Memorial Day 2012: Vietnam Vets

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Engagement

What engages you most: building on your talent or overcoming what you see as some "gap" in your inherent abilities?

Where do you get the bigger payoff?

My friend and employee engagement guru David Zinger cited a Gallup Management Journal article in one of his posts that reflected these findings:

1. If your manager primarily ignores you your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%

2. If your manager focuses on your weaknesses your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%

3. If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%.

I think these factoids are powerful in their simplicity. They point the way to what managers and their people should be paying attention to if they're really concerned with being engaged.

First: Managers would be wise to initiate conversation and discussion with all of their people. Otherwise, the numbers show that they'll lose the active commitment of nearly half. Note to employees: I know that you know that your manager is supposed to know this. Well, clearly they may not. If you aren't getting attention, initiate a conversation with your boss about how important it is to you. Some people, by nature, don't initiate those things. Then, if you find out that this isn't a department or organization where you can flourish, you have some solid information for making career decisions. And if you do make a difference by initiating the discussion and see it continue, you've helped at least two people.

Second: Here is a way to start thinking about where to invest energy: Building Strengths or Overcoming Weaknesses. I'll use a sales example.

Let's say you are a sales rep who has a track record of getting appointments and a presentation with 60% of the people on whom you call. But your ability to close the sale is 25%. You have been a sales rep at different companies for 18 years.(Stick with me, I've been a sales manager). What you now know is that you're strength lies in building the initial relationship and being able to get in front of the client. No matter how hard you've worked at closing the sale, you've never gotten above 25%. As your sales manager, I'd start thinking: If I help you focus on getting appointments and presentations--and you improve just 10%--then I have someone who can get us in front of a prospective client 66% of the time. If I start focusing on your closing deficit and you manage to improve 10%, you still only get to a 27.5% success rate. So I decide that I --or another "closer" with a high percentage of success--will come along to the presentations. You become the "star" door opener and we find another "star" closer.

I'd be crazy to spend my time and energy focusing on your weakness. It would be the same as telling Yo Yo Ma "You're a phenomenal musician. I know you are a cellist, but we're going to put all of our energy into making you a great tuba player."

Thought for Today: Let's talk with people about "What They Can't Not Do."

Change: What Gets In The Way?

Defending the status quo.

• "That will never work."
   
• "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented society.""
   
• "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?"

These are just a few of the real-life quotes about defending the status quo from a Seth Godin post that I saved about six years ago. Given that our work here always includes organizational or individual change, we've heard most of them more than once. How about you?

Tip: When you hear any one of these, ask this question: "Tell me specifically what information you have that supports why that won't work in this situation?"

a. Sometimes there is enough evidence to show that certain changes can't be productively initiated at a specific time and place. Hope is not a strategy.

b. If there is insufficient evidence, then ask the question "If you were in charge--and had to do it--what would you do to make "it" happen anyway?"

Help the individual(s) begin to focus on solutions instead of problems.

 

Photo: www.bigstock.com

Do You Use Verbal White Space?

Graphic designers know how to focus your attention.
They frequently communicate through the use of white space.

Less is more. The message is clear. There's no clutter.

Use Verbal Whitespace

You can increase your verbal impact  the same way. How many times have you wished that someone would just "say what they mean?"

Boss says: "We finished the senior level meeting and it looks as if we have to increase our numbers. We've been working hard on that project for a long time. I told the management team about the obstacles, how much overtime people have been putting in, and what the client has been saying. You know how much I appreciate your...."

Boss means: "We have to increase our sales by 10% and decrease our expenses by 5%. It's not really negotiable. I want to decide before the end of the meeting  how we can do that."

Father: "You know, son, there are a lot of people out there who could get you into trouble. I know that you are really a good kid and don't want to get into trouble. Man, when I was your age, there were a lot of kids in my class who were doing things that their parents never knew about. One of them even ended up going to jail for awhile. We live in a tough world. When..."

Father means: "Son, I love you. I found out for sure that John on your soccer team is taking drugs. I don't want you to do that or even try it. You can die. And I love you."

The Power of Noun-Verb-Object

We think that piling on extra words somehow makes our communication more palatable and therefore, better. More than likely it will make it confusing and incomprehensible. Which can lead to "Uh, just what am I supposed to do?"

Start thinking the way your fourth grade teacher taught you: Noun-verb-object.

"Please (you) give me the first draft of your report by 5 o'clock on Thursday."

"We will meet on Tuesday at 10 am."

"Let's (us) start a new marketing campaign. I want to announce the kick-off in March."

Your brevity will be appreciated. Really.

Your message will be clear and understandable.

Your trust level with others will go up because your verbal packaging will go down.

Roesler communication principle #1: Truth comes in sentences. Bull**** comes in paragraphs.

 

Photo Source: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartfat/38625613/

 

"What Do I Want To Be?" or "What Do I Want To Become?"

Which question are you asking yourself?

Your choice will help determine the depth of your life as well as the comfort-level of your career.

I've been watching a new CEO client begin his tenure at a global company. He is very comfortable listening, talking, giving direction, and saying "I don't know. That sounds good to me. Go ahead and do it." (Whatever the "it" is).

What I'm really seeing is a man who has, over a lifetime, decided to "become" the kind of person he wanted to be. I know for a fact that he didn't set out to be a CEO. In fact, he was invited into the role. The reason he received the invitation, I believe, rests in great part on who he is to the people around him.

Yet "who he is" was shaped by not ambitiously jumping into a position that was too far ahead of "who he was" at the moment. His career path shows a progression that was slow and steady, building solid relationships and new knowledge along the way.  And each step on the ladder reflected genuine accomplishment.

Now he has become a CEO; he doesn't have to play the role of CEO.

And that's the distinction between where the two questions above will lead you.

Who do you want to become?

Or do you want to play a role?

Think about the how the difference will affect your life.