Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Does your organization have a strategy?
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How to Find Your Purpose, Vision, and Values
In one of my last videos, I talked about how you can find your purpose, vision, and values. I shared the steps you can take and how starting with a crystal clear purpose is going to make the whole rest of the strategic planning process so much more effective.
Finding clarity around your purpose and values can make decision-making so much easier. Whatâs your experience with this process?
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/ujzUoqGJKrw
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The Right Way to Use a PIP
In one of my last videos, I talked about the right way to give a performance improvement plan. I shared exactly how you can make it as successful as possible to help the person change their behavior and save their job, but also as a process that reflects well for all the other members of your team who aren't on the performance plan. Using a PIP the right way can make all the difference in not only helping an employee improve but also in maintaining team morale.
Whatâs your experience with performance improvement plans? Have you ever seen a PIP work the right way? Share your thoughts below.
Watch it here: https://youtu.be/PEiLhei8xy8
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When You Shouldn't Use a Performance Improvement Plan
I recently put out a a video where I talked about when you shouldn't use a performance improvement plan. I shared some situations where you should as an employer consider skipping them. I know they come from a good place, but I think the way they're happening these days are mostly just a warning that you're about to be fired and that doesn't sound very kind or very fair to me.
Have you experienced a performance improvement plan that you thought was unfair or unnecessary? Let me know in the comments.
Watch it here: https://youtu.be/6LvFI5dxpxo
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Tired of People Being Distracted and Disrespectful?
Are you finding that you and your colleagues are even more distracted than normal? Is distraction detracting from your productivity, causing friction among teammates, or contributing to everyoneâs general anxiety? Thatâs the sense Iâm getting.
In the last two weeks: I wasâŚ
In a meeting when the team leader got up and walked out with no explanation of where he was going. Um, hello?!? Are you coming back? Should we stop talking? Very awkward.
Facilitating a discussion while a team member emailed participants about a completely different topic. Are we in the same meeting? Did I miss a memo?
Hosting a meeting where two people turned off their cameras with no explanation. Are you there? Did you leave for a moment? Did your wifi crap out? Should I stop calling on you?
Talking to someone while they were looking behind me instead of making eye contact. Is George Clooney behind me? Is something on fire? What am I missing?
Iâm sure you could add to the list.
On good days, Iâm empathetic. You have too much going on. Too many tasks. Too much to worry about. Your workload is high, and your thoughtload is higher. I get how hard it is to stay focused when youâve got a million things to do and a billion things to worry about.
While Iâm empathetic, I also know that the torrent wonât stop anytime soon, and we canât afford to let it zap our productivity, reduce the effectiveness of our collaborations, or cause friction in our relationships. So we have to do better.
The Final Word: Compartmentalize
Iâve written many words (and spoken a few on YouTube, as well) about why we need to deprioritize more rigorously and how we can counteract our natural tendency to do more and more and more. Whether or not you can shrink your workload, itâs important to compartmentalize it. Otherwise, distraction will make you less efficient, cause rifts in your relationships, and cause your anxiety to spiralâone thing at a time.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/tired-of-people-being-distracted-anâŚ
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/73L8diBwBuk?si=d6V1t...
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10 Tips to Prevent Misalignment from Destroying Trust
Youâd be surprised how many trust issues on teams arenât actually trust issues. Well, thatâs not totally fair. Theyâve become trust issues, but they didnât start with team members backstabbing, demonstrating incompetence, or failing to deliver. A significant proportion of trust issues I see are actually alignment issues in disguise. So, next time youâre setting up a team, invest a little effort in creating alignment at the start so you donât have to invest a lot of effort in repairing broken trust later.
Iâll give you 10 things you can do to set up a team for success. First, letâs take a quick pass at the nature of trust so you can see when misalignment becomes such a problem.
Trust Issues
Iâve gone into depth on trust in previous posts (youâll find links below). Essentially, trust comes from the ability to reliably predict how someone else will behave. Our brains like when we can anticipate things and donât like when we get surprised. There are different types of predictability that correspond to different levels of trust.
If we donât know a person very well and find ourselves taken by surprise by their moods or actions, we lack a strong enough connection.
If a person has to deliver work that they are unfamiliar with or that they lack the skills to do properly, we question their credibility.
If a person is pulled in many directions by competing priorities and a heavy workload, we worry about their reliability.
If we get direct or indirect evidence that a person is not honest or is antagonizing us in some way, we question their integrity.
With an understanding of the different types of trust, you can implement a set of practices at the start of a project and greatly reduce the likelihood that misalignment will manifest as a trust problem during the course of the project.
The Tips
Create a Connection
Formally kick off projects by bringing the team together. Where possible, have the team eat together to take advantage of our very primitive tendency to trust people with whom we eat.
Use a personality or style tool to raise peopleâs awareness of the similarities and differences between them. Have each person share their answers to questions such as: âOne thing most people are surprised to learn about me.â âYou can count on me toâŚâ âWhen Iâm stressed, you seeâŚâ âIf Iâm behaving badly, help me byâŚâ
Establish Credibility
Be extremely specific about the problem the team needs to solve. Clarify both what you are solving for and what you are not. Define the success criteria. Eliminate the possibility that different interpretations of what good looks like will trigger concerns about peopleâs competence.
As you define the problem the team needs to solve, ask what knowledge, skills, experiences, or traits it will take to do the work. Assemble the people with the right mix of competencies and be specific about whoâs handling what. Where thereâs a skill gap, acknowledge it and be explicit about how youâre going to handle it. Get any concerns about competence on the table so they donât secretly undermine the teamâs confidence in one another.
Strengthen Reliability
Be explicit about where the project fits within each personâs priorities. If the relative priority of the project differs for different team members, make alternate arrangements. Either increase the priority of the project (e.g., remove other work, change out the person) or change the expectations for the project (e.g., delay the timelines).
Where possible, create shared goals and measures. Project teams where members are rewarded for different things often find it challenging to trust one another. If each person is trying to optimize their own performance and that doesnât add up to the overall performance of the group, youâre in trouble.
Create frequent check points where team members get a view of all the moving parts. The earlier you spot a problem, the less likely it is to be interpreted as a trust issue.
The majority of teams have at least some lingering trust issues that are affecting the willingness of team members to collaborate fully with one another. Beneath the surface, many of these issues stem from a lack of investment in getting aligned at the beginning. Use these simple steps to create connections, establish credibility, strengthen reliability, and demonstrate integrity on your team.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/10-tips-to-prevent-misalignment-froâŚ
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/DWJKRs-WmRw?si=B1_1L...
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How Can I Be More Trustworthy?
Are you noticing that youâre not getting assigned the interesting projects? Sitting on the outside of the inner circle on your team? Frustrated that no one seems to share important information with you? Maybe your colleagues or your manager have decided that youâre not trustworthy. What can you do?
âTrustworthyâ is an annoyingly ambiguous concept, so someone telling you that you need to be more trustworthy can leave you wondering everything from whether they think you did something immoral or unethical all the way to whether they think youâre dodgy because you took the last donut from the box in the kitchen.
In this series, Iâm tackling some of the most nebulous and underdefined criticisms that are leveled at people by their teammates in hopes that I can bring some clarity and some tangible ideas for what you can do to bolster your brand. For example, I shared what to do in the first post if someone tells you youâre not âstrategicâ enough. So check it out and let me know what other ill-defined criticisms have been leveled at you that youâd like me to demystify.
The Definition of Trust
If weâre going to talk about what makes you trustworthy (or not), we better start with the definition of trust. Trust is someoneâs willingness to be vulnerable to you in a situation where they canât control your behavior. So when someone suggests that they donât trust you, theyâre telling you that they feel vulnerable about what you might do and how that behavior will affect them.
Itâs helpful to think about trust as two sides of a scale. On the one side are the acts youâve committed that your coworkers have interpreted as having made them vulnerable. On the other side, you have your behaviors or characteristics that inspire their comfort in being vulnerable around you. How much someone trusts you is a function of both sides. Another way to think about it might be in an accounting sense with debits and credits or assets and liabilities. What assets and liabilities do you have in your trust account with your coworkers?
The Opposite of Trustworthy
Letâs start with the downside; the things you might have done in the past or be doing now could erode othersâ trust in youâmaking them feel vulnerable around you. Now, if you immediately tried to recall times that you threw them under the bus, stabbed them in the back, or let a cat out of the bag, hang on a moment. Not all breaches of trust go straight to the level of low integrity. Itâs worth considering some more innocuous possibilities first.
The Moral of the Story
In an era of deep fakes and fake news, being someone your colleagues can trust is essential. So for the next month, pay attention to how youâre making your teammates feel confident that they can be vulnerable around you. Do everything you can to make your behavior predictable and when itâs not, take the time to explain why and understand the ramifications on your teammates. Then go the extra mile to earn trust proactively. Youâll find that investments in trustworthiness are some of the most profound relationship builders that will stand you in good stead at work and help you form a friendship that lasts a lifetime.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/how-can-i-be-more-trustworthy/
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/e1wXDxSl104?si=NzheN...
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Be proactive in building your trust in others
Trust is a two-way street: your teammates behave in a certain way and you interpret their behavior as either trustworthy or not. But getting out ahead of this interaction can increase the likelihood that your colleagues will behave in a way that increases your confidence. Better to be proactive and to help your teammates earn your trust than to wait and be disappointed.
How to set up high trust
1. Make a connection. People are busy, self-absorbed, and distracted these days. That means their actions arenât always deliberate or well thought through. Iâve noticed this even in the most mundane situations such as when Iâm a crossing the road. I now establish eye contact with any drivers before I step out into an intersection. Itâs a quick connection to demonstrate that Iâm vulnerable and I need them to help keep me safe.
Now imagine the same idea with a colleague. Do they understand how your work is connected to their actions? If not, youâre jeopardizing your success. Itâs not that your teammate would intentionally cause you harm, they just arenât thinking about you. So create a connection as simple as âyour report will be really important to my project. I look forward to seeing it.â
2. Ensure they are competent. It would be nice if everyone you work with knew their stuff-cold. But there are many good reasons why your teammates might not be as competent as you would like: they are new to their role, the role is changing, or your organization is introducing a new way of doing things.
If you arenât sure that your teammate will succeed, donât wait for her to fail before saying something. Instead, increase you confidence (and hers too) by talking through the approach she is going to take. âIâm concerned about this customer meeting because itâs a new situation and the stakes are high. Can you talk me through your approach?â Be honest that youâre asking to increase your own comfort. If there are risks in the strategy or if key knowledge is missing, youâll have a chance to address the concerns proactively.
3. Focus on reliability. If you are feeling confident in your connection with your teammate and in their capability to succeed at the task at hand, then you can turn your attention to their reliability. You have probably got a few stories of being let down by teammates who were perfectly capable but failed to deliver because of conflicting priorities or unreasonable workloads. Again, if you just hope for your teammate to deliver, you might be disappointed.
To increase the likelihood that your teammate will deliver, create milestones along the way. Useful milestones include:
A quick touch-base right as youâre getting started to make sure you and your teammate interpreted the task the same way
In more complicated tasks, a shared project plan for how your teammate will deliver on time
A mid-point check in so that you can see a draft of the work and know that itâs coming along as you envisioned.
An informal check-in with a day or two left so there is time to make any final adjustments.
You can increase or decrease the number and intensity of the check points depending on the complexity and importance of the task. The idea is to decrease the pressure on any given interaction so even if it doesnât go well, thereâs time and opportunity to fix things.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/proactive-trust-building/
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/N1WtUs7HIHY?si=CksR5...
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How to work for a good news leader
If you work for a good news leader, youâre probably dreading the inevitable crisis that will result when the issues the boss has ignored finally take the team down. Youâre not proud of it, but you have to survive, so youâve learned to use wiggle words that allow you to clear your conscience by communicating enough to feel youâve done your duty, but always in a way that sounds like the glass is three-quarters full. Or maybe the brainwashing is complete and youâve embraced your bossâ sunny disposition. Regardless of how far youâve slid down the slippery slope of delusion, you and your team are at risk.
What to do
Stand on Guard
First, itâs important not to give in to the good news boss. There is considerable risk to your team and your organization if you ignore warning signs of bad things to come. Keep reminding yourself of the risk and the cost of breathing the bossâ happy gas. You have an obligation to do your best to make the team successful and to protect the organization from undue risk. Even if youâre only trying to save your own skin, remember that if something ugly goes down, your smiles and rainbows boss will look like an idiot, but it wonât take long for people to ask what the heck you were doing watching it happen without doing anything to stop it.
Start with the Positive
If your boss likes to feel good and likes to look on the bright side, the only thing youâre going to get by playing the heavy is the cold shoulder. Alienating your boss by coming across as the downer or the buzzkill wonât work. Instead, meet your boss where heâs at by starting your conversations with positive and upbeat messages. Share his enthusiasm and excitement. Then you can slowly introduce issues, framed positively. âI am really excited about the new report format, itâs going to make things much easier for everyone. We know that the CFO really liked the old format, what can we do to make sure she is as invested in this new format as we are?â
Use Language to Your Advantage
Sometimes itâs less about the idea that youâre putting forth and more about the language. Iâve seen pitched battles over the use of the term âweaknessâ versus âopportunity for improvementâ in performance reviews. Start building your good news glossary. Fill it with all sorts of ways of saying what you need to say in language that will be palatable to your boss. Replace ârisk management planâ with âsuccess formula.â Switch out âthe forecast is looking badâ and put in âwe need a new trajectory to win.â Scary words send your good news boss into an angry, defensive, self-protective place. So donât use language that will trigger that reaction. Removing threatening language might keep your bossâ mind open just long enough for you to get some valuable information in.
Only someone who has worked for a good news leader can understand why this isnât the best thing in the world. Sure, it feels great when the boss is doling out high fives. But when the risks that are systematically ignored come back to bite you in the butt, suddenly it doesnât feel like so much fun. Unfortunately, many bosses succeed in spite of themselves and their good news story plays well up the food chain. Youâre probably stuck with your good news boss for the long term. So get good at framing issues as just the tiny bumps on your road to success.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/good-news-leader/
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/M_eLIVUc9ps?si=3o5fN...
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How to handle a toxic boss
Toxic bosses come in many different shapes and sizes. Each type has its own signature and unique set of challenges. While the optimal strategy depends on the nature of your managerâs dysfunction, there are a few general rules you can follow to help you cope with any bad leader. Consider these universal techniques and then see the catalog of specific advice for each type of toxic boss that Iâve included at the bottom.
A Strategy to Deal with Your Toxic Boss
To build your toxic boss strategy, think about your sources of support as concentric circles with you at the center and your broad network of contacts and friends on the outside. Letâs start in the center.
Look Inward: The Self Strategies
The place to start in building a strategy to cope with your horrible boss is in your own head. Thatâs where the most important action is happening. The stories you tell yourself will determine how much of a negative impact your manager can have on you. Work through these questions, either on your own or with a trusted friend, as a starting point.
Am I overreacting?
Itâs easy to take offense when your manager criticizes your work, passes you over for a plum assignment, or spends ages talking to your coworkers while avoiding you. If you start to form a story that your boss doesnât like you, youâll be looking for all the evidence to convince yourself that itâs true and ignoring any evidence to the contrary. Thatâs called the confirmation bias and itâs how our brains workâa bit of a bug in the code.
Coworkers having a private conversation over coffeeTo avoid whipping yourself into a froth over interactions that might be relatively minor, find someone you trust and share what youâre experiencing. Be as objective as possible. If itâs an email from your manager that got you worried, ask someone to take a look and see how the message strikes them. If it was an interaction in a meeting, describe what you saw and heard. Share how youâre interpreting the situation and ask, âhow else could I interpret this?â or âwhat do you think she means by this?â or âhow worried should I be?â
If that trusted ally is on your team, ask if they could pay attention and give you any feedback about your interactions with your manager. Theyâll be able to give you a more balanced view and potentially share a few tips about what works and what doesnât.
If you donât have someone you can trust, simply keep a record of your interactions by drawing a vertical line down the center of a piece of paper. Record the positive or neutral things on the left and the negative or unpleasant ones on the right. Counteract your confirmation bias by actively looking for evidence for the left side.
If even the most balanced, objective view of your relationship with your boss is that itâs toxic.
From the blog: lianedavey.com/how-to-handle-a-toxic-boss/
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/aIEn9hsUU1U?si=l4iZY...
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For the past 25 years, I've researched and advised teams on how to achieve high performance. Known as the âteamwork doctor,â I've worked with teams from the frontlines to the boardroom, across a variety of industries, and around the globe from Boston to Bangkok. In working with hundreds of teams, including 26 Global Fortune 500 companies (and counting), I've developed a unique perspective on the challenges that teams face â and how to solve them.
Beyond my work in the boardroom, I'm a New York Times Bestselling author of 'You First' and 'The Good Fight'. I'm also a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and have been sought by several media outlets, including CNN, NPR, USA Today, The Globe & Mail and Forbes, for my expertise on increasing productivity, enhancing engagement, developing leaders, and as one client put it, âdealing with the damn drama!â
#teameffectiveness #conflictmanagement #communicationskills