Mike, Author at The Third Zone

Jul 12 2017

Dont’ Diminish Your Effective Leadership By Doing These Things!

Just ‘google’ the topic of ‘traits of an effective leader’ and you will find many articles that provide guidance as to the ‘dos’ of great leadership. When considered and adopted, these things can result in greater success in leading others whether as a company management group, a department head or an adhoc committee. And … what can make doing it right have even greater impact is avoiding the things that work against that potential success.

Here are some of the more basic and foundational things the best and most effective leaders work to avoid in carrying out their roles. A post by Sami Akseli, the head of Marketing for Innoduel, points us to what I have found to be key in various coaching assignments I have had and summarize here.

1) Moving forward without a common goal:
One of the main roles of a leader is to ensure that all members within your organization are aligned toward the achievement of a common goal. It is easy to become siloed and lose sight of the overall thing that your company, department or team is ultimately working to achieve as a whole. If this exists you will find working harder … not in unison but rather in often opposing directions which pushes them farther apart. Leader’s job is the make certain that all are aimed toward achieving the same goal.

2) Micromanaging:
Your role as a leader of the individual is to empower them to do the job expected and needed. Rather than telling people what it is they need to do and guide them to find their own way. View mistakes as an opportunity for them to learn and develop. Put your trust in others whose responsibility it is. And most definitely stop scribbling over the small details, rather stand back and help paint the big picture.
Simply put, stop micromanaging!

3) Always having an answer:
We live in a world where we must always have an answer. And yet, sometimes we just don’t know. Our education system punished us for not knowing an answer rather than rewarding us for asking for help. “I don’t know” is one of the strongest signs of mutual trust. It shows this person feels truly comfortable and can discuss quite openly. And in turn it’s a sign that everything this person says is straight-up honest and trustworthy. You don’t always need to have an answer to everything. Just say I don’t know, and use this as an opportunity to co-create a solution together.

4) Being indecisive:
The only thing worse than making a wrong decision is making no decision at all. As a leader you are required to be

able to make confident decisions, quickly which doesn’t mean going with your gut. The path to becoming more decisive requires engaging all your key people in the decision making process and being able to analyze that data in order to make better decisions, quickly.

5) Ignoring what people have to say:
By ignoring people is meant not asking them in the first place. You, as leader, don’t have to

have all the answers, just like you don’t have to always know the right solutions. This is all about engagement and building a more collaborative culture across your entire organization. Given that you have brought all involved to a point of focusing on the achievement of a common goal, now empower individuals to influence the decisions affecting them.

6) Being all talk, no action:
After all this, the worst thing a leader can do is nothing. You must be able to take the results of the previous five points and turn them into action and outcomes. A leader who talks the talk but can’t walk the walk will quickly find the boat is no longer moving even though you have aligned everyone to row together in a common direction. This then, becomes a sure fire way to lose all that trust you have spent a lot of time building.

To the extent that you consider yourself to be an effective leader with all of the right things you do, the above become effective check points to determine that you are not hindering your successful moves by also incorporating the ‘don’ts’ of being an effective leader. Take the litmus test and who knows … maybe you’ll even pass this on to leaders on whose team you work. You’ll only be helping them help your own success!
Mike Dorman

Jun 20 2017

When Leaving Your Current Job Is the Right Decision

It was only a few years ago that the idea of voluntarily leaving a current job was a pretty risky thing to do given that the unemployment rate within the U.S. was very high. So many people were terminated and cast into a very rocky and even scary situation in that there were so many looking for work and so few jobs to be had. That was then.

Today, with the lowest unemployment rate in 16 years, the threat of being unable to find your next position is greatly diminished. As such, it may be the time to take a long and hard look at what you’re doing now and where you’re doing it. This, as a means of determining that your job is still right for you and moving you in the direction that you want your career to take.

In coaching I encounter two groups of individuals within organizations that are potential candidates for moving to another company and job. One group includes those who easily express frustration, unhappiness and even boredom with their job. As such, it greatly affects their approach to the job, their enthusiasm for it and otherwise zaps any positive energy they are inclined to put into it. This group appears to be the more obvious candidates for a job change.

The second group includes those who have expressed how content they are at work and, as indicated in an article by Camilla Cho’s article “7 Signs You Should Leave Your Job”, they can find themselves at a point of complacency. “Complacency tends to generate excuses (“I’ll put up with this just for a few more months,” or “I just don’t have time to do a job search right now”) and leads us to settle (This job will do for now,” or “Maybe I don’t need to be a VP [or fill in your blank dream job here]). Worst of all, complacency will eventually lead to fear. And fear holds us back.”

Regardless of the group in which you might find yourself, you come to realize that you are not contributing or receiving the value or satisfaction that could otherwise be present. Often, the best resolution for you AND the organization is when you can identify the issues and address them with current management. Yet sometimes, the solution is realizing that you need to move on in the form of finding another position in another company that allows you to rekindle the enthusiasm and related energy for what you are doing and where you want to go.

Here are some of the signs that changing ones’ job might very well be the best solution for the individual and the company as indicated in Cho’s article ~

You’re Living the Status Quo
– being in the same company and position without any advancement or promotion for the past 3 years.
You Don’t Get Feedback
– if your direct manager doesn’t provide feedback on your performance. The best managers are engaged with your career development and regularly offer advice and guidance—and if yours doesn’t, you owe it to yourself to look elsewhere.
You’re Not Learning
– if your learning curve has flattened out or you’re really not feeling challenged, this may signal a need to move on. You often have to take this into your own hands, of course—asking to be involved in a new project, signing up for courses you’re interested in, or attending a relevant conference or seminar, for example. But if these possibilities don’t exist at your current job, it’s a sign that the company is not serious about investing in your career development.
Headhunters Want You
– those annoying emails and calls from recruiters may not result in a new job—but don’t ignore them completely. They may indicate your industry is “hot” and companies are hiring (read: a great opportunity to move up in position and salary level). I usually consider these conversations as market research to see who’s hiring, what roles and functions are in need, and the average salary range for comparable jobs.
It Feels Like Time to Go
– beyond these warning signs, don’t ignore what your gut is telling you. No one knows your work environment better than you do. And if you get the sense that you might be better off somewhere else, heed that inner voice and go exploring.

I am in no way advocating that everyone feeling some kind of frustration at work should immediately be conducting a serious job search. I am suggesting that recognizing one’s frustration should be the catalyst for working to deal with it where you are as a first step. Don’t presume that the boss knows what you are experiencing or even needing.

However, if you have tried this (presuming you like where you are working of course) and have been unable to resolve things as you need them to be in order to advance your career and sense of fulfillment, then today just may be the best time to move on that we’ve seen for a long time. It sure beats complacency in more ways than one!
Mike Dorman

Jun 06 2017

The Negative Impact of Mixed Messages in Business

I will guess that at some time we’ve all been in a social group of people when someone decides to play the ‘whisper and pass on the secret’ game and it passes from one person to the next. Ultimately, after everyone has been the recipient of the message from the person next to them, the last person states what they were told out loud. Invariably, this has little relationship to the original message that began the game. Of course we laugh and we’re often amazed at how far the original message strayed.

However, when mixed or conflicting messages happen in business it’s anything but a game the result is not considered fun. A mixed message (or double message) is communication that sends conflicting information, verbally and/or non-verbally. In fact, it can be seriously damaging to the organization … internally among employees and externally

when our hard sought customers are involved. When it happens in business it does so at a real potential cost to morale, job satisfaction and profitability.

First of all, you need to know when you are receiving a mixed message or one is being delivered to others. The way you know is by your feelings (confused) and your thoughts (puzzled). These feelings and thoughts are your cues to guide what you say and do in response. The real question becomes what can be done about this? What can you do within your company to minimize if not eliminate this kind of wasteful, destructive and frustrating occurrence? Here are some situations you may experience and suggestions may be helpful in curtailing the mixed messaging:

When you deliver a message that you believe is correct and then the ‘boss’ delivers a conflicting one.
FEEL FOOLISH? Of course. To the extent possible, check with the boss with your intended message to obtain her/his buy-in to it before actually delivering it. You may well avoid a potential conflict and the resulting fall out.
When you think you clearly understand the boss’ position and see no need to check in for clarity.
STOP! If you are making an assumption that you understand the position, you are at risk of being wrong. Acting on your assumption rather than fact brings with it the potential of being out of line with the boss’ position. Avoid this by stating to the boss your understanding prior to you passing it on to another. This gives you the opportunity to correct or shift your understanding and related message to one that is in sync with the boss.
When a customer of yours goes directly to the boss to ask for an exception to the rule and is given what she/he wants without you being consulted or informed.
OUCH! This undermines the customer’s confidence in you related to future dealings and they then know they can always go to the boss for the answer they seek. You must have a conversation with the boss and come to an agreement pertaining to future dealings as to a process that will include you and keep your relationship with the customer intact.

Mixed messages have the potential of causing serious communication problems in all types of relationships. The importance of resolving these kinds of communication glitches in business is critical to the overall health of the organization. Some bosses operate in an unchained fashion in response to their own personal feelings and without a concern for prior messages that have been delivered. Admittedly, changing such behavior is difficult and rather limited. On the other hand, there are leaders who react ‘on the spot’ in the name of being responsive to customers and don’t take the time to confer with an employee of a different or previous mindset. Although their intention is not to create havoc or company issues, their spontaneous reactions bring about the resulting challenges. And yet, people like this are open to doing it better. Fortunately, there are more bosses who fall into this group than those who operate as a team of one.

One’s willingness to confront mixed messaging is often the difference between job satisfaction and the desire/need to move on. It’s not always easy to confront this and yet, doing so just may enable you to save the job you enjoy and contribute to building the desired company reputation and image envisioned by all.
Mike Dorman

May 17 2017

When the Boss Throws You ‘Under the Bus’

Leaving a job … changing companies … can and does occur for numerous reasons some of which are in the employee’s control and other’s in the control of the organization. However, there is one situation that I encounter in coaching that creates a real dilemma for the employee and it has no perfect, obvious resolution. Coincidentally, it’s among the biggest frustrations voiced by individuals in organizations.

Simply put, it is about the employee who finds themselves, in effect, thrown under the bus through the lack of support they receive from their boss for the decisions they’ve made on behalf of their company … decisions that they were responsible for making in carrying out their job. This occurs when someone i.e. a customer, doesn’t like or agree with the decision they were given who then goes directly to the boss. The boss, in turn, gives them the answer they want to hear … an answer or position that is at odds with the one initially given by the employee.

Oops. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence and creates a dilemma for the employee. If you’ve ever been in this situation you are faced with several questions:

What happened? You gave the answer that follows company policy or the decision that you had reached when discussing the situation with the boss and yet, when your customer confronted the boss, she/he caved and gave them what they wanted.
Why? Because you had been told to convey the company position by the boss, you did so. And then, perhaps driven by their desire to be heroic and keep the customer satisfied, the boss undermined you.
Why #2. Perhaps a key circumstance had been altered and had not yet been communicated to you leading to your now incorrect answer
What is the result? Your credibility with the customer is greatly diminished and going forward, you are recognized by that customer as the first step and not the final one for there is always the boss.

What can you do about it? You like your job. If offers you excellent potential for your learning and future advancement and yet these experiences cast a negative pall over most everything good. Here are some options.

Quit the company.
Whereas that’s straightforward and simple, the impact of that can be anything but and thus this isn’t the best first course of action.
Talk to the boss.
- Convey the outcome of their becoming involved and what it has done and threatens to do to your credibility with your customer going forward.
- Suggest a process for the ‘next time’ that will allow the boss to respond to the customer knowing and understanding your reasoning for the response you provided initially because they conferred with you first.
- Engage your boss in designing a better approach for future instances that will avoid a repeat of the situation. Possibilities include:
  1. Suggesting that you and the boss have a joint conversation with the customer to explain the decision that will support your initial message and convey unity to them.
  2. Suggesting that the boss first confers with you prior to giving a response so that he/she is in a position of understanding your decision and being in a position to defend and support it or to allow you to convey a change of mind to the customer.
  3. Learning what you didn’t realize that will enable you to provide responses more in-line with the company’s approach that just may have changed.

What the best path for you to take will depend on several considerations:

What are the values that you hold as an individual and to what extent they have been infringed upon in a negative way? Is this tolerable to you or not?
How significant is the situation that has occurred to you and your relationship with your customer?
What is the impact on your personal or departmental reputation and the potential cost of that?
What is the frequency of this happening? Whether a rarity or often will guide you as to the importance of taking action and the extent of what you decide to do.
What is the degree of risk you associate with confronting the situation and your willingness to accept and take it?
Where would you look for find employment in the event that you confront the problem and the outcome is not a good one … your plan B on the shelf?

No person would choose to be in such an untenable situation and yet it happens. The ideal situation is having a boss who is open to you voicing your concerns as such and will work with you to bring about changes that will hopefully eliminate this occurrence or at least minimize it. However, there are bosses who appear to be insensitive to impact of what they do in this regard. Maybe you know one. ‘Under the bus’ becomes a parking lot for their employees. Staying there is eventually claustrophobic. Taking action may well have risks however one way or another the air will be purer and fresher.
Mike Dorman
_{With appreciation to BW, NG and MC}

Apr 16 2017

Multitasking = Increased Productivity? NOT SO FAST!!

It doesn’t seem too long ago that the person who showed themselves at being a very adept multitasker was someone to envy. These folks were often held up as an example of how much more productive we could be if we just mastered the ability and flexibility that would allow us to move quickly among the varied demands of the work for which we were responsible.

Actually, this has often been debated in the scientific world exploring the potential and real costs of this style of high productivity vs. those who go from one task to another in a totally focused manner. Although both groups feel they are ‘in control’ of themselves and their work … and whereas both groups get the jobs done, the underlying question is which approach is really the best … for the business and for the individual?

Today, we have been and continue to be bombarded with the onslaught of new technology and related methods of doing various tasks faster and hopefully more efficiently. To the ‘juggler’ these new ‘efficiency’ tools have imposed things into our days over which we have little, if

any, control and they carry with them the potential of taking us to an ‘out-of-control’ place. It’s the proud multitasker that is inclined to feel the greatest challenge in today’s world.

Gregg Swanson, the Warrior Mind Coach, wrote an article entitled” Multitasking – the Downfall of Modern Society”. I believe he makes some interesting observations that I want to share with you here. In it he refers to “the person at work; on the phone, e-mailing, IM-ing and talking to someone at their desk. This is insanity! We are so caught up with trying to do more that we are missing everything” He acknowledges all of the new technology that makes us more and more accessible however reminds us that we don’t have to respond for the requests of our time. He sees the desire and drive to multitask is driven by three key elements as follows:

Fear of lack of time – “the cornerstone to the disease of MT” (multitasking)
The lack of time we feel is due to the deadlines or to-do lists that WE have created
Projecting into the future
Rather than focusing on and doing the task at hand, we are also maintaining awareness of the ‘next’ tasks that we have to do which provides the reality of always being in a hurry
I want to feel important
Say it like it is. In response to one asking how you are “I’m busy” is not the answer. Rather it’s “I’m important”. As Swanson says, “After all, isn’t that’s what we’re really trying to do by MT…is look (and feel) important

These things may all be true however the fact remains that multitasking is a demand of today’s work environment. And although the need is difficult to avoid, Mike Gardner, known as the Time Doctor, provides several tips for being successful in doing so as follows:

Prioritize your work at the start of each day.
Estimate how long each task will take to finish and stick as closely as you can to this.
Try to group together tasks which can be worked on concurrently.
Do not immediately jump to react to emails. Finish what you are doing first if you can.
Try to take yourself away from distractions such as telephones, emails or colleagues If you have a task which is involved or complicated.
Factor in some ‘reactive’ time. This can be a set hour each day, for example, when you will deal with any work which has arisen through the course of the day.

A great juggler has control over the things he/she is juggling. Yet today and given the ongoing conveyor belt of new technology designed to make us more and more efficient, we have many elements of our work over which we simply do NOT have control and therein lies the complication. Consciously incorporating the suggestions above give us all the opportunity of really thriving more effectively in the world in which we are living and that seems like a good goal given our limited ability to control it all.
Mike Dorman

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