Helping CEOs, Managers & HR Professionals  858.451.3601

Every day we are each faced with problems to solve: the large problems can be intimidating and the small problems can be mind-numbing. Either way, there is no avoiding problems. You are in your leadership position, title or not, because you have the reputation for spotting and solving important problems while rallying others, and yourself, to action. However, every now and then a problem sneaks past even the best leaders and causes a stir. Where do you begin and how can you help deter the issue from becoming an even bigger problem?

The best outcomes usually come from problems that are dealt with early on. Problems can be identified in the early stages if you make it a habit to frequently ask peers and team members how things are going and what challenges, if any, they are facing. Encourage others to provide information on problems as soon as they arise. Be open to their input and suggested solutions, and thank people for bringing issues to your attention and allowing you the opportunity to address and resolve their concerns. Be sure to follow-through, or people will become reluctant to provide information as they may assume nothing will change.

Problem solving requires a high level of information about the issues and the needs of employees. This requires open communication. In order to become an effective problem solver, remember that this skill requires all parties to share control over the emerging solution. By using the following problem-solving model, you will generate a number of alternative solutions and increase the probability that the final solution will be the best one.

Continue reading “9 Steps to Effective Problem Solving” »

Sign up for our Quest for Leadership Excellence

A quick search for introvert on Thesaurus.com retrieves synonyms such as brooder, egoist, loner, self-observer, solitary and wallflower, while the synonyms for extrovert include character, gregarious person, life of the party, show-off and showboat. Neither of these references paint a completely positive or accurate picture of either preference but perpetuate the overall misconceptions floating around about introverts and extroverts.

This explains the question I have been asked on several occasions: “Can introverts make great leaders?”

My response? “Yes!” Introverts and extroverts can both make great leaders, but for introverts, leading others requires more effort towards adapting their natural style.

In a recent poll of executives who are our clients, approximately 40 percent described themselves as introverts. Are you an introvert? If you can answer “yes” to the majority of the statements listed below, there is a good chance you are an introvert:

Continue reading “The Case for Introverted Leaders” »

“He’s so driven and absolutely clueless as to how he comes across.”

“She is overly sensitive and takes everything so personally.”

“He might be able to solve the problem, but by the time he comes up with a solution, we’ll be out of business.”

In our consulting business, we routinely hear comments like those above, typically followed by: “He (or she) just doesn’t fit here. This person is not a good match for our culture.”

Often, when probing further, it becomes apparent that the team member being described is a square peg in a round whole when it comes to this organization. He or she just doesn’t think or act the same way as the majority of the rest of the team, which makes him or her stand out as being different.

Often this person is perceived to be a roadblock in terms of effectively contributing to the success of the team and organization. In other words, this person’s way of thinking, or approach to work, is radically different than that of the majority of the other team members.

Although the different approach may be challenging for some team members, it is important to remember that in building a highly effective team, different is good.

Continue reading “Managing a Team of Different Personalities” »

To be a successful leader, it is equally important to know when to say ‘yes,’ as it is when to say ‘no.’ In life, there are times when you have to successfully tell people ‘no’ in a way that builds a relationship even stronger. The challenge is that for some managers, the word ‘no’ is the equivalent of a four letter word. The managers who don’t like the word ‘no’ believe that telling someone a resounding ‘no’ could cause the relationship to deteriorate to the point that others on the team or in the organization will not like or support her as a leader.

A portion of your success as a leader is in telling people ‘no.’ The following are examples where it is most likely in your best interest to tell others ‘no.’

Continue reading “Successfully Saying ‘No’” »

From the October 2011 Quest for Leadership Excellence Newsletter (sign up)

For nearly thirty years, executives, managers and employees alike have marveled at Steve Jobs’ ability to innovate. After all, Jobs did not only foresee the future of technology (and music, and animation), he created it. It’s clear that Jobs was one of the most visionary leaders of our times. But, what most people don’t realize is that if it were not for his dedication to communication, the way we interact with technology today would be vastly different. His excitement when introducing new products mesmerized customers. His commitment to specifically communicating what he envisioned motivated employees at all levels and made revolutionary products and services possible.

With poor marketing and ineffective organizational communication, his visions would have remained just that: visions.

Looking at the way that Jobs’ visions were turned into reality serves as a reminder of the importance of communication. The picture he had in his mind for the future was brought to life by his ability to trickle communication of his vision down to all levels within his organizations. It is difficult, if not impossible, for employees to arrive at their destination if you, their boss, are not crystal clear in providing them with the directions and road map detailing their journey.

Steve Jobs’ clear communication of his vision is also consistent with what we have found in our employee opinion survey results.

Continue reading “How to Communicate Your Vision Like Steve Jobs and the Best-of-the-Best” »

As a leader, you have two important goals. First, you need to build relationships where people want to follow you and help you accomplish the mission, vision and goals of your team or organization. Second, you want to develop future leaders.

If building relationships where people were motivated to follow was easy, then every manager would be a leader. Most managers are not leaders. Direct reports do what they are told to do because the manager or boss said to do it. If another job came along somewhere else in the organization, even at the same pay rate, these employees would gladly move because they have no relationship with a leader. One of life’s great leadership examples is when a manager leaves one company, joins another, and then offers that employees from his old organization take a job at the new company for less money than they currently make. When employees make the decision to join their old manager at the new company, is it clear that manager has risen to the status of leader. These employees had a choice to make, and they choose to follow the leader.

Continue reading “How to Communicate When Under Stress” »

The Coaching Discussion Model

On Tuesday, we shared some tips on how to address employee issues when they occur. Our goal was to help you get the employee to acknowledge inappropriate behaviors and come up with a plan for what he/she will do differently in the future. Today, we’ll give you some guidelines for addressing more challenging, reoccurring behaviors . . . issues that you have addressed in the past, but the problem hasn’t been resolved. This is where the coaching discussion comes in.

The purpose of the coaching discussion is to redirect the employee’s behavior. You want the employee to stop the inappropriate behavior and start demonstrating appropriate behavior. It is a two-way process, a discussion. The intended purpose is for the employee to be engaged in the discussion as well. In fact, the employee should be talking more than the supervisor or the manager. Using the following six steps of the Coaching Discussion Model will make your coaching discussions effective.

Continue reading “Coaching Employees” »

If you are a leader, chances are good that you have had at least one employee in your career who has caused you to lose sleep. Maybe the employee is frequently late, is participating in gossip or is making reoccurring mistakes. Our advice for difficult behaviors in employees is to train them, coach them and if that still doesn’t work, share them with a competitor.

When you address the issue appropriately, it may even shed light on a behavior that employee wasn’t aware that was an issue. Open up the lines of communication through the following actions:

Remain calm. If you have ever driven home from work saying, “Now, why did I say that?” chances are you may have regretted giving feedback to an employee when you were mad. If you are angry or emotional, postpone the discussion until you are feeling more in control. Remember, communication is permanent. Do not lose control of the discussion or say something that may later come back to haunt you.

Continue reading “How to Handle a Difficult Employee” »

How to Get Leaders on Board with a Change

There is no such thing as organizational change. Organizations don’t change. The only thing that does change in an organization are the people within it: when enough people have bought into the change, we then see the changes happening.

Any change that impacts our life is uncomfortable. If you don’t believe that, just move your watch for one day to the opposite arm. Most of us like the comfort of predictability. When organizational change impacts us personally, it rocks our status quo. If given a choice, we’d typically rather keep on doing it the way we’ve always done it.

How do organizations successfully lead organizational change? They don’t, until their leaders champion the change. Organizational leaders have the power to lead the change, or sabotage it. Employees grow immune to the flavor of the month when it comes to accepting change and will look closely at their leaders to see if they are walking the talk when it comes to buying into the change being mandated.

The following tips will help ensure that your organization’s leaders are role models for leading the change being proposed.

Continue reading “Getting Leadership Buy-In” »

12 Leadership Traits That Are Guaranteed to Sabotage Your Team and Lower Morale | Quest for Leadership Excellence Newsletter (sign up)

We have spent the last 20 years identifying the traits that make leaders successful. This has led us to strongly believe that there is a significant difference between leaders and managers. Managers always have a title and a formal position on the organizational chart. Leaders may or may not have a title but they always have a relationship with people who make a conscious decision to follow them.

Over the past several weeks, we have conducted executive coaching for leaders who were in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Our prediction is that they will lose their jobs… it is just a matter of time. Based on our work with leaders, here are 12 leadership actions we have found that undermine a leader’s ability to build relationships where people are highly motivated to help the leader accomplish goals:

Continue reading “How to Sabotage Your Team” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the June 2011 issue of The Quest for Leadership Excellence newsletter (sign up here)

It’s a basic fact of employment… you can choose your friends, but not your co-workers. If you’ve worked for any length of time, you’ve probably come to realize these two simple premises about workplace relationships:

• Some people are a whole lot easier to get along with than others
• Sometimes you have to work with people that you just can’t stand

Those that drive you crazy might be a micromanaging boss; a controlling co-worker; a gossipy team member; someone who works at a snail’s pace; an arrogant, self-serving, incompetent peer; or an intimidating communicator with an advanced degree in sarcasm. Whatever the deviant behavior is, you’re stuck with trying to make the relationship work and achieve a positive outcome.

We recently worked as executive coaches with two senior level managers who had a history of not getting along. By the time we were asked to facilitate a process to get their teamwork back on track, the relationship between the two could be described as dysfunctional, at best. Neither manager was talking to the other. The relationship had soured to the point that not only were the managers not talking to each other, their employees had ceased talking to their counterparts in the opposite department. Both managers could articulate a litany of character flaws in their counterpart and had ample documentation to prove the wrongs.

Continue reading “9 Ways to Handle Challenging Co-workers” »

What is a distinguishing characteristic of a great leader?

Great leaders make sure that team members have the tools and skills necessary to get their jobs done. Being a phenomenal leader is a lot easier when you’ve got great team members. An exemplary employee is one who communicates their goals and what they need from the leader to maximize their success.

These employees are:

Thinkers: They are constantly thinking about ways they can improve their work, the business, help their leader become even stronger or improve the service they provide to customers.

Confident: They go into the job motivated because they deeply believe they can make a positive difference.

Empowered: Many people believe that empowerment starts with the boss. Great employees tend to make good decisions, take action and keep their boss in the loop each step of the way so there are no surprises.

Continue reading “What Employees Need to Shine” »

Navigating the Slippery Slope of Employees Using Social Media at Work and at Home

We live in interesting times, as evidenced by the provocative Tweet erroneously sent by Congressman Anthony Weiner recently. As high profile examples similar to this incident seem to be surfacing on a regular basis, they certainly highlight the power of social media.

Without a doubt, the Internet is the greatest technological innovation of the 20th century. It is an extraordinary tool, helping us find answers in a keystroke or two, increasing our efficiencies and productivity, and of course, connecting us to the world and potential markets.

Despite all its tremendous benefits, if not managed appropriately, the Internet’s strengths can quickly become an organization’s worst nightmare.

Recently, two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, then posted it on-line. While preparing sandwiches, they jokingly included foul ingredients that clearly violated health-code standards. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, the clip was viewed more than a million times on YouTube, causing Domino’s Pizza a huge PR problem and earning the pranksters a felony charge.

Continue reading “Employees and Social Media” »

How to Empower Employees While Ensuring that Everyone is on the Same Page

We recently worked with the VP of a financial institution who was challenged by the fact that one of his managers was constantly trying to change the ways of the bank. Although many banks have had to change radically over the last 36 months, historically, banks have not been well known for rapid change and innovation.

When we talked with the manager, we found out that he had come from a consulting firm that specialized in working with banks and he felt that all of the ideas he shared and wanted to implement were proven strategies that would improve the organization. The VP felt that the current processes and products were working well, customers were happy and, if ain’t broke, don’t break it.

On this project, we made several recommendations to both the VP and the manager. First, our recommendations for the VP:

Continue reading “Successfully Lead an Innovative Culture” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the March 2011 issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

This is the day for which you’ve been preparing for weeks. Your boss has asked you to give a project update to your entire department on a very successful program you’ve initiated. You’re excited because it’s your opportunity to showcase both yourself and your program. You know your stuff. You’re practiced, well-prepared and eager to share your exciting results with the team members. You’ve just completed your captivating opening when suddenly a jokester throws out some inappropriate humor, completely throwing off your train of thought. At that point, you find yourself thinking . . . why is this happening to me?

We have successfully delivered thousands of programs on multiple topics to diverse audiences for the past twenty years. We have experienced loud mouths, experts, jokesters, non-participants, side-conversationalists and people with what we call, “severe hardening of the attitude.” In our time, we have experienced just about any type of audience member who, for whatever their reason, feels a need to draw attention to themselves or otherwise sidetrack a great presentation.

Here are a few tips we’ve learned along the way to help corral the occasional deviant audience member who seems bent on capturing your show and taking the crowd with them. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often but, when it does, these tips will help you maintain your composure and successfully deliver the program you have so carefully developed and practiced.

Continue reading “Presenting to a Difficult Audience” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the February 2011 issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

Bad bosses. Chances are good that at least once in each of our careers we are challenged with working for a bad boss. These bosses are bad for our careers, our health and our work-life balance. Unfortunately, bad bosses are just part of the real world and we have to find a way to make it work.

The question is: how?

Several times each year, we are hired to be an Executive Coach to leaders who identify their boss as the main cause of their problems at work. More specifically, if their boss was a better leader who did what they felt needed to be done, they themselves would be a better manager or leader.

Specific examples we have heard are that their boss:

Is a micro-manager
Is not trustworthy or doesn’t keep promises
Gave a poor rating on the employee’s performance review
Gave no raise, or not enough of a raise
Does not stand behind decisions made by employees
Is moody
Is a “know it all” and does not listen
Has questionable ethics
Is disrespectful

What if you work with a boss that does one of these bad behaviors? Worse, what if you work with a boss who does all these behaviors…a real jerk?

Continue reading “6 Things Not to Do When Your Boss is a Jerk” »

Make Sure that Your Vision is More than Just a Piece of Paper on the Wall

Employees may like reading a mystery, but they don’t like working in one. Heidi Grant Halvorson, writing for Fast Company, says it right when she says, “Make a point of saying exactly what you mean, and asking for exactly what you want, and you will be pleasantly surprised by how often you get it.” It is difficult, if not impossible, for employees to arrive at their destination if you, their boss, are not crystal clear in providing them the directions and road map detailing their journey.

In our twenty years of conducting employee opinion surveys, we have collected data from 100,000 employees and have noted significant variances between the Overall PBS Benchmark and the Best-of-the-Best PBS Benchmark-the top 25% percent of organizations surveyed. (Click here for more information on PBS Benchmarks)

One thing that has caught our attention over the years is that the Best-of-the-Best PBS Benchmark is significantly higher than the Overall PBS Benchmark in the communication category. Here’s what the Best-of-the-Best organizations do better:

Continue reading “3 Keys to Clearly Communicating the Organizational Vision to Employees” »

Understand that no matter how carefully you plan, periodically you will have to deal with conflict. Whether it be conflict between employees, with a vendor, or with a customer, conflict has a way of uniquely appearing, demanding that we acknowledge and deal with the challenge.

Just as you would not ignore poorly-produced products or inferior job performance, you can’t afford to ignore conflict. While it is unrealistic to think that you can create a conflict-free environment, you can learn more about how to resolve issues so that conflict doesn’t overwhelm you and impact your company’s productivity. With practice, you will become confident in your ability to resolve conflicts that typically arise in the day-to-day operations of an organization.

Continue reading “Conflict Resolution” »

What to expect when you begin to hold employees accountable

Continue reading “The “J” Curve of Employee Accountability” »

There’s always a fairly good reason to procrastinate when giving feedback to a challenging employee. What if the employee pulls an attitude and holds you hostage? What if the employee gets hurt feelings and quits? What if the employee stops talking to you? Or, perhaps, there’s just no time. Be honest, there’s no time because you’re typically spending way too much time cleaning up the messes left by your challenging employee!

During our twenty years in the business, we’ve heard hundreds of great excuses for not dealing with performance issues. When managers get down to the real reason for procrastinating when giving feedback, they often admit to either not knowing how to give feedback, or lack confidence in their ability to provide feedback that will motivate the employee to improve. While there are many coaching models, perhaps the simplest approach is to focus on helping the employee develop their skills to achieve optimum performance.

Continue reading “Delivering Difficult Feedback” »