we’re connecting and supporting each other. Others seem to tolerate it, or wonder what I’m up to. I’m not a touchy-feely guy by nature, so my first advice would be:

It Depends

Some people will welcome it and need it. It’s reassuring for them. For others it’s threatening and unwelcome. Likewise unconsciously pulling away from somebody with whom you’re trying to build a relationship, and who reaches out to you, is counter-productive. So my second piece of advice would be:

Watch Carefully

Watch carefully how they react and watch carefully how you react. It comes back to being mindful of what’s happening around you. For those of us who are task/doing oriented versus people oriented this is a conscious effort.

I’m not saying you should start working the room and back-slapping it that’s not your nature (or stop if it is). It might be as simple as not making a face when somebody shakes our hand for a little too long (or noticing when somebody is being uncomfortable with your too-long-for-them handshake).

If you’re more people oriented remember, not wanting to be touched doesn’t mean we don’t like you. Your enthusiastic approach to life is great, but there are some out there who might misinterpret your intentions.

Be Sincere

So if you’re trying to fake sincerity, and if you do you’re going to get busted, you’ll be harming the relationship. If somebody suspect on a subconscious level that you’re hamming it up just to influence them, even if that isn’t your intention, the trust you’re trying to gain will be lost instead. You’re better off keeping your hands to yourself (if that’s who you really are) than coming across as awkward and fake.

The opposite is also true – if you’re an outgoing person by nature, being stiff and formal will be odd, and people will notice. Like a tie that doesn’t match your suit. Better not to wear the tie than to try to fit in.

If you’re Bill Clinton or Tony Robbins, this advice doesn’t apply to you. Influences of that skill and depth have their own personal reality-distortion fields. If you’re not, don’t try and fake it.

In order to influence people, we have to make them feel comfortable and safe. So my last piece of advice is:

Pay Attention

Adjust your behaviour to your audience. Drucker said “Communication is what the listener does.” In this case it means learning to adjust our style on a moment-by-moment basis to the people we’re with and the situation we’re in. Nothing tells somebody we care as much as paying attention to them. There are no cookie-cutter solutions when it comes to people. You want to influence them? Pay attention.


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Posted in behaviour, body language, communications, conflict, emotional intelligence, engagement, focus, listening, relationships, teamwork

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What Do Rituals Have To Do With Business?

Posted on May 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

I had a boss once who had three levels of acknowledgement. When he was being briefed on a project or program and he agreed he would say just that: “Agreed”. It meant you had his approval. If he said “Understood”, he got what you were saying but didn’t necessary like what you were doing. If he said “Noted”, you had failed. It got to the point were we were anticipating his response, cheering when somebody got the coveted “Agreed”, and moaning when somebody failed and got the dreaded “Noted”. It gave us a sense of shared community and took some of the sting out the rebuke. It spurred us on to do better next time.

Every organization has its own language, rituals, and rhythm. Military and para-militaries are an obvious example, as are religious groups. But also businesses volunteer and community groups, sports teams, and families all have their accepted ways of communicating and making decisions. Some are more functional than others.

Discipline or Regret

Communications need a structure. “You can run your business with discipline, or you can run you business with regret.”* I would add that you also need to run you business with intent. Every meeting, celebration, and contact inside and outside a business need to support the purpose and vision of that company. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings each need their own purpose. They need to follow a simple format with some structure. And when things are busy, that doesn’t mean fewer meetings.

Focused, clear communications are even more important when we’re under the gun. An army unit can give us a great example of this. When an infantry company is in garrison, training, or otherwise in a relaxed state weekly briefings are probably sufficient. Would this be acceptable in theatre, or in combat operations? Absolutely not. So why is it acceptable for businesses to complain that they don’t have time for meetings? They’re right, in a way. They don’t have time for unfocused, un-informative, un-productive meetings.

If people hate meetings in your company, it’s probably because you run them badly, and your leadership doesn’t know how or doesn’t have the fortitude to run them correctly. It’s a basic management skill that every leader needs to learn and practise.

Your Meeting Checklist

Here are a couple of items you can check the meetings you run. They’re not rocket science, but like the skating and puck-handling in hockey, if you don’t have mastery of the basics then you can’t move to the next level.

Give yourself a passing grade only if you can say yes to all of the following:

1. It starts on time
2. Only the people who need to be there are invited and show up
3. It has an agenda that is distributed ahead of time
4. It sticks to the agenda
5. Everybody is physically, mentally, and emotionally present and contributes to the conversation, debate, or decision without fear of retribution or punishment for speaking honestly
6. It ends on time
7. Who is going to what by when has been decided, written down, and distributed to all attendees

If It’s Not Your Meeting

Even if it’s not your meeting to run, there are still some things you can do to make meetings in your organization more effective:

1. Sit up and pay attention. Face whoever is speaking. It’s a great opportunity to build relationships by supporting your fellow dwellers of whatever particular level of hell you’re trapped in together.

2. Put away your laptop and smart-phone. This is a variation of the previous point. You’re not fooling anybody with your “Blackberry Prayer”, and it’s insulting that you think they are How about turning off the laptop and actually being present instead of just doing your e-mail in the same room as a bunch of other people who are ignoring each other?

If You’re Still Not Convinced

If you’re still not convinced that ritual and structure have a place in business consider this. When Scouting was established in 1907, it got started with a set of rituals. Ceremonies for opening a meeting, closing a meeting, inducting new members, passing graduating members out. The Scouts learn ceremonies for deciding discipline for their peers, planning camping activities, and running campfires.

First they learn the “ritual”, and within that they make all the decisions and execute their work (going to camp, cooking their own food, earning merit badges). The structure of the patrols and troop give the youth the process they need to make and carry out their decisions. The same rituals work if it’s just a local Scout troop meeting with a dozen kids, or a World Jamboree with 10,000.

So how would it feel if a troop of fifteen-year-old boys and girls ran and executed meetings better than your company does? Who provides the “adult” supervision in your company?

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What’s the worst meeting you’ve been in? The best? Does your company have standard agendas for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings?

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Posted in communications, decision making, execution, focus, meetings, teamwork

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How to Empower Your Employees

Posted on April 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

I had an interesting search term show up in my web metrics the other day. When Google or some other search engine sends somebody to my blog I can see the search terms they entered that landed them at my page. The one that caught my eye was:

“how to get my people to stop coming to me for everything”

It’s Called Co-Dependence

“Stop answering all their questions” would be the simple answer. “But Bernie”, says you, “chaos would ensue. Without me to tell them what to do every minute of the day they wouldn’t know how to scratch their behinds.” And you’d be right. If you’re going to treat them like morons, they’re going to act like morons. It’s your own fault.

They’re helpless because you keep rescuing them. You keep rescuing them because they’re helpless. See how that works? You’re going to have to break the cycle. Yes, they might screw up, and yes, you might have to clean it up. Sometimes. But not every time, and much less often than you might think. Even less often as time goes on. Here’s the thing:

They won’t take they’re responsibilities unless they’re allowed to screw up and bear the consequences. Of course, if you enjoy the thrill of being able to solve everybody else’s problems for them then carry on. Just don’t ever expect to be promoted, appreciated, or recognized. You’re going to be stuck there for a while.

Dealing with Problems is Leadership

If you’re afraid to make a mistake, then you don’t be a leader. If you’re afraid your followers are going to make a mistake, then you really shouldn’t be a leader. It’s going to happen, you’re job is to deal with it. If things always went perfectly, and people were totally honest at all times, then we wouldn’t need leaders (or police).

Think of it as a “learning opportunity”, for both them and you. Set things up so that you know before they go off the rails if possible. But you’ll never be able to do that unless you can get everybody else’s monkeys off your desk and onto theirs where they belong.

Being a leader also means developing your people to the point they don’t need you anymore. What will you do then? How about get promoted! You’ve trained your replacement, which makes you more promotable in several respects: there’s no need to find your replacement – you’ve already done it; you’ve a proven track record developing talent; you’re department / division / team is so self-sufficient that your obvious talents are needed elsewhere. Congratulations!

Use These Words:

“What do you think we should do?”

“Have you thought of . . . ?”

. . . and then go ahead and let them do it. Yes, they might not do it the way you would have. They might even be doing it totally wrong, but unless somebody is going to die or get hurt, then it’s okay. It’s their idea, they’re invested in it, and who knows they might just even be able to pull it off. If they fail, they fail, and you help pick things up. If you have to, think of it as training.

If this kind of interaction with your staff is unusual for you, don’t be panicked if they don’t take to your new style right away. Be patient, be consistent, be confident. They’ll come around once they figure out you’re serious.

I think it was The One Minute Manager or a similar book I read years ago talked about how the author’s CFO had made a multi-million dollar mistake in a merger & acquisition situation. The CFO was distraught, and said “I suppose you’ll need to fire me now.” “Why would I do that?”, he replied, “I just spend three million dollars training you. Don’t do it again.”

Discussion

What’s the most important thing you learned from a professional mistake or oversight? How valuable was that lesson to learn?

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Posted in behaviour, coaching, delegating, developing staff, engagement, listening, mentoring, motivating, teamwork

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