Hey Leader…Don’t be a JERK!

Posted on May 15, 2022 by thebossdoctor

One of the most disturbing psychological principles I have found in my research is called “emotional contagion.” It refers to the human tendency to feel and express the emotions displayed by the people around us. Research on socialization shows that this instinctive reaction (especially when reinforced by peer pressure to “be like everyone else”) can transform almost any new hire into a clone who thinks and acts much like the people they work with every day.

Up Close and Personal

At one of my management training seminars, I was approached during a break by a participant who presented a problem he was facing as the supervisor of a busy production line. He told me that one of his biggest leadership challenges was the negative influence wielded by long-term employees on the line. These “lifers” were powerful “dampeners” of the upbeat attitude of many eager, hard-working newcomers. Their response to these highly productive hires was “Slow down, Sonny…you’re making the rest of us look bad.” Counteracting this influence was an insurmountable obstacle to efficiency and high productivity on the production line. Sad, but true.

This psychological mechanism has effect in many situations.

1. As I just illustrated, it can change the eager optimism of a new employee into the jaded mindset of apathetic “old-timers” who surround them on a team, lowering their productivity to the lowest common denominator.

2. It can destroy creativity and turn thoughtful and critical analysis into unproductive (and even dangerous) “group-think.” The saddest words to any creative thinker in an organization is: That will never work here.

3. It can transform a newly-promoted leader into a self-seeking, insensitive, uncaring, power-hungry elitist boss.

This is an example of the oft-repeated warning: POWER CORRUPTS!

This last example is very real! Research by Dacher Keltner at U.C. Berkeley and Deborah Gruenfeld at Stanford shows that 3 things happen when people are put into positions of power:

(1) They focus more on satisfying their own needs.
(2) They focus less on the needs of their underlings.
(3) They act like “the rules” everyone is expected to follow don’t apply to them.

BTW… If this sounds like a problem we see a lot in Washington D.C., it may be more than coincidental!

So… What’s a leader to do? To echo the advice of sage Yoda:

DON’T GIVE IN TO THE DARK SIDE OF LEADERSHIP!

Don’t let newly-acquired power and authority corrupt your attitude and performance. Don’t be a jerk. Here are some practical suggestions:

1. Stay focused on your #1 job as a leader—to help your people succeed! Become a responsible and caring steward of your followers and commit to giving them the training, resources, support, and help they need, in order to do their very best work. The more you focus on helping your team, the less self-centered you will appear to everyone around you.

2. Listen more than you talk. Use the ideas in this valuable post to keep the communication lines open with your team members: MORE GREAT Questions Every Boss Needs Answered by Their Subordinates | The Boss Doctor

3. Create a team culture that recognizes and rewards hard work and productivity. Make sure you reinforce great work with great appropriate affirmation, praise, and recognition. When you recognize good work, you send the dual message:

I notice! And… I care!

**Make sure you affirm the good work of your people!**

Remember what management guru Ken Blanchard says:

What gets recognized, gets repeated!

4. Don’t allow low-performers to set the standard for your team (easier said than done). YOU MUST ADDRESS LOW PERFORMANCE! You must intervene to help struggling team members—BECAUSE IT’S YOUR #1 JOB TO HELP THEM SUCCEED! If you do nothing, you send the wrong message to the rest of your team. They will interpret your passivity to mean that you don’t care! They will assume that low performance is acceptable, and respond accordingly!

5. Draft a clear team vision statement with your team and make THAT the primary focus of your work together. (If you need help with this, get my book, Leading Teams, LeadPR.pdf (thebossdoctor.net) and use the information in Chapter 6 to guide you).

6. Create adversarial thinking as a regular part of your problem-solving and decision-making efforts. I teach leaders how to do this in my seminars on “Critical Thinking and Effective Decision-Making.” You can accomplish this quite easily by telling your team, “I want to really pick this idea apart. So I want us to think of all the reasons why this is a BAD idea and will probably FAIL and WHY it will probably fail!” It’s one of the simplest techniques for avoiding groupthink and gaining a more unbiased perspective on any idea or decision.

7. Seek out mentors, advisors, and trusted colleagues who will confront you if you start developing elitist attitudes and behaviors. There’s an old Jewish saying (you’ll find it in the Bible) that says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” It’s another way of encouraging us to have good friends that we can TRUST to TELL US THE TRUTH about OURSELVES. I wrote about this in a previous blogpost. You can read it here: Great Advice from Top CEO’s – #19 | The Boss Doctor

**Build friendships with people you trust…to give you honest feedback!**

HERE’S THE POINT: The observations of an insightful third party can be of tremendous benefit to our journey of personal and professional growth. (That’s why I have work as an executive coach!)

8. ABOVE ALL… Get it through your head right now that YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR PEOPLE. You cannot succeed alone! You need your team’s help every step of the way. Don’t ever forget: The success of your team is the true measure of YOUR success!

9. AND MOST IMPORTANT… Use this principle to your advantage! Studies show that the mood of a leader is HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS! Emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman shared this insight in his ground-breaking book, Primal Leadership…

My research team and I have come to the conclusion that the mood of a leader travels through an organization like electricity through wires.

In other words, in your leadership role you have an incredible ability to set the mood for your entire team! They will take on whatever mood you display. So… Choose your mood wisely. Decide to take on a positive, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic demeanor…and your team will adopt the same emotional state!

**Your positive attitude and enthusiastic spirit will infect your team!**

That may be why research reveals that leaders who display an optimistic and enthusiastic demeanor have a measurable positive impact on their team’s productivity and profitability!

There is one more thing you can do, that will multiply your power and influence—not just among your team members, but also across the organization you serve.

But I will save that discussion for the next newsletter and blogpost!

In the meantime… If you are looking for more ways to build high-performing teams in your organization, CALL US! We can help! We can bring tools and leadership techniques that can help your managers and supervisors break through resistant employee culture and create new ways of thinking, working, and performing!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Affirmation, Ambition, Authority, Character, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Decision-making, Emotional Intelligence, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Encouragement, Feedback, Influence, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Organizational Politics, Power, Problem-Solving, Productivity, Recognition, Self-Awareness, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized | Tagged Authority, Emotional Intelligence, Employee Engagement, Enthusiasm, Influence, Leadership, Management, Optimism, Power, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Teams | 1 Comment

Practice SHOSHIN

Posted on May 8, 2022 by thebossdoctor

This is a Japanese phrase meaning “beginner’s mind.” I’ll let Buddhist scholar Shunryu Suzuki explain this concept:

This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.

It is not easy to practice SHOSHIN! Approaching situations and problems with a completely blank sheet of paper is one of the most difficult things you will ever do!

**Starting with a blank sheet is not as easy as you think!**

In my seminars on communication and emotional intelligence, I teach the concept of “point-of-view.” Point-of-view is definitively idiosyncratic – it is unique for every person. Your point-of-view (i.e. the way you are seeing and understanding a given situation) is a product of your…

Information
Assumptions
Expectations
Perceptions
Wants and Needs
Goals
Values
Priorities
Experiences
Background/Culture

In other words, if you and I are viewing the same facts, and any of the above elements are different for us, our points-of-view will be different! And if our points-of-view differ, we are likely to experience disagreement and even conflict.

SHOSHIN requires us to suspend all the elements that have defined our point-of-view and temporarily set them aside in order to be open to completely new ways of seeing things and thinking about them. This isn’t easy! To do so requires (1) keen self-awareness, and (2) tremendous personal restraint.

Open-minded people don’t care to be right, they care to understand. And in order to gain better understanding, they are first able to temporarily suspend notions of right or wrong. For them, the foundation of clear thinking is all about understanding. The Boss Doctor

If you CAN do this, you will be able to…

Identify and understand other people’s points-of-view;
Resolve conflict and negotiate workable compromises more easily;
Solve problems more creatively; and
Author improvement and innovation.

So… how do you do this?

1. Tap into the “fresh eyes” of new recruits and employees. Give them permission to ask “why?” especially with regard to priorities, processes, procedures, rules, and routines. If you can’t answer their questions compellingly, then maybe you need to reconsider what you are doing! And use their differing backgrounds and experiences to inform and enrich your body of knowledge and know-how. The organizations they have served in the past may prove to be a rich source of best practices you can use in YOUR organization.

An outsider’s point of view is always handy. Pat Oliphant

Up Close and Personal

For most of my professional life, I was the “new guy” on the executive team. (I spent a great deal of my career in short tenures, advancing professionally by taking positions with a succession of increasingly larger, more successful organizations.)

In one such position, I found myself in a meeting of the executive team I recently joined, in the middle of a rather contentious discussion of a problem that had been plaguing the organization for a number of years! I felt elated, because I had recently come from an organization that had solved the same problem with a simple approach that answered the need; eliminated any potential conflict between departments; satisfied everyone involved; and guaranteed the desired high-quality outcome. When I described it to the executive team, the response was deadening. The consensus was, “That approach won’t work here.” There was no discussion. There was no attempt at analysis. There was no moment of consideration. It was a classic example of closed-mindedness. I was completely dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe that such a successful organization could have such completely jaundiced leadership.

Since that time, I have seen this same lack of openness among certain leaders—in every organization—over and over again in my consulting practice!

2. When solving any problem, thoughtfully examine the 10 elements of everyone’s point-of-view, especially YOURS! Relentlessly root out personal bias or prejudice. Strive for the blank sheet of paper that makes no assumptions and holds no dogma.

**You need to take time to THINK about your THINKING!**

3. When resolving conflict, take time to accurately define and understand each party’s point-of-view. Don’t jump to any conclusions. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Let each party speak without interruption or rebuke. Set judgments and characterizations aside. Get to the root of each party’s motivations and desires. Keep in mind Habit #5 of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

Seek FIRST to understand, THEN to be understood.

(For more help with this, check out this post: Great Advice from Top CEO’s – #4 | The Boss Doctor )

4. When managing change in your organization, have the self-confidence to ask stupid questions in order to explore your point-of-view and the biases that shape your thinking:

Why are we doing this?
What was wrong with the old way?
How are we hoping this change will help us?
Is this really the best thing to do or the best way to do it?
What other approaches (especially from other successful organizations) might also work for US?
Are there any changes we need to make to the change initiative itself?

Then use the concept of point-of-view to gain a better understanding of how employees and managers “view” the change. Interview the people in the organization who are going to be impacted by the change, especially those who will be facing the greatest impact.

**Listen to your people and find out what they are thinking!**

Next, get people involved in the process of planning how to implement the change. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE THE PEOPLE who are going to be (a) most affected by the change and (b) most responsible for implementing the change. If you do this right, you will…

Tap into “fresh eyes;”
Possibly discover refinements to the change that will improve the situation immeasurably;
Gain broad and valuable ownership of the change process;
See higher engagement on everyone’s part; and
Accomplish more effective implementation as a result.

If you are looking for ways to apply SHOSHIN to critical aspects of your organization, CALL US—we can help! We can facilitate your team and executive retreats with fresh approaches designed to meld people into a collaborative team; break through resistant company culture; and create new ways of thinking, planning, and working. And STAY TUNED to future posts of this blog for more great ways to improve YOUR leadership!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Agility, Collaboration, Creativity, Decision-making, Emotional Intelligence, Employee Engagement, Influence, Innovation, Leadership, Learning, Management, Organizational Politics, Organizations, Personal Success, Planning, Point of View, Problem-Solving, Self-Awareness, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized | Tagged Change, Change Management, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Creative Thinking, Creativity, Decision-making, Employee Engagement, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Problem-Solving, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams | Leave a comment

Practice NEMOASHI

Posted on May 1, 2022 by thebossdoctor

“Nemoashi” is a Japanese concept that has direct application in American business culture. It means respect for individuals and the power of consensus building. In application, it boils down to a simple political rule of thumb:

Never present something to a group until you have first lobbied the group members individually.

**FIRST Share your idea with group members INDIVIDUALLY!**

There is much practical wisdom in this approach.

To begin with, it shows respect for other people’s “turf” and unique point of view.

Remember— most people don’t care as much about you and your ideas as they do about their own ideas and the WII-FM factor (“What’s In It For Me?”). A candid conversation with colleagues will open your eyes to their concerns and help you refine your idea in ways that will help win their support.

These one-on-ones will also allow others to improve on your idea with their own additions, which in turn will give them ownership of the improved idea. In my management training seminars I teach students this simple equation:

P = O

Participation = Ownership

Here’s another way of saying it:

People support whatever they help create.

If you incorporate the ideas and suggestions of your colleagues, they automatically have ownership of whatever you are creating with their help.

BTW… This is an equation that the vast majority of organizational change agents completely abandon in their planning and execution. (I’ll save any additional insights about change management for another post!)

When you float your ideas with key colleagues, their added perspective will also help you avoid the common mistakes created by a narrow, limited view of the situation. If you think you have the “right” answer, you should automatically suspect it—there are always multiple ways to solve any problem or get to any goal. Additionally, there are often many elements of a situation that are easily overlooked by an overly optimistic problem-solver. A different set of eyes will often see things that you are missing! Remember this adage from management guru Ken Blanchard…

None of us is as smart as ALL of us.

*Nemoashi* will help you gain the support of the WHOLE GROUP!

Up Close and Personal

In one of my many roles in organizational life, I hatched a great idea for creating conveniently accessible training for people in the organization—to help employees become more effective in their various roles. My plan was simple. I would schedule classroom training so people could come in a little earlier before their shift, or stay a little later after their shift to attend short classes. It wouldn’t require a separate day of training or take time away from their shift. I felt the plan was foolproof. (PLEASE NOTE: Years later I learned the definition of a foolproof plan. It’s a plan that any fool can easily prove to be flawed!) I decided to wallow in my genius by bouncing off my idea with a colleague of mine on the executive team. His response sounded like a non sequitur to me. He posed the question,

“Where are people going to park?” I was a bit puzzled by his question.

“They’ll park where they always do…in the employee parking lot!” I replied. He laughed, and shot back,

“Jim, you’ve obviously never been out at the parking lot during shift changes, have you?” He continued, “Our employee parking lot is completely maxxed out. That’s why we have a break between shifts, to allow departing employees to free up parking spaces for the next shift. If you have people arriving early, or staying late, somebody is not going to have a place to park!”

Ooops…

I’ll say it again…

When you float your ideas with key colleagues, their added perspective will help you avoid the common mistakes often created by a narrow, limited view of the situation.

There’s one more important advantage to nemoashi— when you are willing to allow others to give you feedback on your ideas without becoming defensive or threatened, it demonstrates healthy self-confidence on your part. That earns the respect of higher-ups as well as colleagues!

HERE’S THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT: The practice of nemoashi will make it more likely for you to gain the support of the decision-making group as a whole. By interacting with each group member individually before you pitch your proposal at a meeting of the entire group, you are better able to:

1. Refine your idea with the input of other leaders who can give you a broader perspective;
2. Include their ideas and input in your proposal and thus give them a sense of ownership;
3. More easily build a consensus when the group is assembled together to hear your idea.

This is a simple but incredibly valuable tool for effective organizational politics. Political skill is one of the areas I help my clients with, in my executive coaching sessions. Bad politicking can impede your success in any organization! Don’t let your lack of skill in this area get in the way of your effectiveness and future advancement. Give us a call! We can help you identify key areas of personal and professional development that are holding you back… and we can help you overcome those deficits and get your career moving forward!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Agility, Collaboration, Communication, Competence, Consensus, Creativity, Decision-making, Events, Feedback, Influence, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Organizational Politics, Organizations, Personal Success, Problem-Solving, Support, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Teams, Uncategorized | Tagged Building Support, Collaboration, Consensus Building, Decision-making, Influence, Leadership, Management, Organizational Politics, Persuasion, Planning, Problem-Solving, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Teams | Leave a comment

Say the Right Thing

Posted on April 24, 2022 by thebossdoctor

John Adair said it well:

Communication is the sister of leadership.

Nitin Nohria, underscored that with the following observation:

Communication is the real work of leadership.

Up Close and Personal

During an executive team meeting I attended, our insightful CEO expressed it this way:

Let’s be honest, people… mostly what we get paid to do as leaders is mainly… talk.

**Great LEADERS are great COMMUNICATORS!**

No matter how you express it, this principle rings true: The ability to say the right thing is absolutely essential for effective leadership.

When you say the right thing, you make a personal connection with people—you build an emotional bond that leads to respect, support, and loyalty. Jeffrey Fox provides a noteworthy list of the “right things” to say in his book, How to Become CEO (Hyperion publishers, 1998). I also wrote about words that S.A.V.E. in my own book, Leading Teams.

In my management and leadership training seminars, I show my students how “the right things to say” communicate the essential V.A.L.U.E.S. of effective leadership. The acronym is a cogent reminder of those values:

Validation
Affirmation
Leadership
Understanding
Encouragement
Support

Notice how some of those “right things” are linked to the emotional well-being of the people we lead. Those words are used to accomplish one of the five important leadership functions identified by Kouzes and Posner (in their ground-breaking book, The Leadership Challenge) – the job of a leader to “encourage the heart.”

**Leaders communicate to support the right V.A.L.U.E.S.**

Up Close and Personal

In one of my seminars, I had a hard-charging, no-nonsense, Type “A” manager raise his hand and push back on my list of “right things to say,” especially the ones that had to do with emotionally-charged statements of affirmation or encouragement. He said, point-blank:

“I’m not one of those soft, emotional ‘Teddy Bear’ kind of people!”

Here’s what I told him (and emphasized for the rest of the class):

You don’t have to be an emotional “Teddy Bear” to use these words with great effect—you just have to genuinely mean it when you say it!

The following list of “right things to say” shows how easy it is to communicate with power, persuasion, and influence…

Validation – communicating empathy…your ability to correctly identify (and affirm) another person’s point-of-view—what they are thinking and feeling!

1. I think if I were in your situation, I would probably feel the same way.
2. I can see why you would feel that way.
3. I think I understand where you’re coming from.

Affirmation – communicating your respect for others, and your awareness (and appreciation) of their value, accomplishments, or contributions.

4. PLEASE.
5. THANK YOU.
6. I hear great things about you.
7. You’re doing a great job—keep up the good work!
8. That was a great job you did. Here’s why…
9. I appreciate your dedication and hard work.
10. I love working with you!
11. I’m glad you’re part of this team!
12. I’m proud of you!
12. I’m proud of the work you are doing!
13. I couldn’t have done it without your help and hard work.
14. I couldn’t have done it without _____________’s help. (The backdoor compliment!)

**Leaders AFFIRM and VALIDATE their people!**
— Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Leadership – engaging other people to participate in the work by exercising their leadership capacities.

15. What do YOU think?
16. What’s YOUR take on this?
17. What do YOU recommend?
18. What would YOU do if you were me?

Leadership – taking responsibility for yourself and your work as a leader… being honest and forthright about your knowledge, abilities, decisions, plans, strategies, solutions, actions, and mistakes.

20. My bad. OR That was MY mistake.
21. I will take full responsibility for this.
22. Of course there is a risk in doing this, but I believe it is worth the risk.
23. I’m not sure.
24. I don’t really know.
25. I don’t think we have enough information as yet, to know for certain.
26. I don’t have an answer for you right now—I’ll have to get back to you on that.

Understanding – taking the initiative to encourage honest, open, direct communication from others, in order to gain clarity and better understanding.

27. Help me understand.
28. Tell me what you’re thinking.
29. How do you feel about this?

Encouragement – communicating your belief in the potential of others to learn, grow, develop, perform, and succeed!

30. I know you can do this—I believe in you!
31. I have confidence that you can handle this!
32. I believe that you are much better than YOU believe you are!
33. I don’t have all the answers, but I am confident that, together, we can find the ones that we need in order to succeed as a team.

**Great leaders SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE their people!**

Support – communicating your availability to facilitate the work and the success of others.

34. What can I do to help?
35. You’ve got my full support.
36. If you need any help, let me know—that’s what I’m here for!
37. If you run into any problems you need help with, send up a flare!
38. You take care of the work, and I’ll handle the pressure from upstairs.
39. I’ll talk to higher-ups and see what I can do.
40. Let’s try it YOUR way.

There are so many other practical communication principles, tools and techniques that can help you become more influential and effective in your work—we specialize in helping leaders create the right communication “climate” that promotes employee engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction! Give us a call and find out how easy and affordable it is to bring this kind of high-impact help to YOUR organization and YOUR team!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Promote Your People – Part 2

Posted on April 3, 2022 by thebossdoctor

Help your people get promotions in the organization.

Of course, not every subordinate may be management material (or may even want to be considered for a management role), but if they are, they will appreciate any help you can give them to step up to the next level of leadership.

In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Susan Peppercorn cited a Gallup study that identified a number of “critical elements” that affect employee retention…

Career development is the most critical of the elements identified by Gallup, and two-thirds of people — regardless of their level — leave their company because of a lack of career-development opportunities. With this in mind, it’s important to figure out what growth opportunities each employee needs for optimum development, whether through sponsorship, coaching, mentoring, visibility, or challenging work assignments.

Here’s what you can do to help them…

1. Help them acquire the managing skills they will need at the next level. Think of those things you needed to learn when YOU got promoted—various reports; performance reviews; coaching; interviewing and hiring; leading effective meetings; planning; problem-solving; delegation; and many others.

**Help your team member learn what you already know!**

An easy way to help them to learn is to include them in the preparation phases of key management functions.

Show them how you construct a budget. Explain the thinking that goes into each line item.
Give them a step-by-step approach to conducting performance reviews and coaching sessions.
Explain your approach to delegation and your rationale for assigning work strategically.
Involve them in planning and leading an effective team meeting.

2. Give them “stretch” assignments that allow them to work beyond their typical job boundaries… by giving them clearly-defined authority to make decisions; solve problems; and think strategically. For help with this, see my resource: levels of delegating authority.

3. Give them clear, direct, specific, objective feedback about their strengths AND their weaknesses. This is key!

**Give your employee honest, direct feedback!**
— Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Many of the executive coaching assignments I am given come from managers who find it difficult to give negative feedback to earnest, hard-working subordinates. Caring bosses often don’t want to discourage dedicated team members. But if you really care about your direct reports, tell them what they need to know, especially if others in the workplace see them as…

…controlling and autocratic
…talkers and “tellers” more than listeners
…more likely to criticize than praise or affirm
…too intense, pushy, demanding, or bossy
…too invested in their own ideas and closed to the opinions of others

These elements of personality style and leadership style are important ingredients for executive and leadership success. For example, energetic, results-driven “doers” often excel in lower levels of any organization, but find diminishing effectiveness as they rise. This is greatly because the demands of higher levels of authority are different.

That leads us to the next point…

4. Help them develop the leadership skills and behaviors they need at higher levels—patient listening; collaboration; consensus-building; negotiation; conflict resolution; clear and effective communication; strategic delegation; the ability to give engaging and persuasive presentations.

5. Provide mentoring. You can do this yourself, by helping your subordinate in the same way mentors do—by providing emotional support, wisdom, guidance, helpful advice, and a certain level of friendship. You can also recommend your subordinate for mentoring programs within the organization or for programs available within the industry—through professional associations or educational institutions.

6. Fill the role of a “sponsor.” In an organization, sponsors often recommend their protégés for key assignments, to help the emerging leaders gain experiences that will equip them appropriately for future responsibility. Sponsors also help their protégés navigate the political structure in order to gain strategic visibility with higher-ups. Sponsors make sure that organizational leaders are aware of the up-and-comers they support, so those executive leaders can make effective and strategic internal promotions.

**Introduce your up-and-comers to higher-ups!**

At this point, you may well ask—What’s in it for ME????

Losing your best people to promotion may sound like diminishing returns for you as a busy manager! Believe it or not, it really IS in your best interest! If you become known as a developer of talent, you will always have your pick of the best talent in the organization. Remember: What goes around comes around! Do you want a longer list of benefits? Then check out this blog post:

Google’s Rules | The Boss Doctor

If you need help developing YOUR rising stars, or if you need help to develop your own potential for advancement, give us a call! We can provide the kind of resources and advice that will enable you and your team members to excel…and advance!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Ambition, Career, Caring, Coaching, Collaboration, Delegation, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Feedback, Honesty, Leadership, Learning, Management, Morale, Organizations, Promotion, Supervision, Team Leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged Employee Coaching, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Mentoring, Employee Promotion, Employee Retention, Employee Sponsoring, Management, Supervision, Team Leadership | Leave a comment

Promote Your People – Part 1

Posted on March 27, 2022 by thebossdoctor

This special two-part series of posts was prompted by the last series – Questions Every Boss Needs Answered by Their People. (BTW…if you didn’t read this series, I highly recommend it. It was crammed with practical tips to help any leader get better at managing and leading their people!).

One of the posts in that series emphasized the importance of helping your people grow in their jobs and in their careers. Studies showed that helping your people in this way increases their loyalty to the organization and leads to higher retention rates. A recent article in The Harvard Business Review emphasized the important role that managers play in this process…

As employers grapple with a profound shift in the labor market, the burden of retaining and developing employees doesn’t have to rest with HR and training teams alone. Managers are in a unique position to drive employee retention and engagement — companies should give them the structure and tools to do so.

**Are you highlighting the good work of your team members????**

This post is about the role that managers can play in supporting the success of their people by helping them maximize their impact within the organization. This isn’t just about helping your people get “promotions” – it’s about promoting their successes and skills with higher-ups and colleagues. That means enabling the organization to leverage the strengths and gifts of your people. You do that by helping others in the organization become aware of who your people are; how they can support the success of other people; and how they can bring greater success to the entire organization.

Let me give you some real-life examples of what I’m talking about…

Up Close and Personal

In one of my training seminars, I met an employee who—ON HER OWN—acquired extra skills and education to help her improve her work. She also proved to be an able teacher of her peers by sharing her insight and strengths with other team members. The best thing her boss could have done would have been to talk to HIS peers and arrange more venues for his subordinate to share her skills and knowledge. Her boss did nothing and so it didn’t happen.

One of my former colleagues took on the management of a team of telephone agents in a call center. Under his inspiring leadership, his team demonstrated extraordinarily high productivity and shockingly low tardiness, absenteeism, and turnover. The best thing his boss could have done would have been to have this highly effective manager share his leadership practices with his fellow call team managers, to encourage a higher level of success with the other teams of telephone agents in the call center. His boss did nothing and so it didn’t happen.

One of my favorite leadership “heroines” was the manager who ran a nation-wide program for a global company. The program grew substantially under her leadership without any addition of staff. The best thing her boss could have done would have been to help her gain the support of higher-ups to continue to run the program remotely, when her family situation forced her to move to another city. Her boss did nothing. It didn’t happen. The program failed within a year under the leadership of her incompetent replacement, losing millions of dollars of potential income to the company.

These examples beg the question:

What was lost to the company and to other employees because of the short-sightedness of the manager?

The lost value is really an INCALCULABLE loss, especially when you factor in the possibility of MULTIPLYING the impact of a skilled employee many times in the organization. That kind of multiplication happens when a highly effective worker is able to equip others in the organization to achieve the same high level of effectiveness. That’s a very real multiplication of influence and impact!

So… who do YOU have on your team – a subordinate who has the potential to bring real value to other employees and to the organization as a whole? Here’s what we recommend:

**Get your employees to share their skills!**

1. Make sure your team members are benefiting from the special skills and knowledge of one another! I call this “sharing best practices.” I encourage managers to set aside time in their team meetings to allow team members to exchange ideas and tips for doing their work easier / better / faster /cheaper / smarter / safer. This can entail many different things—like ways to streamline processes; software shortcuts; time management practices; even better vendors or suppliers to use.

2. Tell others in your organization about your gifted and talented workers. Let YOUR peers know about their special skills and knowledge, so your employee can share these strengths with others in the organization who might benefit from their help.

3. Tell your boss about your high-achieving team members. Leverage your boss’s relationships in the organization to open doors of opportunities for your people to shine!

**Introduce your awesome team members to YOUR boss!**

4. Involve your team members in your special activities. If you are active in a professional association, bring your subordinates to an association event or gathering. It’s a great way to help expand their network. It’s also allows them to share their expertise and insight with others in your network. I have seen leaders do this very effectively when they present a workshop at industry events and have one of their staff give part of the presentation. That kind of experience can be extremely affirming and motivating to a team member!

When you use your influence to widen the impact of your team members and broaden their influence in the organization (and also in your industry), you are seen as a true “team player” by higher ups in the organization. This raises your reputation as a leader and contributor, and it also positions your people well for potential advancement within the organization. We’ll explore this latter scenario in the next post. Don’t miss it!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Ambition, Career, Caring, Celebration, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Competence, Delegation, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Leadership, Management, Morale, Organizations, Professional Development, Recognition, Staffing, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized, Work | Tagged Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Leadership, Management, Performance Management, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Teams | Leave a comment

5 Questions Every Boss Needs Answered by Their Subordinates – #5

Posted on March 13, 2022 by thebossdoctor

The first question is the most fundamental: What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

The second question is built on the first: Do you have the opportunity every day to do what you do best?

The third question delves more deeply into personal motivation: Do you feel the work you do is important and has a meaningful purpose?

The fourth question seeks to tap into employee innovation: If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change around here?

The fifth question is designed to help employees grow and develop: How would you like to grow in your career and in this organization?

We have discovered through recent events that employee development is now no longer just a good idea–it has become an essential ingredient for worker loyalty and longevity. In a March 1 Harvard Business Review article, author Anand Chopra-McGowan reminds us…

As the costs of the Great Resignation continue to grow, companies need more ways to attract and retain employees. One clear approach is to offer more training and development — according to a 2019 LinkedIn study, 94% of employees said they would stay with their employer if it invested in their development.

**She’s ready to GROW! Are YOU ready to HELP HER???**

Helping your people grow and develop in their profession is an obvious application of a truth I presented in a past blog post. It discussed the unique value of a leader’s team members, and why they are different from every other resource available to a leader. You can access the post with this link: Great Advice from Top CEO’s – #22 | The Boss Doctor

In this post I show why it’s to a leader’s advantage to help their people to grow AND why it’s good to be a manager who helps their people get promoted. I also share a number of helpful questions for leaders to ask themselves—to help them become leaders who develop their people. Of course, one might ask…

Is this really a good idea for managers and supervisors?

Google certainly thinks so! Rule #7 of their “Rules for Effective Management” states:

Help your employees with career development.

In another blogpost, I explored this “Google Rule” in detail, and shared an inspirational story about a manager who took a simple but effective approach to accomplish this with his team. It earned the respect of his entire team! But it also created greater employee engagement and loyalty; lower turnover; and higher productivity. You can access it with this link: http://thebossdoctor.net/2020/googles-rules-7

**GROWING YOUR *PEOPLE* = GROWING YOUR *SUCCESS*!!**

I have a host of other tips to help you develop your people, so stay tuned to this blog. In upcoming posts I will give you more practical tools to supercharge your team’s professional growth and career development.

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Ambition, Career, Caring, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Leadership, Management, Morale, Organizations, Productivity, Promotion, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized | Tagged Career Development, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Management, Performance Management, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Teams | Leave a comment

5 Questions Every Boss Needs Answered by Their Subordinates – #4

Posted on March 6, 2022 by thebossdoctor

The first question is the most fundamental: What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

The second question is built on the first: Do you have the opportunity every day to do what you do best?

The third question delves more deeply into personal motivation: Do you feel the work you do is important and has a meaningful purpose?

The fourth question seeks to tap into employee ideas and innovation: If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change around here?

I must give credit for this question to Tony Knight, a good friend, former colleague, and awesome super-manager—one of my all-time leadership heroes. I’ll tell you the story behind his question in a moment. But first allow me to explain the importance of this question and the rationale behind it.

First, this question allows managers to tap into the insights and ideas of employees at every level of work. It helps managers and supervisors unlock ways for their people to do what they do:

EASIER / BETTER / FASTER / SMARTER / CHEAPER / SAFER

Second, it helps leaders in an organization to identify problems in the organization that are creating barriers for employees to perform more effectively and more productively. In that respect, it’s another variation of question number one in this series: What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

BTW: My favorite variation of this question comes from CEO Jack Zenger:

“Tell me something you think I don’t want to know and don’t want to hear.”

**These people will help you succeed…if you’re willing to listen to them!!!**
— Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Up Close and Personal

When I think about employee innovation, especially as a strategic organizational activity, I often come back to the example of Toyota Motor Manufacturing. They are well-known for their emphasis on continual improvement—what they call, “KAIZEN.” It’s part of their corporate culture and is woven into their management philosophy.

The story of the NUUMI plant in Fremont, California is a testament to Toyota’s ability to instill its manufacturing philosophy into front-line workers. It was at NUUMI that Toyota transformed formerly jaded, adversarial, combative UAW workers into a productive and engaged labor force. Toyota’s focus on engaging employees directly in the production process at the design, decision-making, and problem-solving levels played a major role in building employee pride, loyalty, productivity, and creativity at the NUUMI plant.

Question #4 unlocks an employee’s creative insights—especially with regard to their own work. Here’s the principle in a nutshell:

Every person is an expert in their own 25 square feet of space.

In other words, the person who is most likely to have ideas about how to do their work EASIER / BETTER / FASTER / SMARTER / CHEAPER / SAFER is the person who is actually doing the work!

So…why not ask them????

Question #4 also has the potential to help managers identify barriers to employee performance, productivity, and morale.

Up Close and Personal

NOW…Here’s the story behind Tony Knight’s question…

Tony took over managing an IT team at a big hospital in Texas. They had been without a manager for over three months. Morale was at an all-time low. BEFORE HIS FIRST DAY ON THE JOB, Tony sat down with each team member individually to introduce himself, get to know the employee, and ask them this question:

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change around here?

He told me that two items came to the surface very quickly in his conversations. The first was, “Hire more people—we are swamped with work!” He was able to tell each employee, “I have permission from higher-ups to add two more people to our team. My goal is to recruit and hire them by the end of my first month.”

The second item was, “Get rid of all this furniture.” I asked Tony what that was all about. He said, “Our IT team is located in a large area in the basement of the hospital. The facilities team had adopted the bad habit of storing used and broken furniture in our workspace instead of doing their job thoroughly by arranging for its disposal. It had become a morale issue for my team. So… my first day on the job, I had the facilities team remove every piece of it. I found out later that people on my team had gone to MY boss to thank him for hiring me! It was a huge morale boost to my people.”

Tony’s experience also illustrates a principle I share with students in my management workshops:

If you listen to your people, they will hand you leadership success on a silver platter.

Susan Peppercorn put it this way:

“The best managers let workers know that their opinions count by promoting open dialogue and providing honest feedback on employees’ opinions and suggestions, supporting good ideas and addressing unfeasible ones. By asking individual team members what they feel the company could be doing better, what market opportunities the organization might be overlooking, and how to leverage company resources more effectively, you’re validating that their thoughts matter.”

But what happens if your team members identify a problem in the organization that you can’t solve??? What do you do about THAT???

Stay tuned to this blog and in an upcoming post, I will answer that question!!

In the meantime, be sure to come back next week for the 5^th and final important question in this very special series!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Collaboration, Communication, Competence, Creativity, Decision-making, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Feedback, Innovation, Leadership, Learning, Management, Morale, Performance Management, Problem-Solving, Productivity, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized, Work | Tagged Creativity, Employee Engagement, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Morale, Performance Management, Problem-Solving, Productivity, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Team Productivity, Teams | Leave a comment

5 Questions Every Boss Needs Answered by Their Subordinates – #3

Posted on February 27, 2022 by thebossdoctor

The first question is the most fundamental: What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

The second question is built on the first: Do you have the opportunity every day to do what you do best?

The third question delves more deeply into personal motivation: Do you feel the work you do is important and has a meaningful purpose?

**It feels REALLY GREAT to know your work REALLY MATTERS!!**

Sociologists have identified “meaningful purpose” or “significance” as one of the most basic and most important human psychological / emotional / spiritual needs. Having a sense of purpose enables us as human beings to embrace difficulty and challenge, and overcome barriers to our efforts and initiative. It enables us to have a “long view” of our lives and our daily activities.

When employees view their job as an opportunity to pursue a meaningful personal purpose, the result is a tremendously positive impact on their work and on the organization!

“Those employees who say that they live their purpose at work are six and a half times more likely to report higher resilience. They’re four times more likely to report better health, six times more likely to want to stay at the company, and one and a half times more likely to go above and beyond to make their company successful.” Naina Dhingra – The McKinsey Podcast

Susan Peppercorn emphasizes the role of leadership in helping employees make this all-important connection between their work and their sense of purpose:

“Managers can play a meaningful role in helping employees understand how their roles contribute to the organization’s broader mission. But helping employees feel a sense of purpose must go deeper than this to tap into what’s purposeful to employees about their job and connects with their own values.”

What can a manager or supervisor do, to help make this connection?

If Peppercorn is right, managers can’t help employees make this connection unless they know their employees well enough to determine each team member’s values and sense of personal purpose! That’s going to require meaningful conversations with each employee!

**Are you having the right conversations with your people????**

Think about the following conversation-starting questions to ask an employee:

What do you consider important in life?
What in your life gives you a sense of personal meaning or significance?
What gives you a sense of purpose in your life?
What kinds of things do you do that give you a feeling of significance or importance?
What kinds of things do you do here at work that give you a feeling of significance or importance?
Do you feel that your work is meaningful… that it is important… that it is worth the time and effort you put into it?
What part of your work do you consider most meaningful… most important?
Do you think what we do in this organization is important?
Do you think this organization has a meaningful or significant purpose?
Do you believe your work is important to the success and purpose of this organization?

Naina Dhingra reminds bosses,

“There’s an opportunity to really pause and reflect on the individual’s sense of purpose and how that links with the company and what the company is trying to do for the world—especially at this moment, when there are so many things going on in the world that really demand business to make a greater contribution to society.”

Up Close and Personal

One of my training events took me to a company that designs and manufactures intricate power and signal controls for various industries. One of their biggest clients is CalTrans—supplying them with sophisticated traffic and signal controls for key commuting routes. A disastrous tunnel fire in one of the main traffic arteries feeding the city of San Francisco completely destroyed the traffic control system inside. It created a daily commuting nightmare for thousands of motorists. CalTrans was desperate to replace the control system and restore normal traffic flow as quickly as humanly possible. They came to the company with a seemingly impossible deadline for replacing the destroyed equipment. The leadership and employees together accepted the challenge; replaced the system in less time than requested; and celebrated their success with a giant photo session in the company parking lot that featured the entire company of employees and a CalTrans representative who was there to present a special commendation plaque which was then put on display in the company reception area along with the commemorating photograph.

Anyone in the reception area viewing the photo would have a clear and palpable sense of the pride that every employee displayed—knowing how important their work was to CalTrans and to the thousands of motorists who depended daily on the quality and reliability of their equipment.

So…

How are you learning about the unique values and sense of purpose of each of your team members?
How are you helping your people make the important connection between their work and the meaningful purpose of your organization?

If you need help with these things, call us! We have the tools and expertise to help you lead your people more effectively, and more purposefully. And in the meantime, stay tuned to this blog to receive more great ideas, tools, techniques, and resources!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!

Posted in Caring, Coaching, Communication, Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Leadership, Management, Morale, Organizations, Productivity, Purpose, Recognition, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, Teams, Uncategorized, Values, Vision | Tagged Communication, corporate culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Leadership, Management, Purpose, Supervision, Team Culture, Team Dynamics, Team Leadership, team performance, Teams, Values | Leave a comment

Up Close and Personal

So… how do you do this?

Up Close and Personal

Never present something to a group until you have first lobbied the group members individually.

P = O

Participation = Ownership

People support whatever they help create.

None of us is as smart as ALL of us.

Up Close and Personal

When you float your ideas with key colleagues, their added perspective will help you avoid the common mistakes often created by a narrow, limited view of the situation.

Up Close and Personal

Up Close and Personal

Other posts you might find helpful…

Help your people get promotions in the organization.

Here’s what you can do to help them…

At this point, you may well ask—What’s in it for ME????

Up Close and Personal

What was lost to the company and to other employees because of the short-sightedness of the manager?

If you listen to your people, they will hand you leadership success on a silver platter!

Why are these questions so important????

That’s interesting…Tell me more!

What else???

The fifth question is designed to help employees grow and develop: How would you like to grow in your career and in this organization?

Help your employees with career development.

The fourth question seeks to tap into employee ideas and innovation: If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change around here?

EASIER / BETTER / FASTER / SMARTER / CHEAPER / SAFER

“Tell me something you think I don’t want to know and don’t want to hear.”

Up Close and Personal

Every person is an expert in their own 25 square feet of space.

Up Close and Personal

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change around here?

If you listen to your people, they will hand you leadership success on a silver platter.

The third question delves more deeply into personal motivation: Do you feel the work you do is important and has a meaningful purpose?

What can a manager or supervisor do, to help make this connection?

Think about the following conversation-starting questions to ask an employee:

Up Close and Personal

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