Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 27th, 2009
If you are:
a CEO wanting to increase buy-in and commitment to the strategic objectives and the success of your company,
a COO who wants to create momentum within teams to get better results,
a VP of human resources wanting to increase employee engagement.
Twitter could be your solution.
Twitter offers every company the opportunity to open up its public self, increase external perception of your brand, announce successes and expand customer reach. It can also be used to create internal buy-in, build team momentum and increase employee engagement.
Like ourselves, businesses have personalities. The Feedback Self Disclosure Matrix explores the four selves.
The Public Self: What you and others know about your company, e.g. your brand,
The Private Self: What you know about your company but others don’t, e.g. your financials,
The Blind Self: What you are not aware of but others see clearly, e.g. a leadership team may not realize in an effort to get results they are actually developing a burn-out culture,
The Unknown Self: The hidden potential of every company. For example, during a strategic planning meeting, a team considers a disruptive innovation. Another example: Identifying a new area for the business where the team is willing to take a risk on something new, e.g. using the power of Twitter!
As a Start:
Have a conversation with your employees about what they might tweet – good news about the company, interesting facts about what’s going on, what goals they are reaching, what successes they are having. Include a conversation about company privacy — the Private Self — e.g. no need to tweet the financial status of the company.
Embrace the idea that Twitter can get the message out there to a larger audience as well as increasing internal buy-in to strategic objectives, creating momentum, and improving employee engagement.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 22nd, 2009
When team accountability declines, I question if the leader or manager is trapped in a communication myth – a widely held but false belief or idea.
As a leader/manager, it’s critical to be aware of your communication style and its effectiveness. It could be as simple as asking yourself, “Do I believe in these myths and if so, what can I do differently?”
“While you may ignore the truth because it is uncomfortable to face, other times you accept myths over truth because you don’t know the difference” – Joshua Uebergang
Myths of Communication
1. If I tell somebody to do something. they are actually going to do it.
To raise the bar of accountability, leaders and managers need to take the time to check-in with the individual to make sure they agree with the need, and are willing to set a target date for the completion of the task.
2. If I tell somebody to do something, they have heard it, and they understand what they need to get done.
Reflective/active listening is critical to effective communication creating improved results. First ask the individual to repeat back what they heard you say. If they didn’t hear it correctly, re-word it and ask them to repeat it again. This can take a moment but it is worth it! Attaining clarity with reflective listening decreases errors and misinterpretations.
3. If I say it once, once is enough.
Retention 24 hours after a presentation ranges between 8 – 12% (check out my post about “the forgetting curve“). That means if you stick to this myth you will receive 8-12% of the results you are looking for! To improve this, check in regularly with the individual.
If you are leading a team, watch that you don’t get trapped in these myths. Instead, shake it up!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 20th, 2009
When working with executive teams, I often discuss the importance of clearly articulating core values, identifying objectives/action plans and then driving performance results based on quantitative or qualitative measures – “if you can measure it, you can manage it”.
All of this proved itself true this weekend on my way to tree 71.
As I lay under my cozy duvet on a foggy, rain-drenched, Sunday morning, I realized that every fibre in my body was screaming in high resistance. I desperately wanted to cancel my Sunday morning ritual of climbing up the BCMC trail of Vancouver’s Grouse mountain.
Strangely, I heard myself utter to my partner Jim, “I will be ready in 10 minutes – you?” What was that? Where did that come from?
Fast forward to tree 71.
I stood drenched in sweat with my forehead pressed against the cold bark of tree 71. I had made it!!!!
I turned to Jim, who had not heard a word from me all morning — very unusual for this chatty gal.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it – I made it to tree 71! ”
“I was totally locked in my resistance. I completely faked getting here. When we started the hike, I went into autopilot. I actually had to motivate myself by calculating the 50% mark of the hike – tree 36. At some point, I stopped to take a break. While I was catching my breath, I looked up and noticed that I was standing on the roots of tree 37! Wahoo!! I was half way there – I could actually make it to tree 71. And look at me now, I just proved it to myself.”
Tree 71 had become my clear goal. Armed with my core values of maintaining my health and wellness, I was able to motivate myself with a smaller measure of success and before you know it, the results were mine. Now it was time to celebrate!
It’s true. If you can measure it, you can manage it. In business and in pleasure, we all need a tree 71!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 13th, 2009
CEOs & leaders try to create a workplace culture to match their brand identity. However, management of productivity and results can sometimes set employees into a flurry of activity which, in turn, can detract from the espoused cultural norms.
The brutal fact is that in some workplaces the real cultural norms are – if you want to take a break, you need to start smokin’!
Suzy said the culture did not support the idea of taking a break here and there, going for lunch or just taking 5 minutes to walk around the office. Instead, she described how she found an outlet for a break with one of her smokin’ co-workers. She realized that the smoker took regular smoke breaks throughout the day. So she decided to share an outdoor break with the smoker. It was almost as if the habit of smoking allowed people to take a pause. During these short breaks, Suzy could re-group, re-energize and return to her desk being more focused and productive. The smoker has now left the team.
Suzy no longer has a reason to take a break, not being a smoker.
After reading my blog, Suzy checked her assumptions about the unspoken workplace norms with a couple of her co-workers. They agreed. One gent sheepishly revealed he felt the need to hide if he wanted to take a break.
What are the brutal facts of the workplace culture within your company? Are you allowed to take little breaks so you can be more productive? If you can’t, is your culture contributing to people burning-out?
Do you, CEOs, leaders and executives, have the courage to question the brutal facts of your espoused (this is what we say we do) workplace culture vs. the real culture (this is what we actually do)? Do you think that your culture is burning people out? If you want to find out, ask people anonymously. If the answer is no – great!
If you find out that your company has a burn-out culture. Are you willing to make the necessary changes – promoting individual productivity and team sustainability ?
And finally, please don’t start smoking just to take a break.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 06th, 2009
I’d like to share a story that doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s a story about what happens when a high-functioning executive team with well-defined roles, strengths, and dynamics suddenly loses a member and fails to adjust. If you’re a CEO or senior executive, don’t let this happen in your organization.
I recently worked with a company that had offices across Canada and an executive management team that had been together for over 10 years. They communicated well, were willing to give direct and corrective feedback, shared an understanding of the strategic and tactical goals of the company, and reviewed their metrics with regular monthly strategic meetings.
The company was lead by a female CEO, whose father had passed the company to her 10 years prior. She had stepped into the role with no previous experience and decided to bring in outside resources to establish norms of effective teaming, help the team articulate the strategic plan and understand how to review it on a regular basis. (This is where I came in – facilitating the annual strategic planning process and monthly management meetings.)
She had a consensus building leadership style; she put issues on the table for discussion with her trusted team and then, if necessary made the final decision after weighing all of the viewpoints. A key role at the table and, definitely her primary strength.
As profits soared and the executive management team dynamic flowed effortlessly, she decided to have her first child. I was excited to see how this team would now step up and take on strategic and tactical decisions in her absence. What a possibility for the team to grow to new heights, to function with a deeper level of commitment. It’s interesting how her decision to have a child, could also birth the next level of possibility within her executive team.
Before she left, this CEO needed to pass her authority to another member of the team, but, unfortunately, she didn’t let go of her role. She chose not to do so. Instead she simply left to have her child. She assumed the team would continue to function in her absence.
Instead the team floundered because a primary leadership strength – building consensus and making the final decision was no longer at the table. Not one of the executives had the ability to make final decisions when needed. Their once dynamic meetings became meetings of discussion after discussion without decision making and actions of how to move forward.
I sometimes wonder whether this CEO recognized her primary strength and role on this team. Why didn’t she assign responsibility for decision making while she was gone? Was she paralyzed with fear that the executive team would function in a different way in her absence. making it difficult for her to find her place on the team when she returned? Watching the team flounder was extremely difficult – I was saddened by the lost opportunity for the CEO to birth both a child and a more highly functioning team.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, October 01st, 2009
Right now you’re probably buried with work, right? Even so, you took a quick break to check out this post. But if you’re like most executives, you probably need more “time out” from your workload to recharge, build relationships and trust, and maintain maximum productivity.
Believe it or not, most executives are not nearly as productive as they could be. So if you have another 80 seconds right now, check out this video on the importance of increasing productivity and building trusting relationships by simply taking a time-out within each day.
Quick Tips:
For 30 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. shut off all electronic devices. Unplug from the business imperative that you must always be in touch. Instead be in touch for energized pockets of time,
Make personal contact with people. Have 5-minute check-ins. Walk around, say “hello”, “how is it going?”,
Peak at the ‘paper’ in the reception area – get the scope on who is waiting for a meeting with one of your colleagues and why?
Take a colleague for a coffee or lunch. You can re-energize, build relationships, solve business problems and have fun all at the same time!
What else do you do during the day to recharge and improve your productivity? Let me know.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 29th, 2009
“If I send you an email, do not acknowledge its receipt with a ‘thank-you’, ‘got it’ or ‘done’ response – don’t bother” said my new client, in our first face to face meeting. At first, her words seemed brash, but later made complete sense.
She, a VP at a global organization, continued “Recognize, I interact with a large volume of email each day. I will not respond to your emails unless, I don’t agree with the contents”
Not only had she clearly articulated her expectations and norms of working together, but she had taught me to not throw junk on her desk.
Email management has become a source of frustration and angst that contributes to team dysfunction and decreased results.
As business leaders, we can greatly improve team productivity by changing our consumption and production of action, information and junk related emails…and teaching our teams to do the same.
Here’s how:
Consider all emails that flowed into your inbox within the last 24 hours.
What percentage required your action?
What percentage required that you stay informed? (eg. actions which you support)
What percentage was junk? (not junk mail that would get stuck in the junk filter but junk-mail created by your colleagues)
Now consider all the emails you sent yesterday.
What percentage requested action?
What percentage outlined required supportive, informed, knowledge and/or resource based actions?
What percentage of your sent emails were junk? (e.g. didn’t fall in #1 or #2. Be honest!).
Just as my new client broached the topic with me. I encourage you to do the same with your teams, and practice hitting the ‘delete’ key before throwing junk on other people’s desks. I can personally attest to this strategy – it works!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 24th, 2009
When I’m working with teams to improve communication, the issue of email generally produces stressed faces, furrowed brows, and sweaty foreheads. It’s astounding how depressing and chaotic our inboxes have become. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
When I sense stress around the issue of email communication, I ask teams “Have you ever sat down together to discuss how you will send and receive messages to one another?”. Most teams respond with a clear “No, we haven’t done that and we don’t have a clue of how to start that type of conversation.” Fortunately, it’s not a difficult conversation to start.
We just roll up our sleeves and discuss these issues:
1. Subject lines norms– Create agreements within your team regarding what goes in subject lines. For example, if the message concerns a client, start the subject with that client’s name – that simple step will help recipients identify the purpose of the message and effectively catalog it. 2. Set up mailbox rules - Set up rules and filters to organize your inbox. (See my Tuesday post for more on rules and sorting.) 3. Establish team norms around who’s taking an action, who is supporting an action who is to be informed on an action. The team should clearly identify an owner’ to respond and handle the issue.
TO: if I ‘own’ a particular task and somebody wants to send me an email notifying me of an action that I need to take, my name will be in the TO: area. I will immediately know that I am responsible for taking action.
CC: means that I am “supporting” someone else’s action and,
BCC: means that all I need to be is keep myself “informed”.
4. More Rules Emails that have my name is in the TO: area – those emails can be sorted as action emails. Really really helpful!! 5. Discuss the use of high priority, moderate priority and low priority.
If you set aside to have these types of email norm conversations, you’ll help your team become more productive and save them from inbox stress!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 22nd, 2009
Email is a great source of stress and frustration for business leaders and executives. It kills productivity, hinders results and decreases personal motivation. A minor shift in your email management process can produce a major productivity improvement.
Clients tell me on a regular basis, “I get 300 emails a day,” “I have 1200 emails in my inbox ,” “It’s hard to stay on-top of the ‘incoming’ – urghh.”
Checking email, reading email and answering email can take hours of time if you let it. But only if you let it.
I have the secret to email productivity - and it works!
Picture your mailbox at home. Mine is a black metal mailbox affixed to a stone wall. Now, visualize it completely jammed with letters, over-flowing with envelopes.
At home, we don’t treat our mailbox as a storage system. We do not keep letters there for nights upon nights, weekends…forever. No! Every day we remove the mail, sort it and do something with it – open, toss or save for later. That’s the same thing you need to do with your inbox.
Here’s the solution: treat your inbox like a mailbox, not a storage box.
Create 4-5 folders to prioritize messages. I use ‘Urgent’, ‘Important but Not Urgent’, ‘Awaiting Reply’, ‘Read’, ‘Resources’.
When mail arrives, SORT into appropriate file folders before doing anything else!
Deal with the ‘urgent’ emails once your sorting is complete. I look at my urgent emails twice a day.
Deal with the secondary folders on a regular basis - I check the ‘Important but Not Urgent’ emails every second day and dip into the other files once per week.
In order to make this work, you will have to catch yourself to SORT first and to ‘deal with’ second. On the days when you let this slide, you will quickly notice how your emails get out of hand.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 17th, 2009
The most effective teams are full of people who have the courage to exercise professional clout in meetings. They’re prepared and passionate about the meeting contents, willing to be influenced and to influence others. They are willing to take ownership of their individual excellence; their wisdom, knowledge and judgement. All of this equals clout!
You may ask – why clout?
The word clout resonates for me. It represents the courage to be excellent, to put forth my viewpoint and to influence my team. If I’m successful, hopefully I will have the courage to try again next time.
Clout is different than power; my interpretation of power is too closely linked to control.
Brigitte Lacombe wrote a great article in the September 2009 issue of Oprah Magazine titled “31 Ways of Looking at Power” (http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/omagazine/200909-omag-power-list/9) in whichshe highlights Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.’s formula for power:
Follow your passion with persistence, magnified by intense preparation (preparation and passion)
Use compassion and courage to weave a strong web of connections (influence)
Use focused excellence to drive achievement and gain wisdom (ownership and courage).
She states, “It is through combination of all these things that your power will reveal itself. The magnitude and reach of your power is up to you”. She continues, “Connectivity is key; it is what creates and strengthens your web of opportunity. The more connected you are, and the stronger your connections, the more effective you will be in obtaining and using power to achieve your goals.”
Now that resonates for me! That woman has clout! Your thoughts?
