Mike, Author at The Third Zone

Dec 01 2017

Successful Feedback ~ Making it Effective Rather Than Dreaded by All

Whether it’s a ‘boss’ giving an evaluation to a report or a member of a team providing it to another team member, providing feedback is a great tool for influencing behaviors and encouraging the learning that will result in an overall improved performance. It facilitates opportunities for general performance growth and development. At least, this is how feedback is supposed to work. As many are only too glad to report, what they experience is not motivating in a positive way and in fact, is often dreaded by both the giver and the recipient.

The following are suggestions that can turn feedback into a win for the recipient, the provider and, most importantly, the organization.

Frequency:
Providing feedback should not be limited to annual review. Rather providing frequent input to someone working to be successful … for the company, the team/department or themselves. It’s the nature of the changes one might be looking to bring about that should dictate the frequency of these conversations. Often times it’s the person who is being reviewed that can best suggest a frequency that can will make sense to them.

Focus … on the issue or process and not the person:
Expressing a desire to see something done differently for the good of the project or company is a way to engage the other person in driving a solution or change. Making it about what ‘you do’ or how ‘you always …’ has the effect of closing the ears of the recipient and reducing the conversation to one that is defensive, combative or just shut down.

Enter the conversation … intent on it being a 2-way communication:
If you are delivering the review, do so knowing that there is perhaps another perspective held by the ‘reviewee’. Let that person know that you are presenting a situation about which you have a concern telling them that you definitely want to hear their perspective on the issue. You may learn something that will explain things so as to alter your initial impression.

What’s going well and what could be better … make it all-encompassing meeting:
It’s just as important the reviewing performance emphasize the successful aspects of the job being done as well as those in need of improvement. Just as we might want to see some change, we also want to reinforce things that are contributing to a successful effort.

The reviewee’s contribution … bringing their list of things they believe they are doing well and the things they believe they can learn to do better:
It’s a way to set the tone for the 2-way conversation you want and you have set the foundation for a spirited exchange leading to an effective move-ahead plan.

Be willing to be vulnerable as the reviewer:
You may be the boss however that doesn’t mean that you have or need to have all the answers. You are also a learner which allows you to hear and be influenced in your opinion by the input the the one being reviewed will provide.

A big reason as to why performance reviews get a bad rap is because of the way in which they are handled. It’s understandable that salaries are often reviewed annually. However every person comes to work about 250 days in that same year and changing a performance review into something done with frequency and regularity removes the potential sting, dread and resistance from all sides. If this makes sense to you, you need not wait for someone else to make this happen. Just make the request that you would like to meet … i.e. monthly or quarterly … so as to be able to chart your own progress and related value to your position and the company. If done the right way reviews will move from a thing of dread and resistance to one of valuable anticipation. Now make it happen and at least, try it.
Mike Dorman

Nov 13 2017

Playing Pinball ~ Fun in the Arcades ~ Disruptive in the Office

“How often do you keep yourself bustling with tasks that kind of give you the charge that comes from getting something done in the moment, but that doesn’t move you toward your chief goal?” This is the one complaint that I hear expressed by business clients regardless of business or industry type. They know what they want to be and should be doing and yet at the end of the day, week, month or year they are left frustrated with all they haven’t been able to accomplish that they consider to be meaningful in terms of taking them to their job goals.

Todd David wrote an article for Business Insider in which he creatively labeled this unsatisfying result as the Pinball Syndrome. You know … ball comes onto the playing field from all angles and at all speeds and our job is to send them down paths that will give us more points by keeping the ball in play as long as possible. Those who have spent hours and quarters playing these games in arcades know that they provide us with fun and challenge, however, we also know that ultimately we will lose with no real reward or great accomplishment. I think it’s a clever and meaningful analogy.

In coaching a client, one of the first things we might do is establish where that client wants to go from where they are ‘now’. That’s the beginning however, it’s only the

beginning. From this point it’s a matter of making the identified goals happen. Making them happen is the real challenge and as David indicates, the problem is that ”if you reach the end of the day and felt like “I’ve been too busy to get anything done,” that’s the pinball syndrome.”

The things that grab and take our attention seem like they must be done now. I refer to them as ‘blips’ that divert our focus and, too often, take us off course. They might look like this:

You MUST stay tuned into your email account because the next one might be important and you don’t want the sender to wait for a response.
You DROP whatever you doing to help another person who stops by to ask if you have a second … a second that becomes many minutes and completely takes you off center for what you know you need to do.
You CONVINCE yourself that you really should drop into a meeting in case they need your input on the topic … because you can.
You NEED to send off a quick and short memo that you remember has to be sent today (note: not now)

We’re playing a pinball game when we are giving into the blips and allowing them to hijack our intended path for any day regardless of how important we think they are. The problem is that although they all seem valid, at the end of the day they haven’t moved us any closer to our overriding goals and achieving responsibilities. The result is often a sense of frustration and even overall failure.

When addressing and recognizing the ‘blips’ that manage to take us off course, the biggest admission is that we feel more confident responding to them because we are comfortable and know what we need to do and how to do it. So bring on the ‘blips’ and at the end of my day I’ll be able to check off all that I did to be busy. Busy, yes however not productive where I really need to be. Thus the busy-ness gives us something to hide behind yet doesn’t result in our feeling like we’ve accomplished anything or much.

To keep the Pinball Syndrome out of the job calls for a few straight-forward steps:

Clearly define the goal … where are you heading and what does it look like when achieved?
Create the plan to get there … what are the steps you need to take on the way to arriving at your goal? They should be realistic and achievable in a reasonable time-frame
Create some accountability for yourself … for this you can ask another person to help you make certain you have done what you say you’re going to do. This is often the role of a coach as well as co-workers or trusted friend.
End each day having prepared your ‘to-do’ list for tomorrow … items you intend to address and categorized as A, B or C based on their priority. This help one stay focused on those things they must do tomorrow leaving lesser priorities for doing when time allows.
Acknowledge and celebrate … the things you’re doing right that are moving you to your goal. Doing so becomes the fuel that keeps us moving forward because of what we ARE achieving.

Knowing where we want to go and what we are expected to accomplish in order to be considered and seen as successful is an important foundation for job satisfaction and fulfillment. When we’re playing pinball, we’ll have fun and we’ll feel we’ve won the game based on how long and how many silver balls we kept in play … before they fell into the hole. It’s really a lot about nothing. Executing the job as if we’re engaged in a pinball game clearly works against our success and gratification.

Suggestion: go for the personal satisfaction and rewards that come with staying the course even when pushing yourself over the edge into a space of unknowns … one that initially doesn’t feel good or comfortable but gets you to the end goal. And if you still want to incorporate pinball into your life, google can direct you to the perfect neighborhood arcade and it’s only a quarter per game.

Mike Dorman

Nov 01 2017

Worried About Employees LIKING Their Jobs? Here’s How You Can Get Them to HATE Them! Could Reverse Psychology Work?

Getting employees to like their job and do their very best is often the challenge faced by many … leaders of an organization, a department or a team. In fact, much is written on this topic and is an ongoing struggle as we are working to achieve our goals. In my experience however, the efforts to achieve contentment within, too often go unrewarded. What if we focused on what we do and can do to help these same people hate their jobs? Might we have more luck using this form of reverse psychology?

I recently read an article written by James Marshall for the company Aventr … an employee engagement organization. Frankly I was drawn to his approach of getting people to LIKE their job. He identified a list of ways that, in following them, on can get the employees to HATE that job. Now if that’s the goal, then the steps below are forthright and easy. If that’s not the goal we then know what we have to avoid.

Here are 6 rules of ‘disengagement’ as put forth by Marshall – in summary.

Make Rules without Reasons
Employees will expect to see several guidelines in place for the purposes of maintaining a healthy and productive company culture however, just having rules is not enough to disengage your workforce.
- Create some rules that are based on either your own arbitrary preferences, isolated incidents or just good old-fashioned paranoia.
- See to it that you never provide an explanation for these new policies and refuse to provide one should anyone ask. Just tell them that you’re the boss and that should be reason enough. You’ll be amazed at how quickly this works to reduce morale and overall engagement.
Micromanage
Since employees thrive on the perceptions of trust and empowerment, the last thing you’ll want to do if you are trying to sabotage your company, department or team is to encourage your team to think of any innovations, or give them freedom with how they complete their projects.
- If you truly want to dis-empower them, you must check in with them obsessively to make sure every step of the assignment is done exactly the way you would do it. Otherwise, they might believe that you trust them with making some decisions, and they even may feel a sense of satisfaction upon completion of the project.
Let Them Think They Don’t Matter
Many team members take pride in the idea that they are carrying out a key company function and are valued by their leaders. This is bound to fill them with a sense of purpose and keep them engaged in their work. You must destroy this notion by letting them know how replaceable they are.
- Be sure to avoid giving them any positive feedback on the things they do right, but don’t hesitate to bring forth the things that they do wrong. As an added bonus, bring their shortcomings to their attention in front of their peers, as opposed to having a one-on-one conversation with them in a private setting.
Refuse to Hear New Ideas
Allowing an employee to think they have a good idea—or could potentially make a difference in the workplace sends the message that the company is looking to improve, and thinks that employees may be talented individuals with worthwhile suggestions. You will never be able to destroy the workplace as long as you let that happen!
Believe That Good Employees Are Good Mind Readers
When your team members are given a clear sense of direction concerning your expectations of them, and have unfettered access to the necessary resources to perform their jobs, you will likely end up with contented, engaged employees.
- This is a huge problem if you’re trying to create a negative company culture and obliterate your department’s productivity. To accomplish these things you will need to adopt a “they should just know” mindset. Simply pretend that your staff were born knowing your expectations of them so that you can justify not voicing your concerns to them.
Expect 110%, 110% of the Time
Accepting the fact that your employees are human, and that even the healthiest people cycle through an array of energy and motivational levels could give your subordinates the impression that you have realistic expectations of them.
- That may cause them to respect you and the company, and in turn encourage them to do their best for you at any given time. Having unrealistic expectations is the only way to ward off any remaining vestiges of engagement and job satisfaction. You don’t want to be the boss that is tough, but fair.

What? Is he serious you ask? Well, yes … if the goal is to create and further disengagement I think we have a great map to follow. However, I also think it’s safe to say that this is not the intended goal within any organization or with any leader. And yet, taking the above 6 points into consideration can sure serve as a measure of what we might be doing that works against our intention of building a dedicated, enthusiastic and committed team. Consider this a litmus test and see what color appears where you are involved.
Mike Dorman

Oct 16 2017

Lost Your Mojo At Work? – Get It Back!

Coaching has a lot to do with helping someone become unstuck … get around an obstacle(s) that are keeping them from moving forward … from where they are to where they want to be. Often the ‘stuck’ part prevents them from either getting a specific job done or finding the energy and enthusiasm for doing their job overall. In short, they have lost their MOJO at work. My job is working with them to help them can get it back.

I can imagine that there have been times in most everyone’s career wherein they have found themselves in a funk of sorts. Perhaps you’ve been doing ‘this’ for so long that you’ve lost your excitement for the work. Or … changes in management have not been well received and it’s more difficult to want to be a productive team contributor. And then there are situations where we are experiencing challenges in another area of our lives which just makes concentration at our job seem less important and we inadvertently put it on a back burner.

Regardless of the reason, there is little positive about being in this place and there are things one can do about it. FIRST … recognize that you are there and have the desire and need to change. And then here are some steps you can take to get you back on track …

Change your perspective – doing certain tasks in new ways can achieve changing the way we see them and help to get us out of a rut. It’s an effective way to help us get out of our rut.
Start with one small task – We’re not going to wave a wand and bring about complete change to our thinking and process. It’s in steps so taking one lessor task and seeing positive results is a step toward moving around the obstacle.
Put distance between you and negative influences – It doesn’t take much or long to begin seeing things through a half-empty glass. Recognize that your funk is being fed by putting yourself around negative voices and situations. It’s a poor diet and one to avoid
Take back control from your internal voices – We all have them and it quite easy for those team members with negative views of what we are doing to take us off the course on which we want to be. Recognizing this is happening to us makes it easier to resume control and get us back on the positive and desired track
Envision your end goal – use props to help you keep focused on the end goal. A picture of the finished product, the building you’re selling or the stack of money you’ll earn in bonus can prove to be a simple and motivating way to stay focused on your aim.
Change your thought – Often when we are in a mojo funk we think of what we can’t do or why we can’t do it. Replacing this with the question such as ‘what do I need to change in order to accomplish this’ or what are the steps I need to follow in order to achieve this goal’ puts us on a track of accomplishing the task and moves us further around the obstacle.

Why is this important? It’s simple. We need our MOJO to move forcefully and confidently forward be it making a sale, executing the development of a new and improved process or being an effective leader of an organization, department or team. Our confidence is directly related to our mojo … the thing that lets us absolutely know that we can succeed. Recognizing that it has waned or even been lost is our first job. Is it easy? Not really because we are charged with bringing about a behavioral change. It’s safe to say that for most, this takes determination to do so and the commitment to stay the course. At least in this case the hard work brings with it definite rewards!
Mike Dorman

Oct 03 2017

You May Be A Leader … But Will Others Follow?

It’s easy to find a lot of information on leadership in general and the traits of an effective leader. And still, the key concern and question becomes … although one may be a leader, will others follow them? Throughout organizations of all types and sizes, the extent to which the leader of a company, a department or an team is seen and respected as the leader has a lot to do with the degree of success that the group can expect to achieve.

But what does that require? I have heard this asked many times when working with someone charged with the responsibility of leading either a single person or an entire group. The question arises when this leader is frustrated by the response they aren’t getting from their reports of team members and that, in turn, becomes an obstacle to achieving their intended goals.

As it turns out, just because YOU are in the leadership position, those who you lead look for certain things from you as a means of deciding that they are willing to be led and help you accomplish the task at hand. Coincidentally, I chanced upon an article written by Richard Chilee in which he identified four key questions that people ask before they follow their leader. I think he has identified key issues worth consideration for any leader and those he/she leads.

Here they are in summary:

Does the leader know where he/she is going?

In leadership circles, vision is very important; it is what paints a picture of a desired future to the followers. A clear vision and mission are what gives the leader the power to show, in definite terms, the future of the business, organization or the project to the followers. Fewer people would ever follow a leader who isn’t knowledgeable enough to guide them to their desired future and outcome.

As vision is important for a leader, leaders must equip themselves with the knowledge of the destination. Your people will follow you willingly or grudgingly based on their perception of your level of knowledge. If they believe you have the capacity to take them to the desired goal, they will follow you willingly. But if you have shown a lack of capacity to lead them effectively, grudges and rebellion will become the order of the day.

Do I want to go where the leader is going?

This question is very important because it arouses desire in followers. The willingness to follow you is based on the right answer to this question. After painting your vision to your people, they will have to decide if they want to go to where you are going. A high level of resistance is met when followers don’t find the designed future interesting. This will affect desire. And without the desire to follow a leader, he will find the leadership position most frustrating.

Can the leader get me to the destination?

This is a test of ability and competency. Every follower likes to know if their leader has the ability and competency to get them to where they want to go. A leader’s confidence is dependent on his competence level. If you have the competence to take your people along to the future you have created, they will follow you willingly. Otherwise, you will find it difficult to lead effectively.

Do I trust this leader?

Trust is very important to leadership. Also, important to leadership. No one follows a leader they don’t trust. Trust breeds likability. Leaders can still meet resistance in the followers if they lack the ability to be trusted even though they have satisfactorily met the other standards.

As a leader, your trust level is consistently under watch by your people. Every decision you make is being weighed on a scale of trust. If you appear untrustworthy in certain areas, chances are other areas which you do well will also be affected. You have to consistently build a trust capital across the board to lead well.

Do I believe I will have a voice? (an added point)

Believing that I, as a team member, will be heard and that my opinion is both valued and can influence direction is extremely important in determining my desire to participate and the willingness to do so. The leader who appears to have it ‘all figured out’ and is not genuine in their desire for input will become an obstacle to participation and involvement from the very group they lead.

Being the leader carries an inherent responsibility and assumption that he/she is qualified to fulfill that role. Be it their position in the company, department or team it presumes that they have the background and training to lead the charge. However, there is also the responsibility to act in ways that give team members the desire and willingness to follow that lead. The degree to which one accomplishes this will impact and even determine the resulting degree of success that one can rightfully predict. It will also impact the longevity accomplished in retaining skilled talent. Probably worth some consideration? I do hope so.
Mike Dorman

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