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#Leadership : How To Get Your Point Across To These Five Personality Types… Not Everyone Thinks the Same Way. Here’s How to Repurpose a Three-Decade-Old #Management Theory to Tailor your Message to Just about Anybody.

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The VP of finance for a major multinational company recently came to me with a problem. “I’ve been trying to start a conversation with the VP of marketing, and he won’t talk to me,” he said. “Whenever I try to ask him what he thinks about my ideas, he doesn’t respond.”

I asked him to describe the marketing VP to me. As he talked about his personality, I thought of a potential solution: “Don’t ask him what he thinks about your ideas,” I said. “Ask him what’s wrong with them.”

A few weeks later, I heard back from my client. “Your advice was amazing!” he said. “We spent two hours discussing issues, and he wants to meet with me every week now!”

Why did I give him that advice? Because as he described the marketing VP to me, I realized what type of speaking approach would most likely resonate: one that appealed to his colleague’s problem-solving personality.

While psychological research has progressed quite a bit since Edward de Bono released his influential  book Six Thinking Hatsin 1985, I find framework still offers a handy set of metaphors for adjusting your speaking style to fit listeners’ thinking styles and personalities (though I typically prefer sticking to just five). Here are five ways to frame your message, riffing on de Bono’s 33-year-old idea, according to the people or person you’re communicating with.

Related:Six Communication Styles That Every Single Person Uses

1. PROBLEM SOLVERS

A “black hat” approach to speaking is all about solving problems. When you’re addressing someone who thrives on figuring out puzzles (like that VP of marketing), you need to focus on what’s wrong with something–usually in solutions-oriented, technical terms.

Let’s say you’re tasked with giving a presentation about productivity. With a black hat approach, your key message might be, “By reducing the gaps in our sourcing systems, we can increase productivity.” Then you’d go on to point out what those gaps actually are, and guide your audience toward brainstorming ways of closing them.

Related:How To Get Straight To The Point No Matter What You’re Trying To Say

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2. DATA GEEKS

Analytical thinkers typically require a slightly different approach. The “white hat” approach to speaking is objective and straightforward. Rather than emphasize the problem areas, you lay out all the relevant information you’ve got–focusing on data and analysis. You’ll also want to rely more on charts and statistics to get your message across than you otherwise might.

So if you’re taking a “white hat” approach to your productivity presentation, you’d analyze your team’s output in terms of amount of hours saved, money saved, and forecasted benefits–all backed up by hard facts and concrete numbers. Your key message might be, “By improving our system, we can increase productivity by x and contribute y to the bottom line.”

3. TEAM PLAYERS

Sometimes you’re speaking to people who aren’t exactly number crunchers but think in terms of shared purpose and teamwork. In that case, your goal is to connect with the hearts of your listeners with an emotional appeal that inspires belief, propels action, and instills a feeling of togetherness.

A “red hat” approach to the productivity issue would be more of a pep talk; you’d discuss how increasing morale and building team spirit can increase productivity. Your key message might be, “By working together, we can conquer new frontiers and build an organization that keeps getting better and better.”

4. CREATIVE TYPES

The “green hat” approach to speaking focused on creativity. If your listeners are “outside the box” thinkers, you’ll need to use visual imagery to get your audiences to imagine possibilities they may not have even considered.

In your productivity presentation, you’d want to discuss potential innovations that could help increase productivity. Rather than analyze the past, you’d brainstorm programs and initiatives you could try in order to boost productivity in the future, encouraging your team to think inventively. Your key message might be, “By innovating, we can propel the organization to better results and discover new opportunities we haven’t even imagined yet.”

Related:Working With Creatives (A Guide For Everyone Else)

5. OPTIMISTS

Finally, if you’re speaking to glass-half-full thinkers who are good at looking at the bright side, you should do the same. Stress the positive and focus on what’s ahead–like a bright beacon guiding everyone to safety and security.

Taking this “yellow hat” approach for your productivity presentation would mean focusing on what’s going right already, and where it’s bound to take you if you stay the course. Your key message might be, “By capitalizing on our strengths, we can catapult our company to new heights with our customers.”

As de Bono himself realized, these strategies are all about being flexible. Our personalities are highly contextual–more tendencies than fixed properties–and people change “hats” all the time. Your room full of yellow hat optimists might turn into black hat problem solvers when the going gets tough. So always think about what your message is, and to whom you’re delivering it. You’ll find a little color can go a long way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anett Grant is the CEO of Executive Speaking, Inc. and the author of the new e-book,CEO Speaking: The 6-Minute Guide. Since 1979, Executive Speaking has pioneered breakthrough approaches to helping leaders from all over the world–including leaders from 61 of the Fortune 100 companies–develop leadership presence, communicate complexity, and speak with precision and power.

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FastCompany.com | January 31, 2018 | Anett Grant

#Leadership : 4 Ways To Go From #Manager To #Leader ….. #Managers are a Necessary Part of any Organization, but #Leaders will take Things To the Next Level.

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Perhaps you’re in a leadership role but don’t feel like you’ve earned the respect from your team. Maybe you feel like they don’t even like you. As a career coach to millennials, I’ve had plenty of new managers come to me, desperate to win approval from their team. It’s a classic case of manager versus leader: they are managing their team effectively, but they aren’t leading them. So what separates a manager from a leader, and why does it matter?

A manager knows how to execute. He follows the rules and does everything right. He effectively delegates work, manages timelines, and meets deadlines. A manager can be counted on to get it done. Managers are a necessary part of any organization, but leaders will take things to the next level.

A leader has a vision and knows how to inspire a team to go above and beyond.  A leader uses emotional intelligence to draw the best out of each teammate and empower them. Research shows that teams managed by motivators (aka leaders) perform better than those that are too heavily controlled by a designated supervisor (aka managers). In short, managers control while leaders grow.

Here are four practical steps you can take right now to elevate yourself from a manager to a leader.

1. Leaders Leave Their Egos At The Door

A true leader does whatever is required to get the job done. If that means running the copier, making the midnight coffee run, or assembling folders, that’s what the leader does, even if his paycheck and title suggest otherwise. This approach not only guarantees that the work gets done; it also does wonders for the energy levels on the team.

One way to implement this is to pay attention to the unique brilliance of each employee on your team. If you see that people are exceptionally good at something, offer to take some work off their plate so you can free them up to make better use of their skill set. If you’re coming up blank on ideas for them, ask them what they’d like to do more of. They will respect you for getting your hands dirty, and they’ll appreciate you for making them feel seen and heard.

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2. Leaders Know How To Listen

Leaders listen to everyone, even those who might not have as much “experience” as other people in the room. The best leaders treat brainstorming as a democracy of ideas. They ask “what do you think?” and get everyone involved.

One way of getting more invested participation from your employees is to introduce a weekly team meeting where new ideas are solicited from each person. This is a great way to strengthen the team mentality, showing your employees that you want and welcome their brilliance.

3. Leaders Have Emotional Fitness

Emotional intelligence—the ability to read and connect with just about anyone in the room—is great, but it doesn’t sustain you in times of uncertainty and instability. It wasn’t until I became a career coach that I learned the importance of emotional fitness. Emotional fitness is your ability to flexibly endure the ups and downs of business and life. The difference between managers and leaders is the way they react to and process the failed deals, the lost clients, and even the busted refrigerator in the break room. Managers freak out, sending tiny ripples of panic and chaos through the rest of the team. Leaders tap into an inner Buddha, an unwavering stillness that empowers them to take a deep breath and keep moving forward.

4. Leaders Live Outside Their Comfort Zone

Playing a big game doesn’t always feel natural or comfortable, but it’s a choice that true leaders make again and again. As kids, we are often conditioned to go with the grain and to avoid disrupting our environment. We often keep ourselves from really being seen, and from being different. The problem here is that this encourages us to grow into very average adults who only feel comfortable when we’re playing small.

I’ll never forget the moment I stepped backstage at TEDxBerkeley. As the least seasoned speaker at the time, I thought I’d definitely be the most nervous in the room….The entire group backstage was panicked. Nothing this rewarding can possibly exist in your comfort zone, and it’s the leaders who are willing to wake up daily, stepping outside of theirs.

Leadership is part art, part science. A leader, like any manager, knows how to make things happen, but it’s often the leader who comes up with the ideas or inspires their team to innovate in the first place. If you’re truly ready to step into a leadership role, it’s time to go above and beyond what is required, and empower your team to do the same.

In the end, leadership is a choice. And the choice is yours.

Ashley Stahl coaches job seekers to find their purpose and land more job offers. She also runs CAKE Publishing, a ghostwriting house that helps influencers create content.

 

Forbes.com | January 26, 2018 | Ashley Stahl , CONTRIBUTOR

#Leadership : How To Lead A Productive #PerformanceReview …How Can you Make the Performance Review something of Value for You & your Employee?

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Employees dread the performance review. They look to this yearly evaluation with angst, annoyance and anger. It’s a measure of their whole year bottled into a one- to two-hour meeting that will determine their promotion, raise, etc. They often don’t even leave with feedback on how to grow; it’s mostly a waste of time.

Leaders don’t like the performance review much, either. The process typically takes them at least five times longer than it takes their employees — and they often see a less engaged employee on the other end.

It’s a hard process. It’s time-consuming, vague and not focused. Still, the performance review process shouldn’t be scrapped. It can be done better — it can serve as a tool to align leader and employee, connect your team and organizational goals and be a catalyst for employee growth.

How can you make the performance review something of value for you and your employee?

Let’s start with the intention of the performance review process. The purpose of the performance review is to assess your employee’s work over the past year (or quarter, etc.), agree on actions for improvement, and align on next year’s (or quarter’s) goals as they relate to the company’s core objectives.

I’ve broken the process down into a few simple steps to remove the vagueness, provide concrete actions to take and set you up with a framework to hold more productive performance reviews for your team.

Step 1. Assess successes and opportunities. You can’t just walk into a performance review meeting and wing it. It does take preparation. It should not, however, take more than 60-90 minutes to prepare for each employee.

In reviewing their performance, look at each of your employee’s goals in the following ways.

• Analyze the outcome. Did she reach her goal, yes or no? What are her tangible metrics? 

• Identify actions you want her to repeat. What did she do well that helped her towards this goal? What was the impact of her actions? Make sure to provide specific examples.

• Identify actions you see as opportunities. What could she have done better? What was the impact? What is the potential impact of adapting? Share specific examples.

Write down notes and examples. It’s okay to use them during the conversation, it shows your employee you care about their growth and have dedicated time to giving thoughtful feedback. Ask your employee to do the same. Have her come to the meeting prepared to share her results. Following this structure will set each meeting up for success.

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Step 2. Hold the conversation. This is your employee’s meeting. Sit back, listen and ask questions for clarity. Then give your feedback.

For an ideal review, follow the four As: ask, add, agree, align.

• Ask and listen. How did you see your performance over the last year? What were some of your significant accomplishments? What didn’t quite go as planned? What happened, and what did you learn?

• Add your feedback. This is the time to share your feedback. What actions did she do well? What are some opportunities for growth? Share specific examples for each.

• Agree with the assessment. Do you agree with her assessment? What do you have to add to it? Does she agree with your assessment? What does she have to add?

• Align with new goals. Now that you’ve agreed on the assessment of her performance, it’s time to look forward. It’s a chance to set new goals based on company objectives and her desired areas of growth. 

Where should she focus her energies to achieve business objectives for the next year (or quarter)? Where does she want to grow and develop herself? You should leave with three to five S.M.A.R.T goals for the upcoming year (or quarter).

You’ll know if you’ve been successful if your employee does most of the talking. It’s her meeting, about her work, and her success is your success.

Step 3. Follow up and follow through. This is where most bosses miss the mark. We spend all of this time preparing for the meeting, the meeting happens, and we never bring it up again. In turn, nothing changes.

There are a few simple elements that will help make it easy for you to follow up with your employee and follow through on the actions you agreed to in the meeting.

• Follow up on review outcomes. Send a recap email summarizing the results of the conversation and the three to five goals set. Ask your employee to review and confirm. This is a great way to make sure what you heard in the meeting is the same as what she heard.

• Track follow-through on action towards goals. Once a month, review progress on these goals with your employee. What’s working? What’s holding her back? How can you support her? Asking her about these goals highlights their importance and your dedication to her growth and allows room for adaptation and adjustments in real time.

Stop looking at reviews as a burden and time suck. They’re an opportunity to align and lead your team more powerfully.

When done well, the performance review process will engage your employee, create more clarity and make your role as a leader easier in the long run.

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Forbes.com | January 12, 2018

#Leadership : 5 Common Communication Misfires (And How To Avoid Them)…Tech enables Faster Communication, But that Also Means there’s a Greater Chance to Say Something you Didn’t Intend.

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Miscommunication happens frequently in life and work, partly because technology allows us to communicate faster, but not necessarily better. While some miscommunications are merely annoying, others can create conflict or be a disrupting influence in relationships.
Free- Iphone with Gadgets

Based on being both the giver and the recipient of unintended communication gaffes, here are five reasons why I believe they occur, and what to do to prevent them in the future.

1. WHAT YOU ARE THINKING MAKES NO SENSE TO ANYONE ELSE BUT YOU

Writing or verbalizing what we’re thinking can be challenging, especially if we’re trying to multitask when we shouldn’t.

My team suffers a lot from this when I delegate a task and expect them to know exactly what’s going on in my brain.

The solution is to let others know everything you’re thinking, even if you’re not completely clear on it yourself. The idea is for you to work ideas out together, so you can reach the best possible outcome. I also like to verbalize my instructions as well as write them down in a recap, so others know exactly what I mean. Over the years, this has helped me sound a lot less like a jerk.

 

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2. YOU ARE SAYING TOO MUCH AND MAKING THINGS MORE COMPLICATED

In my first business partnership, I would do a brain dump that included things that didn’t need to be said. This not only caused miscommunication, but it also ultimately ended our working arrangement.

I’ve also noticed this occurs with the creative people who have a tendency to cloud their main point with a lot of words that complicates their message.

To master the fine art of getting to the point, write down what you want to say, then start to trim it back until you can create as simple a message without losing the primary idea. You most likely don’t need adjectives or exclamatory phrases to get your point across.

3. YOU AREN’T CONTROLLING THE TONE OF YOUR MESSAGE

While overthinking your message rarely results in better communication, it’s important to remember that you don’t have any control over what’s happening on the receiving end. If that person is already in a bad mood, they may read something in a way you never intended. Although you can’t control the reaction of the receiver, you can make a concerted effort to take any emotion out of a communication and keep a professional tone in all business communications.

I personally always remember, “You can say anything to anyone, but how you say it will dictate whether you get a positive or negative reaction.”

4. YOU’RE USING TEXTING SHORTCUTS OR EMOJIS TO REPLACE WORDS

I’ve used a smiley face to let the person on the other end know I’m pleased with their message. However, when I start seeing texting shortcuts and emojis I’m not familiar with, I don’t know how to take what the person is saying, and I certainly don’t have time to go look up their cutesy emoji.

I was angry one day with an employee. Later that day, when I thought everything had settled down and was okay, she sent me a text with a string of emojis of a baby, baby bottle, a hospital, and a pink bow. I thought, “Oh, so the little snot is calling me a baby! She surely should know it was not wise to call the boss a baby!”

In another conversation over the phone, someone told me how happy that employee was because she had just found out that day about my new baby daughter. But my temper had flared, and I nearly fired her over a message that she intended to be sweet.

Even if you’re well-versed in emoji etiquette, you shouldn’t assume that everyone will know the intent and meaning of acronyms and graphics. Stick to professional language and save the shortcuts for your best buddies.

5. YOU MAKE TOO MANY ASSUMPTIONS

There are times when people don’t really listen because they think they already know what the person is going to say, or they are busy preparing their own answer. The same idea applies when you assume you know what a person means in their email or text message without actually really reading it for context. It could be that you are tired, emotional, or distracted, or the messages could be coming from someone at work that you don’t necessarily like.

Slow down and read a message more than once while clearing out your assumptions. Focus, reflect, and then read it again before you draw conclusions. If you are still not sure, ask questions to make sure you understood the message correctly. I find people with this skill can be hidden leaders in my company.

Effective communication takes practice. I know haven’t perfected it yet. I do take a step back from a message that made me angry in order to give the person the benefit of the doubt. And I keep these reasons for miscommunication to remind me to take more care in how I read, write, and verbalize what I am sending out or receiving.

 

FastCompany.com | JOHN RAMPTON  | 11.07.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 3 Crucial Things I’ve Learned In My First 30 Days As A Manager…Here’s How this Buffer Engineer Quickly Faced her Fears about Managing People she Felt were Better Developers Than she Was.

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It feels ridiculous for me to write about being an engineering manager. It’s a job I’ve done for not even 30 days yet. But that’s what I want to know from others—how did you start? How did you make it through your first month?
Leader3

No two first rodeos are ever alike. But they’re all rodeos, and falling off is falling off. There’s some kind of pattern. So here I am, writing the post that I want to read. And in my first month in a new management role, I’ve found these to be the three things I’ve had to sort out above all else.

1. WHAT IS THIS JOB, ANYWAY?

I had a rough idea what I was getting into from the internal job description, but there’s a chasm between “Help build deep fulfillment and ensure the personal growth of team members” and, well, doing that.

So I went on something of a crusade to understand what exactly I should do. I asked engineers at Buffer, “What do youthink makes a great engineering manager (EM)? Where do you think I fall short?” I am so grateful for the honest answers of my peers—it allowed me to develop a clear sense of how I need to grow. I stalked people on Twitter and LinkedIn, cold emailed them, and asked them how they survived the switch. “What was your rookie error?” became my pickup line.

I’m continually astonished at how helpful the world generally is. I’ve met up with incredible people whom I’d thought wouldn’t give me the time of day. I’ve found this awesome Slack community where I can see, in real time, a smorgasbord of management scenarios unfolding and people of experience, the very kind of people I want to become, give their advice. There is such treasure, if you care to dig.

From my own experience, I certainly remember times when I knew what I wanted from a manager, but didn’t feel I could speak up and ask for it. So I’ve decided to ask a very simple question: “What is something that I can do for you over the next week to make your work life better?”

I quickly learned that this is a solved problem—the help is there. I just had to ask.

 

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2. WHAT HAPPENS TO MY OLD WORK?

This is tough. When an engineer switches to management, the team loses an engineer. That puts a damper on team velocity and morale, but doing two jobs at once is infeasible. Having a handover and transition plan was my first task. It’s a real challenge to figure out who can take over the work you do in a team that’s already lean. And let’s face it, there’s never an “extra engineer” twiddling her thumbs.

I got really lucky here: Half my team (non-engineers) took a vacation as I made the switch, so there was a natural lull while I Googled “how to be an engineering manager.” Then I got another break: A product team happened to be disbanding, and there was someone ready and excited to take over. I dodged a very difficult quarter.

Think about your old responsibilities—don’t just walk out. If there’s really no one to step up, then schedules will slip. Realize this, and make sure others realize it, too.

3. HOW DO I MANAGE SOMEONE WHO’S BETTER THAN I’LL EVER BE?

This was the scariest thing I had to do. Before jumping into a first meeting with an engineer whom I admire greatly, I was decidedly fretful, and definitely anxious throughout. What did he think of me? Was this a huge waste of time? I shudder at the opportunity cost.

After that first video call, it hit me that although I thought he was awesome, I’d given zero recognition. Realizing why I held back calling out good work was a key moment for me: I didn’t feel qualified to praise this engineer. I felt that my opinion didn’t matter; that he’d think I was an idiot for praising something he’d done that was no big deal. It would be like praising Dan Abramov for writing a todo app in React.

Once I understood and named that fear, it went away. If I was better at coding than the engineers I managed, then I’d be writing that code. But I’m not. That’s exactly why I’m managing!

I’m better at encouraging and unblocking. I think that’s when the idea of “servant leader” started to click.

I am there to sort out all the stuff that stops engineers from focusing. Make the processes smooth. Make sure they find their work interesting and challenging. Make sure they are having the biggest impact that they can. Understand who they are and what drives them, and line that up with what the team needs. Tell them when I think they did something great. Ask them why they did something that falls short of our quality bar—maybe there was a good reason. Maybe I can help. I don’t have to be able to do their jobs better than them. They’re the experts, and they should be.

I still don’t know what my biggest rookie error is, though. I guess that’ll be a subject for another post.

An earlier version of this article originally appeared on Buffer. It is reprinted with permission.

 

FastCompany.com |  KATIE WOMERSLEY 10.16.16 5:00 AM

 

#Leadership : 4 Ways Leaders Kill Productivity…You May be Holding your Business Back Without Even Realizing It.

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Businesses often reflect its leaders, which is why you should work on developing traits that make you a good business leader and killing those that are harming you and your business.

argue-conflict-workplace

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker

As a business leader and a blogger, my level of productivity is greatly determined by the skills I possess and the various productivity tools I’ve acquired over the years. The same applies to all entrepreneurs of every stripe and color. It’s important to constantly self-examine your progress. I do this by regularly asking myself the following questions.

  • How far have I come?
  • What got me to where I am today?
  • Am I really delivering as expected?
  • Do I find it difficult to keep up with expectations?

Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

Too many business leaders fail to reach their full potential because they have an internal hold-back button and fail to take their fingers off of it. In this post, I’ll identify four common struggles that you may not realize are holding you back and harming your business.

1. You’re afraid to fail.

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others” – Robert Louis Stevenson

You will fail and make mistakes a lot, as a business leader. The good news is it’s a necessary part of the path to success because running a business isn’t a hurdle-free process.

When your mind is filled with thoughts of failure coming up with actionable strategies to help boost your business can be difficult, if not impossible.

You may ask yourself: But what if I lose my job or sink my business by making one wrong choice? And I’ll say: Well, if your business dies as a result of inaction, you’ll be in the same boat. By not taking any risks, you’ll never set yourself up for the rewards that success can bring.

According to the founder of iCustomLabel Nick Chachula, great leaders are good at taking risks, because they keep themselves open for the opportunities. They see around the corner, have their homework done and are upfront about taking a shot at the given opportunity.

 

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2. You’re too independent.

Yes, you’re the leader; therefore, you should have the power to single-handedly manage the business all by yourself, right? Wrong. No one has the ability to grow a business and increase all-around productivity without relying on others at times.

The truth is this – in running a successful business, the role of teamwork can’t be neglected. In the words of Ken Blanchard, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

Getting ideas from various sources will help you make well-informed decisions and take calculated risks. It will also lead to a rise in your productivity because you’ll be able to spend more time on things you do well. To rise above the challenges, you’ll need to kill the one man army mentality before it kills you.

Related: 10 Signs That You Suck As a Leader

3. You’re too scared to make decisions.

“It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.” – Jim Rohn

As a business leader, the decisions you make strongly determine outcome of your business, so I understand the pressure. I really do.

Having the buck stop at your table can get overwhelming. And making good decisions will help boost your productivity, almost as quickly as poor decisions will kill productivity.

According to French Entrepreneur Julien Labrousse, decisions must be made. And guess what: every leader struggles with a fear of making poor decisions at some point. One way to get over this fear is to seek counsel and delve into available data. This will give you the foundation you need in order to trust your gut instinct. It’s never a bad idea to gather information and professional opinions. Just don’t delay unnecessarily.

4. You’re not humble.

“Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.” — Ezra Taft Benson

You just might be a great leader, but don’t forget that your team can always make you better. They may indirectly let you know when you’re taking the wrong steps. But leaders, who lacks humility, will tend to ignore any kind of constructive feedback.

Being a humble leader doesn’t mean accepting everything that your team says, but it does mean having a willingness to listen to the views of others, and give their suggestions fair consideration.

Related: How Thoughtful Leaders Earn Employee Loyalty

It also means giving credit where credit is due. It means recognizing and rewarding the efforts of your team. Acknowledging the contributions of others is a great way to foster humility, and encourage positive results from your team.

Businesses often reflect its leaders, which is why you should work on developing traits that make you a good business leader and killing those that are harming you and your business.

Entrepreneur.com | October 7, 2016 |  Toby Nwazor

#Leadership : Promoted From Coworker To Manager? 7 Tips For A Smooth Transition…Remember, your Job as the New Manager Shouldn’t Be about Trying to be Popular – it’s About Leading Others to Achieve Results.

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One of the more difficult career situations I’ve coached people through – and been through myself – is being promoted from within a department to become the manager of that group.

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As one client found out, going from a peer who previously talked “trash” about the manager with other colleagues to the person others talked about can make it a stressful transition.

“Madison” realized that her previous personal relationships with coworkers had to be moved to a different level, because she was no longer a peer – she was the person who now assigned the work, analyzed productivity and held performance discussions.

 

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Making the move from coworker to department manager was a tricky transition because, as the new manager, Madison was responsible for the productivity and results of her department. Oftentimes, former coworkers, either because of jealousy or out of habit, didn’t want to treat her as the boss – they wanted to continue treating her as one of the peer group.

Here are seven tips for making the transition easier:

• See your HR business partner to find out what training and support is available as you take on your new role.

• Sit down one-on-one with each person in the department to discuss their feelings about your transition to the manager of the team. Talk about the expectations you have of each other and get potential issues out on the table, so you can address them.

• Remain professional at all times. And treat each and every employee fairly and with respect, by listening to what each person has to say (listen more, speak less).

• Eliminate your water-cooler or break-room gossip and venting sessions with employees.

• Don’t allow previous work and/or friendships with your former peers to influence your new managerial responsibilities. You must now learn to remain unbiased, no matter what situation arises.

• Ensure that everyone on the team understands your new role as their manager and the responsibilities that are expected of you by senior management.

• Work out a game plan for how you and your team can work together to achieve the goals and objectives of the group. (Be sure to clearly and concisely communicate those goals and objectives).

Over time, as the team observed my client’s leadership skills and professionalism, they stopped seeing Madison as their peer and came to accept her as their manager.

Remember, your job as the new manager shouldn’t be about trying to be popular – it’s about leading others to achieve results. You may not win over everyone in the group, especially if one or two others also applied for the position you ultimately received.

No matter what happens, keep the focus on the work to be done, give it your best effort every day, treat everyone fairly and with compassion, and you will earn their respect over time.

Lisa Quast is the author of Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time.

Forbes.com | October 3, 2016 | Lisa Quast

#Leadership : 8 Ways You’re Making People Tune Out When You Speak…You Spend Up to 80% of your Day Communicating, so Take Care Not to Fall Prey to these Common Missteps.

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 In meetings, emails, conversations, and conference calls, business leaders spend roughly 80% of their time communicating. So, it’s a significant waste of time and resources if that communication isn’t effective. When it comes to the way we speak to others—either groups or individuals—we can often be inadvertently doing or saying things that undermine our effectiveness.
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American English is typically spoken at roughly 183 words per minute, but we can listen and understand at up to 400 words per minute. The difference can lead to distraction, says speech coach Ethan F. Becker, PhD, president of the Speech Improvement Company, a speech and communications coaching firm, and author of Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage and Influence. “There are all sorts of conversations in the back of our mind,” he says. “When I add filler words or something like that, I increase the chance of miscommunication.”

Are you doing or saying things that make people tune out or distract them from your message? Here are eight common habits to avoid.

1. DISMISSING THEIR MESSAGE

Common phrases like, “You think that’s bad? Listen to this!” could be intended to communicate a shared experience, but actually sounds dismissive of the other person’s message or experience, Becker says. That can be off-putting. Suddenly your conversation partner or audience is put in defensive mode rather than listening to your experience. It’s better to affirm that you heard the other person’s story or experience and state that you can relate because you’ve been through something similar, then tell your story, he says. Using the word “but” can have a similar effect.

 

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2. USING TOO MANY FILLER WORDS

Words like “um,” “you know,” or “like,” are filler words—Becker calls them “vocalized pauses”—that we tend to repeat out of habit or because of nervousness. Research his team at the Speech Improvement Company has done found that while a few instances per minute doesn’t typically deter the message, upwards of six per minute becomes increasingly distracting and makes it difficult for the listener to focus on what you have to say.

3. BREAKING OUT THE JARGON

It’s important to not be condescending to your audience, but even if you’re in a room full of people who are fluent in industry jargon, they don’t want to hear people speak that way for too long, says Kory Floyd, PhD, professor of communication at the University of Arizona and author of Communication Matters.

Using too much technical language, “or even $5 words when a 50¢ word will do,” makes language more complicated than it needs to be, says Floyd. Being accessible and specific in your language doesn’t mean “dumbing it down.” You’re simply making it easier for people to truly understand what you’re saying, he says.

4. PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE YOU’RE NOT

Similarly, the first rule of great communication is to understand your own style, strengths, and weaknesses and adapt to them. Trying to be overly formal when that’s not really who you are can sound inauthentic and make listeners less likely to hear your message.

5. SPEAKING IN A MONOTONE

When you speak in the same tone throughout the conversation or presentation, you risk losing your audience, Becker says. It’s important to change your speaking patterns, especially when you’re speaking to groups, he says. Moving from an animated, fast-paced speech pattern to one that’s more leisurely and relaxed can help keep your audience engaged. If they hear too much of the same speech pattern, they may “zone out,” because monotonous speech patterns can be boring, he says.

6. FAILING TO REGULATE PERSONAL SPACE

A well-known Seinfeld episode put the term “close talker”—someone who moves in close, especially face-to-face, when speaking to another person—into the common lexicon. In interpersonal communication, ensuring proper personal space is essential, says communication expert Leil Lowndes, author of How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships.

But it’s not as simple as it seems. If someone moves in close and you pull back abruptly, you could inadvertently send the signal that you’re not open to what they have to say. At the same time, if the person is making you uncomfortable, you need to adjust your distance so that you can effectively speak. Sometimes, getting interpersonal space right is like “a little dance,” she says, but take your cues from your counterpart and your own comfort level.

7. GETTING EYE CONTACT WRONG

It’s well-known that eye contact is important in interpersonal communication, but there’s a fine line between being warm and engaging and making listeners feel intimidated or threatened, Becker says.

Communications-analytics company Quantified Communications found that adults make eye contact between 30% and 60% of the time while speaking to individuals or groups, yet they should make eye contact roughly 60% to 70% of the time.

Becker says that when you’re speaking to a group, it’s important to vary eye contact around the room. Common advice to speakers is to pick more than two or three faces to avoid making those few people very uncomfortable, he says.

8. IGNORING INTERACTION

Whether you’re speaking to a person or a group, failing to allow appropriate interaction can leave your audience members feeling like you don’t care about their feedback, Floyd says. These exchanges are supposed to have give-and-take, he points out. When there’s no opportunity to participate, listeners may lose interest.

 

FastCompany.com | GWEN MORAN  | 08.31.16 5:26 AM

 

#Leadership : 6 Concepts Your Millennial Employees Wish You Understood…One of the Things you Learn very Quickly, When you Hire a Staff, Is that a Bad Boss is the No. 1 Reason Why People Quit their Jobs.

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One of the most fraught challenges that an manager/entrepreneur can face is the management of employees. Plenty of books have been written on the subject; plenty of classes have been taught. But it’s only when you’re suddenly sharing an office full of millennials with their own distinct personalities, strengths, weaknesses and dreams – each of whom is looking to you for leadership — that the real learning begins.

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One of the things you learn very quickly, when you hire a staff, is that a bad boss is the No. 1 reason why people quit their jobs. Nobody wants to be a bad boss. And nobody has to be a bad boss – not if you put in the time and effort it takes to become the leader that your employees need. Naturally, that’s easier said than done, particularly because employees rarely feel comfortable offering tips to their boss on how to behave.

Fortunately, managers/entrepreneurs who hang in there long enough often become masters of putting their employees in a position to succeed. It’s a crucial part of building a viable business. Even bosses who are beloved by their staff, though, could learn to be more effective if they were better able to view the world through millennial eyes.

Simply put, millennial employees work harder and remain more loyal if they believe their boss understands them and their needs. Here are six important considerations that your millennial employees wish you recognized.

1. Their time is more valuable than money.

It’s no great secret that employees hate it when their boss keeps them in the office late or bombards them in the evenings and on weekends with emails, phone calls and homework. Don’t do that. But your respect for your employees’ time should go further than that.

Most projects require teamwork, and when one of your team members completes their part and turns it over to you, they expect you to complete it promptly so that they can move onto the next thing instead of waiting on you. It’s imperative that the boss is not a bottleneck, preventing an efficient office, so always respect your millennial employees’ time as much as your own.

 

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2. They want to know what’s happening with the company.

Does your office operate on a need-to-know basis? Your millennial employees are probably not happy with that arrangement.

Workers usually aren’t offended if they’re not included in a company’s decision making – they know that’s your job. But they do resent being kept in the dark about the company’s plans and direction.

Employees, who endure too many surprises or can’t be sure what your business will look like in six months, begin to feel that you don’t trust them. Nobody does their best work for a boss or a business that doesn’t trust them with essential information.

Learning to manage people effectively can sometimes take a career – some would say longer, when it comes to millennials. Even then, your employees probably won’t love you for it. But if you keep their interests in mind while running your business, they just might love to work for you. Isn’t that the kind of company where you’d like to work too?

3. They want to learn something.

It’s rare these days for a worker to stick with the same company for their entire career, for many complicated reasons.

One surefire way to keep them, though, is to make sure that they’re learning new skills on the job. It’s better for the company because your staff is constantly improving its knowledge and skillset, and it’s better for the employee too.

Learning something new keeps them engaged, and they know that if and when they move onto a new job, your company will have made them a better employee. If your employees aren’t learning anything, they aren’t improving themselves, and they’re apt to go someplace where they can.

Related: This is How You Create the Ideal Millennial Workplace

4. They hate the open office concept.

For years now, more and more offices have switched to the open-office model, where employees share a communal workspace with small or nonexistent partitions between their desks. The theory is that this approach fosters communication, collaboration and transparency. But that isn’t how your millennial employees see it.

Chances are, millennials believe that you put them in an open office simply so that you could keep an eye on them. Again, this erodes trust.

Additionally, many staffers complain that the noise and distractions all around them in an open office hamper productivity. Nobody grows up hoping to work in a cube, or worse yet, around a table, like a kindergartener. And if you maintain a private office for yourself, they’ll resent you for it.

Related: Want to Understand Millennials? It’s Simpler Than You Think.

5. They want praise and a raise.

As managers/entrepreneurs, we often expect and demand that our teams will always strive to do their best work in order to share in the company’s success. And often, they do – at least at first.

But if millennials’ hard work, engagement and sacrifice isn’t rewarded, you’ll quickly catch them turning in the bare minimum. Bosses have tried all sorts of carrots and sticks to keep their employees stretching for success, but only two things really move the needle: praising quality work and raising compensation for top performers.

In a perfect world, millennials wouldn’t need encouragement to do their best. But in the real world, people get hooked on praise, and nothing motivates like more money. Don’t fight it, utilize it.

Related: Millennials Are Not the Only Ones Who Want Feedback

6. Nobody really loves their boss.

As the leader of your organization, you deserve your employees’ respect and you need their trust. Where many managers/entrepreneurs go wrong, though, is coveting their employees’ love and admiration, too.

No matter how fun you make your workplace or how deeply you involve yourself in your millennial workers’ lives, the fact remains that nobody loves their boss. And nobody wants to.

Your millennial employees need a leader with vision who is smart, fair, and encouraging. What they don’t need is a hero. If you need more love in your life, devote more time and energy to developing friendships and family. If you try to turn your employees into a family, they’ll respect you less for it. Help your workers to love what they do, not love who they work for.

Learning to manage people effectively can sometimes take a career – some would say longer, when it comes to millennials. Even then, your employees probably won’t love you for it. But if you keep their interests in mind while running your business, they just might love to work for you. Isn’t that the kind of company where you’d like to work too?

 

Entrepreneur.com | August 19, 2016 | Steven Kaufman

#Leadership : An Introvert’s Guide To Leadership…As Humans, We Often have a Tendency to Mistake Loudness for Confidence, and Aggression for Strength. As such, Extroverts Often have an Easier Time Rising to the Top of an Organization.

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I think a lot of people assume I’m an extrovert because I’m relatively visible in my role at BodeTree and enjoy engaging with people across the board. The truth, however, is that I’m more naturally inclined towards introverted tendencies. I’m more than comfortable keeping to myself and cherish the time I dedicate to quiet introspection.

Free- Bench on a Lonely Beach

As humans, we often have a tendency to mistake loudness for confidence, and aggression for strength. As such, extroverts often have an easier time rising to the top of an organization. Once at the top, however, I’ve found that the traits and behaviors most often associated with introverts are the ones that separate successful leaders from failures.

The key for introverted leaders, then, is to take the things they’re naturally good at – deep thinking, empathy, and the ability to listen – and augment those skills with a strategic dose of extroversion. If you’re able to strike the right balance, you’ll develop a leadership style that is uniquely suited for the modern workplace.

Listen and empathize

Leaders who are self-aware and introverted are typically better equipped to listen and empathize with the people with whom they interact. This ability, of course, is an invaluable skill in the modern workplace.

Throughout my six years as CEO, I’ve found that there is almost always more to a story than meets the eye. It’s tempting and, frankly, much easier to take a given problem at face value and hammer home a simple solution. For example, a convenient response to a team member’s underperformance is to say that they simply need to “buck up and do the job.”

However, this approach can easily lead to a tense culture and high turnover. Instead, it’s better to listen and empathize with the individuals in question. Many times, issues like underperformance stem from a lack of communication, unclear goals, or scenarios outside of a person’s control. While this isn’t always the case, good leaders explore all options before jumping to such a conclusion.

Think deeply but act with purpose

We’ve all encountered individuals in the workplace who speak first and think later. These types of people can be difficult to work with because they don’t respect the nuance and details of the situation at hand and act from a position of force.

When these people find their way into leadership positions, the team they’re working with often loses respect as a result of their behavior. This, in turn, leads to a disastrous cycle of frustration, poor results, and turnover.

Introverted leaders, on the other hand, can thrive where these individuals fail. Rather than speak first and think second, introverted leaders tend to think deeply about a given scenario before taking action. In contemplating the intricacies of a situation first, introverts are better equipped to communicate with their team and drive positive results.

The key, however, is to find a way to act with purpose once all aspects of the situation have been considered. A tendency towards introversion is not an excuse to be passive. Leaders must be able to think deeply but take action when the time comes.

 

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Remember that a light touch can move mountains

Rather than hammer people until they produce an expected outcome, introverted leaders bring an array of tools and approaches tailored to the situation at hand, enabling them to find the right path forward for everyone.

If you’ve ever read Aesop’s fables, you’ve probably encountered the parable of the sun and the wind. In it, the sun and the wind enter into a competition to see who is the strongest. They decide to see who can make a passing traveler remove his cloak.

The harder the wind blew, the tighter the man held onto his cloak in an attempt to keep warm. However, when the sun shone, the traveler got hot and simply removed the cloak. The moral of the story, of course, is that sometimes a lighter touch is more effective than forceful blustering.

The same thing applies to introverted leaders. When you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Leaders who can think deeply and act intelligently, however, can find the unique and often less abrasive ways to get the outcomes they desire.

Find your balance

Nothing in life is as cut and dried as we would like. Introverts and extroverts don’t exist in separate, well-defined buckets. Instead, they sit on a spectrum that is unique for everyone.

Introverts possess the skills and traits that are found in the best leaders. However, these cannot exist in a vacuum. To find success, introverts must learn to augment their natural abilities with the ability to drive change and move mountains.

Chris Myers is the Cofounder and CEO of BodeTree a web application designed to help financial institutions better interact with their small business clients.

 

Forbes.com | August 15, 2016 |  

Chris Myers ,  

CONTRIBUTOR

I write about my journey as a first-time CEO and startup founder.