Team Building Archives - CHCI

Learn This Efficient Model for Building High Performing Teams

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:01:06 +0000

No matter what industry you work in, productive and efficient teams are a must for success. Yet it’s not always easy to create and maintain a well-oiled team. That’s why I love the Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model—it provides a simple, step-by-step framework for understanding team development.

If you didn’t read my first post on the Drexler-Sibbet (DS) model, start here. There are seven steps in the framework; this post covers steps four through seven. You can also learn how the DS model can be used as a diagnostic tool, and as a way to build teams from scratch. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.

Basic Structure of the DS Model

For a quick review, here are the seven sequential steps of the DS model:

Orientation
Trust Building
Goal Clarification
Commitment
Implementation
High Performance
Renewal

Each step has:

A question in the circle, which is the question someone on the team is likely to ask.
Resolved and Unresolved Traits on either side of the circle. If the resolved traits are demonstrated by the team, then the team can move to the next step. If the unresolved traits are demonstrated, it’s not yet time to move to the next step.
Arrows that point to other steps. If a team is facing challenges on a certain step, the arrows will tell the team which step to move to. For example, if a team is challenged on step 4, they would go back to step 3. However, if a team is challenged on step 5, they would go back to step 3, because the arrow from step 5 points to step 3.

Today, we will be looking specifically at steps four (commitment) to seven (renewal). This will round out your understanding of the DS model and enable you to successfully put it into effect for your new or existing teams.

The following graphic can be used for reference, to see the basic model and structure of the DS model. (Zoom in for details or read below.)

STEP 4

Commitment – How will we do it?

When goals are clear, your team is probably eager to act. Attention moves to step 4 and the question, “How will we do it?”. In other words, how committed are we to reaching the specific goal? There are two things that build someone’s commitment: their role and the decision making process. So let’s look at those two aspects:

Role

When someone is crystal clear on their role, they know what to do and their level of authority to take action. Yet how many times do we hear team members say, “I thought you were doing that.” or “I thought my job is just to do this”. This uncertainty creates confusion, frustration and wasted time. So get specific about who is doing what for each task; if the task is complex, break it into smaller roles.

You may have considered roles during stage three planning, but now need to commit to what the function, authority, and responsibilities will be in practice. Role definitions have to be complete enough to cover all the tasks that must be done to accomplish your team goals while also minimizing overlaps and role conflicts. A big part of a team lead’s job is to help match goals to competencies, and help people step into roles that will develop their abilities and improve results for the team.

Decision-Making

Who makes what decision is vital to creating individual and team commitment. For example, let’s say you ask me to do some research for the team. I’m excited and spend time researching, writing my recommendations and prepping my briefing. Yet during the meeting, you cut me off and say you’ll review my information and make the final decision, which irritates me and causes me to grumble, “I’m not doing that again.” Why? Because I thought I was going to have a say in the decision making process.

So be clear on the decision making process for each key decision. Will it be a democracy, with equal votes? A consensus? A dictatorship? While the team member may not agree with the decision making process, she at least understands the process ahead of time.

Tool: RACI- Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed

One tool to do this is called RACI, which stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed in the below chart.

To use RACI, match RACI with the tasks before the team starts executing on the tasks, as in the below diagram. This will help everyone clearly know their roles up front.

Step 4 represents the turn of the Drexler-Sibbet model. Remember that the initial stages of team performance involve a good bit of trial-and-error. Embracing these questions might require backtracking to goals, investing more in trust development, and revisiting initial purpose before you can fully resolve commitment issues.

How do you know when Commitment challenges are resolved? You will see:

Assigned roles
Clear integrated goals
Shared vision

How do you know when the team is blocked at Commitment? You will see:

Dependence
Resistance

STEP 5

Implementation – Who does what, when, where?

Conflicts and confusion arise when there is commitment but no clear way forward. A good tip to remember at this stage is the “5 W’s”: Who, what, where, when, why (and how):

Who will do it?
What will they specifically do?
Where will it be done?
When will it be done?
Why is the work being done in this sequence?
How will we evaluate the quality of the work?

Implementation involves scheduling and sequencing work over time. A visible schedule (e.g. a chart), strategy, and / or process liberates the team to move into action confidently. So spend time specifically answering the above question before the team moves to action.

How do you know when Implementation challenges are resolved? You will see:

Clear processes
Alignment
Disciplined execution

How do you know when the team is blocked at Implementation? You will see:

Conflict
Non-alignment
Missed deadlines

STEP 6

High Performance – WOW!

High performance is a WOW state, as a team masters its processes and begins to experience the ability to change goals, as well as achieve them. You can feel when it happens and observe its effects as teams achieve a flow state when trust is high and people have mastered their roles. In a state of high performance, boundaries and individual limits soften, everything moves together, and everyone responds as if they are part of the whole. The indicators of that having happened are spontaneous interaction, synergy, and a team that is surpassing their expectation on results. WOW symbolizes how high performance teams transcend rational processes by working with all the human faculties – spirit, soul, mind, and body.

How do you know when High Performance challenges are resolved? You will see:

Spontaneous interaction
Synergy
Surpassing results

How do you know when the team is blocked at High Performance? You will see:

Overload
Disharmony

STEP 7

Renewal – Why continue?

Over time the conditions that initially set your team in motion will change. High performance is demanding. Don’t be surprised if people ask, “Why continue?” This key question reminds us that team performance is an ongoing process, and must be renewed by returning to Stage 1 and reassessing if the work is still needed, worthwhile, and has some personal value and meaning.

Tool: AAR- The After Action Review

One tool to use in this step is the After Action Review, or AAR, which addresses four key questions:

What were our intended results?
What were our actual results?
What caused our results?
And what will we sustain or improve?

Of course, other questions can be asked during an AAR. Here are sample ground rules for an AAR meeting:

Active participation: it is important for everyone to participate since everyone’s views have equal value
No blame
There are no right or wrong answers
Be open to new ideas
Be creative in proposing solutions to barriers
Use “Yes….and” rather than “either/or” thinking
Consensus where possible, clarification where not
Commitment to identifying opportunities for improvement and recommending possible improvement approaches
No record of the discussion will be distributed without the agreement of all participants
Quotes will not be attributed to individuals without permission

To close the AAR session, summarize key points identified during the discussion. The session should end on a positive note, linking observations to recommendations for future improvements. Let the team know what the plans are for reporting and sharing the lessons learned during the AAR.

Whether or not you do the AAR as listed above, spending time on renewal puts your team back in touch with purpose and refreshes everyone’s commitment to keep going. It also includes learning from what you have accomplished, and building a repertoire of best practices for the next journey on this or other teams. If your team’s work is complete, Renewal is the time to wrap things up, freeing members to move on to new challenges.

How do you know when Renewal challenges are resolved? You will see:

Recognition
Change mastery
Staying power

How do you know when the team is blocked at Renewal? You will see:

Boredom
Burnout

If you reach stage seven and your team is blocked, it’s time to head back to stage one!

There you have it—the Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model. Don’t forget to learn about steps one through three on my previous post, before giving it a spin.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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The post Learn This Efficient Model for Building High Performing Teams appeared first on CHCI.

Want To Build Excellent Teams? Try This Efficient Model

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 12:20:08 +0000

Working as a team is how the best organizations operate, yet it can be challenging, especially without a roadmap. The Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model provides a step-by-step framework for understanding team development. It’s one of the most efficient models I’ve seen, and I’m happy to share how it works.

First, take a look at the following graphic. It shows you the basic model structure.

As you can see, there are 7 sequential steps in this model, represented by circles.

Orientation
Trust Building
Goal Clarification
Commitment
Implementation
High Performance
Renewal

Each step has:

A question in the circle, which is the question someone on the team is likely to ask.
Resolved and Unresolved Traits on either side of the circle. If the resolved traits are demonstrated by the team, then the team can move to the next step. If the unresolved traits are demonstrated, it’s not yet time to move to the next step.
Arrows that point to other steps. If a team is facing challenges on a certain step, the arrows will tell the team which step to move to. For example, if a team is challenged on step 4, they would go back to step 3. However, if a team is challenged on step 5, they would go back to step 3, because the arrow from step 5 points to step 3.

A Diagnostic Tool

It’s important to note that while this model is sequential from steps 1-7, building teams is rarely a linear process. So teams may go back and forth through the steps, as the team matures. That’s why this model can be used as a diagnostic tool. For example, if a team is facing challenges, anyone on the team can look at the model to see where the team is stuck, and then know what to do.

A Way To Build Teams From Scratch

In addition, the model can be used as a way to build teams, giving the team lead and the team members a path to building a sustainable team. Steps 1-4 build the team; steps 5-7 maintain the team. Step 4 is known as the crux of the team’s success.

While this looks like a complex process, it is possible to move through these steps quickly. However, if steps are deemed unimportant and skipped, the team will progress more slowly.

I am going to review the entire Drexler-Sibbet model (DS model) over the course of two weeks. In the end, you will be able to use the model on a daily basis on your various teams. This week, we will focus on steps one, two and three.

STEP 1

Orientation – Why am I here?

Orientation is about understanding the purpose of a team and assessing what it will mean to be a member. Team members will need to understand three things:

The reason the team exists
What will be expected of them
How they will benefit from team membership

In a new team, these are individual concerns, because the group is only potentially a team. Often, these concerns are felt at an intuitive level; rarely will a team member ask these three questions. That’s why it’s important to provide time and space to address these questions in the first meeting and repeat the answers in each meeting to reinforce the message. Once the members know the answers to these questions, they will feel more connected and are more likely to participate in achieving the group’s goals.

How do you know when Orientation challenges are resolved? You will see:

Purpose
Team Identity
Membership (What are the rules/agreements we play by)

How do you know when the team is blocked at Orientation? You will see:

Uncertainty
Disorientation
Fear

Remember – repetition is key to saturation and understanding. So keep repeating what you want understood. Say it again and again, to those in the team, and with those you serve.

STEP 2

Trust Building – Who are you?

Trust is a measure of your willingness to work together with others for something important. Teams that know they can depend on the others to work together and accomplish the team’s purpose far exceed teams that do not have this understanding and appreciation of other team members. Because team members have to depend on each other to be successful, trust is essential in direct relation to how much cooperation is needed to get the job done.

In the beginning of a new team, trust involves some risk and uncertainty about dealing with strangers. This is why the key question is “Who are you?” An unstated aspect of this question is wondering, “What will you expect from me?”

So how do you quickly build trust? It depends and it doesn’t have to include trust falls or outdoor ropes courses!

As we evaluate the trustworthiness of potential team members, we generally look at two things about the person: integrity and competency. Most of us start our team building by granting members a moderate to significant amount of trust (depending on our comfort level) from the moment the individual becomes part of the team. As the author Ernest Hemingway reminds us, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Then we increase or decrease that trust based on our continuing experiences with that individual, hopefully achieving consistency and reciprocal trust.

How do you know when Trust Building challenges are resolved? You will see:

Mutual regard
Forthrightness
Reliability

How do you know when the team is blocked at Trust Building? You will see:

Caution
Facade
Mistrust

STEP 3

Goal Clarification – What are we doing?

“What are we doing?” is a more specific question than the larger question of purpose asked during Orientation. During this stage of a team’s life, it will need to develop clear understanding of the job that is required, as well as generate agreements about goals and specific deliverables. Sometimes teams have precise charters that specify what they are responsible for accomplishing. More often, they are given a broad mandate and need to make choices about how they will pursue that mandate and translate it into goals.

There is an expression in the Navy that says, “If you are just one degree off, you end up in Madagascar instead of Kenya.” One degree is not a big number, yet the result is vastly off course. How many teams are exactly on the same page about goals? Usually the team roughly knows where to go, yet is fuzzy on the specifics. For example, what is the specific metric being used? When is the deliverable due? How does it align with the bigger purpose?

General, unclear goals are demotivating; clear specific goals are motivating. So how do you set clear goals and metrics? Here are three steps to do so:

Ask the team lead and team: What are the meaningful results the team is trying to achieve?
Develop clear guidelines on the performance required that will help to deliver meaningful results.
Confirm the goals and intended results with others in the organization.
Bonus question to ask: What would you have to do differently if you were trying to improve by ten times instead of by ten percent?

Involve your team in adding the detail to these steps. The more they’re involved, the greater their sense of ownership and commitment will be. As a side note, goals shouldn’t be so specific that they don’t allow flexibility to achieve things differently; the context and situation may change over time so be nimble and adaptable.

How do you know when Goal Clarification challenges are resolved? You will see:

Explicit assumptions
Clear integrated goals
Shared vision

How do you know when the team is blocked at Goal Clarification? You will see:

Apathy
Skepticism
Irreverent competition

I hope you’re finding value in the DS model so far. There’s more to come! Next week I’ll cover the remaining steps:

STEP 4: Commitment – How will we do it?
STEP 5: Implementation – Who does what, when, where?
STEP 6: High Performance – WOW!
STEP 7: Renewal – Why continue?

Then you’ll have a complete system to use to build amazing teams or diagnose teams that are struggling. Stay tuned!

Have you used a team-building model before? I’d love to hear about your experience with it.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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The post Want To Build Excellent Teams? Try This Efficient Model appeared first on CHCI.

Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 2

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 11:41:26 +0000

In our previous post, we introduced what we find to be an extremely effective team building model – Tuckman’s Model. It involves four phases, forming, storming, norming, and performing. Each of these phases is necessary for the team to grow, overcome challenges, and deliver results. To read this in detail, check out part-one of our series on Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams.

Today we are going to discuss Adair’s Model to illustrate leadership processes, and a Cross Functional Team Integration concept.

Action Centered Leadership, Adair’s Model

At Recruit Training Command (RTC), everything is biased toward action. John Adair’s Action-Centered Leadership illustrate how tasks are achieved and how the teams and individuals are managed. According to Adair, the task, team, and individuals have six core functions:

Planning
Initiating
Controlling
Supporting
Informing
Evaluating,

All of these are vital to achieve the common goal. How did we use Adair’s model for RTC team leaders?

The Task Circle

John Adair identifies the responsibilities for “task” as the vision, mission, and purpose for the group. At RTC, training is the purpose, graduation is mission or the common goal, and excellence is the vision. Achieving the task, or series of tasks, is different for each team and individual, and is necessary to complete the task circle. The three teams, Recruit, RDC, and support, each have their own tasks with purpose, resources, and processes to follow. A recruit’s task is to learn, including learning to rely on each other, and complete every requirement to graduate. RDC’s task is to ensure strict discipline and present a pristine example of leadership, while facilitating completion of all requirements. The support team’s task is to help execute the schedule, fill in gaps as needed, and demonstrate exemplary standards. As the training timeline progresses, the task circle is completed.

The Individual Circle

It is important for each leader to understand the team members as individuals. The responsibilities for the individuals are to visualize the goal, maintain perspective, be supportive, perform in key roles, earn rewards, complete training, and develop as individuals and as team members. For the Recruits, it is imperative they remain aware of why they volunteered for RTC. The RDCs find creative ways to motivate, train, and develop recruits. Support staff focus on recruits, RDCs, and themselves.

The Team Circle

Dynamics at RTC are similar for each team, with differing perspectives. The recruit team, RDC team, and support teams are defined by their culture, roles, communication, performance, cooperation, and capabilities. By design, recruits experience challenges such as swim qualification, physical fitness tests, weapons familiarization, academic tests, firefighting and shipboard casualty training events which culminate in a 12-hour overnight capstone event called Battle Stations. RDCs face unique and often repetitive situations in their teams, such as recruit health and family issues, scheduling changes due to weather, and division performance. The support team evolves slowly as team members are added and removed over time, and whose culture is primarily established through the training command’s directives and influence. Through adversity and resolution, each team assumes an identity, standards, and style which forms the team circle.

As noted by Adair and observed to be true at RTC, achieving the Task, Developing the Team, and Developing Individuals are mutually dependent, as well as essential to the overall leadership role. So how did the three teams work as cross functioning teams?

Cross Functioning Team Integration

Cross functioning teams are defined as a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. RDCs, recruits, and support staff teams are comprised of a leader and key people in contributing roles. The cross functional model below displays how we worked as cross functional teams.

Recruit Teams

The recruit teams are a division of up to 88 individuals, ages 17-34, from the United States and overseas, with unique skills, abilities, and motivations. From the first day, recruits are assigned real and functional leadership positions complementing their skills and abilities; the roles were leader, assistant and specialists; responsible tasks included laundry, mail, medical and more. These assignments help introduce rank, structure, and instill leadership qualities that last a lifetime. After eight weeks of training, recruits are tested in the final evolution problem, called Battle Stations. Those who succeed earn the title of United States Sailor and go on to the next phase in their career.

RDC Teams

There are typically three RDCs per division. One is established as the lead. Each has nearly half a career’s worth of fleet experience in addition to their own personal skills, RTC experience, and occupational expertise. All are trained to be interchangeable and can operate with any division of recruits as necessary. Some RDCs will perform inspections as practice for other divisions, as well as give advice or training to recruits and RDCs from other divisions. They rely on each other to meet daily requirements. Family time, personal life, and extracurricular activities are often sacrificed for team responsibilities and the common goal. This sacrifice doesn’t come without reward, however. The recruit training and leadership development experience results in the highest promotion rates, nearly double, of any enlisted occupation in the Navy.

Support Teams

Underneath the overarching command structure at RTC, the layer of support leadership is vital to success. In short, they are a finely tuned hierarchy of leaders who are specially trained to help in any given situation. By design these leaders occupy the “hold” positions. They are experienced RDCs who are strategically positioned with the massive number of employees to ensure smooth daily operations at RTC. This cadre of leaders are experienced and possess a keen understanding of even the most unique problems.

Cross Functioning Team Interaction

From recruits leading other recruits, to RDCs facilitating daily routines, to leadership support teams providing solutions, the Navy’s Recruit Training Command has been at the forefront of modern leadership practices, refining and redefining the basics of leadership and management for Sailors. Each team is trained and designated to communicate and interact within their teams and across other teams for the good of the Navy. The teams together operate like a machine toward a common goal.

The Team Interaction model shows how independent, cross-functioning, teams connect and influence each other directly and indirectly. Each team’s connection is dynamic, which means multiple points of connection between teams. While their responsibilities may differ, they are part of the same organization and contribute to its mission in ways that correlate to each other. For example, recruit divisions interact with RDC teams and support teams. Support teams interact with RDCs and organization management teams. The curriculum development team may never interact directly with the recruit division but has a certain effect on their mission and performance. Meanwhile, all the teams within an organization move forward at varying paces toward a common vision, mission, and purpose.

Three Tips to Successfully Manage Cross Functioning Teams

Here are a few tips to build and manage successful cross functioning and interactive teams, along with three important ingredients (Communication, Common Goal, and Rewards).

Tip 1: Communication is essential to all members and teams for the duration of the task. Make the organization’s vision, mission, and purpose ubiquitous. Encourage familiarity within the organization to facilitate engagement between team members, and teams. You can do this by scheduling team activities, sharing the history of the organization, creating events focused on the purpose of the organization, and by structuring teams in a way that promotes reliance on another team for success.

Tip 2: Teams must be focused on a never-changing common goal, and even small goals leading up to it. Scheduling is key to accomplishing this, but even more important is to never “move the goal posts”. Ensure your goals are solid and cannot be easily moved or changed. Make smaller goals, which can be adjusted within reason, part of the larger goal.

Tip 3: Having a rewards system in place from the beginning, to avoid extra work at the end, is a great way to create additional incentive and foster motivation. Aside from monetary, time, and personal rewards, you may wish to offer a certification, or a title upon completion. A hand-written letter or note for meaningful and important work is also valuable. Small rewards for completing small goals are also highly encouraged. Sometimes a verbal “thank you” is just enough to demonstrate gratitude and appreciation from the team or organization.

What teams do you have in your organization? Have you assembled the right team? Is the team focused on a common goal? Does your communication system allow you to interact with other teams effectively and efficiently? Is there a reward system in place? Does your organization have a higher purpose?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

Written by Curt Kline, CHCI employee

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The post Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 2 appeared first on CHCI.

Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 1

admin — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 10:07:21 +0000

“These recruits are entrusted to my care. I will train them to the best of my ability. I will develop them into smartly disciplined, physically fit, basically trained Sailors. I will instill in them, and demonstrate by my own example, the highest standards of Honor, Courage, and Commitment.”

This was the Recruit Division Commander’s (RDC) creed when I trained future U.S. Navy Sailors at Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, IL. The creed contained succinct and clearly defined goals that helped me, and others, successfully train 10 recruit divisions.

How did we do it? Using Tuckman’s Model to illustrate team lifecycles, Adair’s Model to illustrate leadership processes, and a Cross Functional Team Integration concept, I’ll demonstrate how three separate teams (Recruits, RDCs, and Support) came together every week to change civilians into Sailors who are ready for follow-on training and service to the fleet.

Team Building, Tuckman’s Model

Bruce Tuckman asserts that teams navigate four phases: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Tuckman’s model established that each phase is necessary for the team to grow, overcome challenges, and deliver results.

This is what Tuckman’s model looks like at Navy boot camp.

Forming

On the day recruits arrive, they are assigned to a division of approximately 88 civilians. Prior to their arrival, an entire support staff prepares for every need or incident that can arise during training. In addition, a team of RDCs is assigned to that division and familiarizes themselves with the upcoming, intense, 2-month boot camp schedule. Processing days, including day of arrival, take 3 to 5 days to complete; akin to herding cats, these forming days are the most challenging days for all teams, yet everyone has one goal in mind: graduation.

Storming

Each day, between 4:30 and 6am, recruits are awakened by “reveille”. The first person to greet them is their RDC, barking out instructions for all to hear, and preparing each future Sailor for the day’s events. Their day flow includes uniform of the day, assemble for breakfast, march, arrive at medical, eat lunch, become familiarized with training standards, attend classroom instruction, have dinner, conduct hygiene and evening routine (letters home) and more! Lights go out at 10pm, which is called “taps”. During the storming phase, recruit leadership is identified and established. Though at first they are usually hesitant to step forward, those with apparent leadership skills or High School ROTC experience will stand out and be appointed to lead in several different roles.

Norming

After only a few days, a routine takes hold and divisions, RDC’s, and supporting teams norm and begin to function like clockwork. The strict scheduling of events, and common goals provide a foundation for stability. Along with proper assignment of roles and responsibilities and repetition of a few basic functions, training is in full swing. Practice inspections, practice marching, and practice for everything is the norm. This phase lasts from approximately week 2 until week 6. Then the heat turns up!

Performing

Leading up to graduation, recruits and RDCs alike are encouraged to strive for excellence throughout training and receive recognition for outstanding performance in several areas. Everything they have practiced for the last several weeks will now be graded. Physical training, inspections, academics, and other disciplines are meticulously observed and judged by exacting standards. The results of which, if positive, are rewarded with recognition flags and pennants displayed during graduation in front of families, peers, and leadership at a graduation ceremony.

Every week new divisions form, while other divisions graduate. New teams of RDCs are assigned to train the next cycle. Some RDCs rotate into the support staff, while others return from their supporting roles. It’s a never-ending cycle of team building. How does it all go so smoothly? Quite simply, leadership.

In part 2 of this blog, we will discuss Adair’s Model of team building and three tips you can use.

What teams are in your organization? Have you assembled the right team? Is the team focused on a common goal? Does your communication system allow you to interact with other teams effectively and efficiently? Is the team forming, storming, norming or performing?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

Written by Curt Kline, CHCI employee

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The post Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 1 appeared first on CHCI.

Eight Quick Tips for Interpersonal Communication and Relationship Building

admin — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 06:59:50 +0000

There was a line of lawyers waiting to talk to me and I promise crime had nothing to do with it.

I’d just wrapped up an hour-long session on Coaching 101 for a group of lawyers. I’ve observed that lawyers like giving advice. I mean, that’s what they’re supposed to do, right? So learning to coach is a great skill for them, since keeping conversations advice free is fundamental to successful coaching.

One of the lawyers was standing at the back, positioning himself to be the last to speak to me. When it was finally his turn and the room had cleared out, he got very close to my face and said:

“Okay, I get it, I get it. I get the coaching stuff. But really, how can I give advice without looking like I’m giving advice?”

One thing we agreed on is that he did not “get the coaching stuff”— but he sure gave us a good laugh! This is one of my favorite work moments from last year. I have many inspiring, educational, and even challenging moments to draw from because last year I spoke over 60 times. I spoke to small business owners, corporate employees, and non-profit leaders in the healthcare, finance, academia, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing industries, covering topics such as crucial conversations, female leadership, energy management, emotional intelligence and marketing specifically to each generation.

There is One Common Denominator

Despite the variation of locations, industries, and audience, there is a common denominator in all questions I get asked: working relationships. No one is asking me how to create the most effective spreadsheet or improve a technical skill. No one asks how to make a widget or fly a plane. What everyone struggles with is interpersonal skills and relationships, otherwise known as “soft skills”.

How does this relate to my work? We can do a quick rundown of my recent speaking topics to find the answer. For example, people struggle with understanding generational perspectives and communicating within those perspectives. Emotional Intelligence is about both internal and external relationships. Crucial conversations need trust and speaking up in a relationship. Speaking up in a relationship with both men and women is fundamental to retaining female talent. Even energy management is about our internal relationship with our bodies and managing our energy and stress levels to improve relationships.

Eight Quick Tips for Interpersonal Communication and Relationship Building

So if we boil this down, what’s the secret sauce to the relationship skills we need? When approaching any interaction with another person, try these eight things:

Assume the best intentions of the other person. I like the phrase “start new”.
Understand the other person’s perspective in the situation.
Listen carefully and ask more questions.
Share your perspective in the situation.
Find the common ground.
Leverage those commonalities for the common good.
Keep communication open as you move forward, to minimize frustration and to create trust.
Speak up if things go awry.

Finally, I want to share a bonus tip I heard last year:

“The only label we should be wearing is our name.”

We bring all kinds of labels with us and see labels on others. She is a woman; he is Hispanic; they are Baby Boomers—all of these labels put people in boxes. We must “start new” with every interaction in order to give full potential to the relationship, and create room for productive communication.

We can all benefit from the practice of “starting new” in each interaction. I plan to keep this in mind as I move into 2020 and hope you will too.

What soft skills do you struggle with the most? Let’s see how much we all have in common. Leave me a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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How To Coach As A Manager: A Vital Skill

admin — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 23:30:41 +0000

Managers, do you want to learn how to coach? If you’re interested in having a direct, positive impact on both your team members and organization, coaching is a vital skill to learn.

First, what exactly is a coach? A coach is someone who helps another person reach higher levels of effectiveness by creating a dialogue that leads to awareness and action.

Let’s look at this definition in detail:

-To help another person, you need to have concern for another person and want to see them grow.

–Reaching higher levels of effectiveness means that they’re better in all areas of their work.

–Create a dialogue with the person by asking questions and fully listening.

-All of this leads to awareness, which helps the person discover the ways in which her attitude is hindering her level of success.

-Then that person can take action and do something differently to change behavior and be more effective in all areas of her work and life.

How do you know when to coach?

In order to know when to coach, use the Success Equation. This strategy was constructed to help managers and leaders:

a) pinpoint what’s going on that may be causing a problem for that employee (clarity); and

b) analyze how successful a team member is going to be before he even begins the work (certainty).

Here is the Success Equation:

Aptitude + Attitude + Available Resources = Success

In this equation Aptitude is defined as the skills and competence to complete the task. Attitude is defined as the drive, focus and motivation to complete the task, and Available Resources are the physical tools needed to complete the task. All three components must be present, in equal parts, to achieve success.

A very simple example is a child learning to ride a bike (the Success Equation applies universally, not just at work).

At first, the child has the Available Resources – the bike, perhaps even training wheels, and a safe place to ride. The child also has the Attitude – the motivation, energy, focus and desire to ride. However, in the beginning, the child lacks the Aptitude – the skill sets or competence. So in the beginning, he will be at most 66% successful because he’s missing one of the critical components to the Equation.

Once the child practices and gains the Aptitude through experience, all three components are present and he’s off to the races, successfully riding his bike.

Business is no different. Let’s look at the Success Equation for an analyst. She needs Aptitude – the required skills to analyze and interpret data. She needs the right Attitude – the motivation and energy to work with others, as well as the focus and determination to stay positive and maintain a challenging schedule. And she must have the Available Resources – a phone, a computer, a software program. If any one of these components is missing, she will be 33% less successful.

How Does the Success Equation Work for Managers?

How does the Success Equation work? It can be leveraged when someone comes to you with a problem, or at the beginning of a project. If Rebekka comes to you with a problem, ask her if the problem is about Aptitude, Attitude, Available Resources or a combination of the three. And if one of your employees is about to embark on a new project, ask him if he has the Aptitude, Attitude and Available Resources to do the job.

If the problem is an Aptitude issue, you give your employee skill training to build their competence. If it is an Available Resource issue, you get the resources they need, within your budget. And if it’s an Attitude challenge, you coach them to success.

But how exactly do you coach?

The Coaching Process

Let’s look at the coaching process. As a reminder, when it’s an Aptitude issue, you train. When it’s an Attitude issue, you coach. And when it’s a lack of Available Resources, you reduce, reuse or reallocate resources.

The difference in communication styles between manager and coach is profound. The former is often one-way, enabling and potentially disempowering. The latter is two-way and engaging, and as a result, precipitates two things: awareness and action.

If you want thoughtful, empowered people on your team, it is critical that they are self aware of how they can get in their own way with old patterns and beliefs. They also proactively think for themselves and take action.

Effective Coaching Requires the Right Questions

By asking coaching questions, you grow your team members into thoughtful, empowered people. Here are the five key components, in order of importance, to asking an effective coaching question:

Open-ended. Questions that can be answered in one word preclude anyone from having to think. If you want to turn your team into thoughtful, aware people, ask open-ended questions that open up a conversation and begin with “what” or “how”. Examples might be: “How can you move forward on your idea?” or “What’s the impact of that on the team?”
Keep it short. Most people ask long questions or worse, ask 3 questions in one sentence. This results in skipped questions and critical data being missed. Ask one short question at a time, preferably 8 words or less. “What resources do you need?” is more effective than “What possible resources will help you achieve this exciting goal, how will you get those resources and when will you do it?”
Advice-free. Part of the reason you made it into management is because you know the answers already. Most managers tend to think for their team members and consequently, the employees never learn to think for themselves. They become robots with a tie. Advice-free questions with team members may take a bit longer in the short run yet will make your life a lot easier and more leveraged in the long run when you have team members who can think for themselves and make good decisions on their own. So avoid questions such as, “Have you tried this?” or “Why don’t you do that?”
Forward focused. Get out of the story and into the action. Translated, this means get out of the past and into the future. The story only creates drama. Drama is a productivity-killer. Forget what happened in the past. Move on and focus on what action to take in the future to fix, improve, or exceed. Instead of saying, “What happened when Josh did that?” ask “How do you want to behave with Josh in the future?”
Thought provoking. As you get well-practiced and eventually master asking coaching questions, you’ll get to this “ninja” level of asking thought provoking questions that literally cause people to stop in their tracks. Your question is so powerful that it pushes people beyond the limits of their current thinking capacity, and forces them to take some time on their own and report back to you. These types of questions can be simple: “What is your role in that situation?” or “Where can you take responsibility?” If you want maximum thinking people on your team, ask these types of questions often.

Coaching Goal: To Move Someone from Awareness to Action

Now that you understand how to ask effective coaching questions, let’s look at moving someone from awareness to action. This means moving someone from understanding the impact they are having on the team to having them commit to small steps that will change their behavior.

Key to Awareness: Understanding Impact

Most managers are good at the action part—setting goals, building a plan and ensuring accountability. The awareness part is often more challenging. For this, coaching for managers is also provided by many organizations. How do you help someone see the impact they’re having on an organization and team? First, start with the five effective questions tip detailed above. Then ask questions that focus on impact, such as: What’s the impact of that on X? You could never ask this question enough. For example: What’s the impact on the person? Team? Organization? Stakeholders? Clients? Donors? Community? Employees? Once they start to understand the impact of their behavior, then they will move to action on their own, instead of being told what to do.

The next crucial element of coaching is listening. Next week we will explore why listening is so important for leaders, and outline ways to improve listening skills. In the meantime, if you are a supervisor, manager or leader committed to being an excellent coach, check out our two-day course: Coaching to WIN BIG.

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Confession: I’m a Closet Data Geek

admin — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 21:06:07 +0000

Years ago, I dropped out of an Ivy League school to become a chef. Back then, chefs weren’t the celebrity stars they are today. So when it came to telling my parents I wanted to trade those hallowed halls for hot kitchens, and turn in my white-collar career path for the literal white collar of a sous chef’s coat–well, let’s just say the conversation was tense.

But I did it. After working as a chef for some time, I wound up back at an Ivy, eventually completing my degree at Cornell University’s hotel school. Hospitality was a good field for me because I’m a people person; my love for the humanities and other cultures has always pushed me toward human interactions–toward getting to know people.

For the first half of my career, that was always an in-person, hands-on, totally analog process. Much more recently–and much to my surprise–I’ve learned how to do it through data, too. Here’s how.

People to Patterns

At 25, I moved to Kenya to run a hotel that had more staff than guests, a 10% occupancy rate, and 12 wine glasses. I was the only woman, young, overly confident, and struggling to manage a staff twice my age. I cried myself to sleep just about every night for six months straight.

Eight years later, I’d finally turned the hotel around and decided to start an eco-safari company. It was only after both of those businesses sold, around four years later, that I found myself confronting a new cliff’s edge of career choices, no less difficult than my earlier decision quit college to cook: If I could do anything, what would I do?

I found myself focusing again on those people skills–which at this point in my career now included the relationship-building and leadership chops I’d gained by overseeing 500 employees from all different backgrounds while facing down tsunamis, food shortages, lions, and more. So I became a certified executive coach, wrote books, gave talks, and developed online coursework that blended management coaching with diversity training. And the more of this work I did, the more patterns I began to notice.

I’ve always loved patterns. Hospitality is all about “people patterns”–understanding who guests are, what makes them tick, how to motivate them. My job was to uncover the patterns that made them return for another holiday or a meal. But quite honestly, even the patterns in intricate pastry design drew me in. After leaving hospitality, I similarly found the patterns of communication and energy that take place within a group of people in an organization enthralled me just as much.

That’s what led me to the world of data. Yes, a former pastry chef who ran a hotel and eco-safari company in Kenya–a speaker, writer, trainer and coach–is officially coming out as a closet data geek. Ta-da!

The Proof is in the Numbers

Why? Making a difference is important to me. All the speaking and training I’ve done to help organizations increase their emotional intelligence, find their values, prepare for the future of work, and increase their employee engagement was always really interesting to me. Yet I had a nagging question in my mind: Was this a “random act of training” that would go in one ear and out the other? Or was I actually helping change organizational behavior on a large scale and for good? I’d collected anecdotes that certain programs indeed made a difference, but I lacked statistical proof.

I found myself searching for a way to quantify the results of my work. How could I really know if my ideas increased employee engagement? What evidence did I have that a particular unconscious-bias training changed organizational dynamics? How could I prove that losing employees cost a lot more than just the price of recruiting a replacement? Well, now I know how: with data–specifically, “people analytics.”

HR departments have been collecting data for decades: head count, attrition rates, diversity numbers, absenteeism, maybe even satisfaction results. Yet merely reporting those numbers faithfully isn’t doing anybody good. The field of people analytics represents an opportunity to gain deeper–and actionable— knowledge of the workforce. It’s a way to track the work being done inside organizations, then making g data-driven decisions to improve them, instead of just writing a narrative of reform based on intuition or subjective experience. To me, this is a natural and fascinating extension of the people skills I’ve spent my whole career developing. The through-line couldn’t be clearer.

Here are some examples of why data is exciting: I can geek out and learn things like why attrition in certain demographic group is on the rise. I can alert leadership that despite a low turnover rate overall, their “high performer” turnover is actually quite high. Then we can sit down to find out why and focus on solving that particular problem. I can speak to and train leaders on how to improve their organizations’ employee engagement, and then I can test if behavior actually changed. And if behaviors don’t budge? I can look at the new data, reevaluate, and try again. However, from time to time many organizations provide best employee engagement programs to further enhance productivity.

It all comes down to the patterns and trends–footprints in the sand left by hundreds or thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of human beings, all moving in various directions, sometimes together and sometimes, well, not. I find it fascinating, but I also find it extraordinarily meaningful. With the data to back up the work I’m doing, I’m finally able t0 prove that I’m making a difference.

The post Confession: I’m a Closet Data Geek appeared first on CHCI.