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?
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 15th, 2009
One of the things I’ve noticed this past year, especially given our difficult economic environment, is that individuals on teams are hungry for results. In fact, they’re so hungry for those results that they’re grasping everywhere they can –anywhere, from corners of the business — to get a result. That desperation is taking their focus off the company’s core strategic objectives and increasing their tactical behaviors.
It’s chaotic, really. And when they’re faced with chaos, many team members tend to focus more on their own individual activities – what’s happening on their own computer –instead of focusing on their teams and team objectives. And that’s increasing the “silo” effect within organizations, which hampers productivity, innovation, growth, and more.
So how can you combat this silo effect? By creating “interdependence” goals in your teams. These goals are designed to stimulate teamwork, combat silos, and increase engagement. There are many forms these goals can take; here are a few to get you started.
One-Way Learning Goal
means that the team sets a goal for all members to understand a specific concept well enough to explain it to another team. For example an engineering applications group and engineering sales team must explain their methods, goals and challenges to one another.
Product or Process Goals
encourage teams to reach consensus on product or process issues such as dealing with customer complaints or the launch of a new product.
Reward Goals
create shared rewards for team members. For example, in a training program for product knowledge or customer relations, learners receive an individual score AND a certain number of points if all group members score at or above a certain benchmark.
Resource Goals
means that individuals each possess specific resources needed for the team as a whole to succeed. This can be arranged by giving specific resources to different individuals in the team.
Role Goal
occurs when specific roles are assigned to team members (for example, recorder or time keeper). The roles can rotate weekly to give all team members the experience.
Task Interdependence Goal
occurs when one group member must first complete his/her task before the next task can be completed. For instance, collecting customer feedback might be assigned to two team members while research on customer feedback is done by two other team members.
One way to ensure that productive interdependence occurs lies with the face-to-face communication interactions between working team members. If leaders and executives create a plan to embed the different types of interdependence goals into monthly and quarterly plans, teams will show improved productivity along with team culture and professional trust.
Are you experiencing the silo effect in your organization? If so, can you think of any opportunities for including am interdependence goal into your teams within the next 30 days? Please share your thoughts in the comment area, and good luck!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 03rd, 2009
Managing workplace interruptions can be done effectively when leaders, managers and executives have the courage to assert themselves by articulating clear boundaries and communicating them to their co-workers. Clear boundaries establish personal and professional work parameters so that individuals can focus on priorities and get results.
Recently a client asked me how to manage multiple interruptions at work.
Sue, the Vice-President of Marketing & Communications spent the first 2 hours of her morning in a meeting, drinking coffee, and plenty of water (can you see where this is going?). When the meeting ended all she could think about was getting to the washroom. Opening the boardroom door, she noticed her direct report.
Without even a “Hi” or “How are you” the report chimed “Did you get my email?”
Sue looked at her and immediately responded – “Just a sec”.
She continued to race to the washroom door, all the while, sensing her direct report was still following directly behind. Approaching the washroom door, and getting closer to her own office – she hears her desktop phone ringing. Her mind floods with reminders of the chaos of emails she left behind prior to the meeting. As she reaches for the handle of the washroom door, she feels the vibration of her PDA…
Can you imagine the sense of overwhelm that Sue must be feeling? I can. Leaders, managers and executives are challenged with multi-tasking each day.
Sue could have been more effective by asserting herself:
In the moment the direct report said – “Did you get my email?” Sue could have kicked into the depth of her self awareness – sensing the feeling of overwhelm and chaos to set a clear boundary. Simple solution: “give me 20 minutes”, not 2 secs but 20 minutes.
Why does she need 20 minutes?
Because, it is not possible to be effective in the midst of overwhelm. As a leader, it is Sue’s responsibility to manage herself effectively so that she can guide her direct reports to increase productivity and ensure team results. Sue needed to give herself 20 minutes. Get back to her office, read the direct reports email, ‘land’ after her first meeting and get ready for the second.
Leaders, managers and executives need to become more aware of how they get knocked off course with multi-tasking and other workplace interruptions. Use the skill of setting clear personal and professional boundaries to be more productive.
Are you willing to share your lastest story of how multitasking has thrown you off track? Please enter your story in the comment section – let’s learn from one another.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, September 01st, 2009
There are incredible benefits to leveraging diversity in organizations. Broad expertise, knowledge and judgment can create major communication challenges or outstanding opportunities!. To benefit from diversity, we need to work together and be effective in navigating our differences. We can do this by taking more ownership of our side of the communication, our side of the two-way dialogue.
I recently worked with an extremely talented CEO who was visually impaired. To improve communication and team effectiveness within his organization, I facilitated a number of teaming experiences in which his associates were blind-folded. Once they experienced what “visually impaired” truly meant, they started to utilize different ways of communicating to complete the task at hand. They also started to recognize how their CEO had to work differently to get things done. They had more empathy for him. End result, they became more aware of how they could increase their communication with him by being more responsible to their side of the dialogue.
I’m now working on a team with a deaf woman, and it has been a most incredible learning experience for me. I’ve learned to adjust my own communication style, to apply different techniques in an effort to respect the wonderful diversity she brings to the group.
I have realized our ‘communication loop’ reflective listening competence; in which the receiver of the communication re-phases what they heard from the sender, is as effective when she re-types as when we re-phase,
I have learned how ‘instant chat’ can trump email for effective communication,
I have learned to write more in my blog posts as opposed to simply uploading a video,
The most important thing I’ve learned is that I have to be responsible for my part of the communication, for my part in this relationship. So I’ve started to learn expressions in sign language. Even though I am not great, not perfect, she can still understand when I say, “Good morning, how are you?” She can understand when I say, “Can you repeat, I don’t understand.” She starts to be able to communicate with me because I am working to improve my side of the dialogue. As a manager, leader and co-worker I have to draw people out and help them understand the message I’m delivering.
For me, diversity just means we are different. We’re different because we have limitations. We’re different because we have strengths. We’re different because we come from different places and we have been brought up with different norms.
It takes self-awareness and initiative to recognize these kinds of communication challenges and courage to make them opportunities. When you consider the diversity in your teams, can you see opportunities to improve the way you communicate? Can you take more ownership of your side of the dialogue and become more effective in the process?
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, August 27th, 2009
One of my absolute favourite books is The Power of Full Engagementby Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. In it, they cite a study in which a group of women committed to do a breast self-exam for 30 days.
One group of women said where and when they were going to do the exam, and 100% of those women actually did it. Among those who didn’t say where and when, only 53% completed it.
We can apply this same concept to daily planning & priority-setting. By defining “where and when,” you greatly improve your probability of success. You’ll be much more aware of what those priorities are, and it will be easier to manage your time, eliminate non-urgent activities, and create the momentum you need.
If you and your team are trying to gain more control of your time, here are three steps to stay on track throughout the day.
Plan (7 minutes): Each morning, decide your top 2 “must do’s” today and write them down
Realign (60 seconds each hour): Set an alarm to ring every hour and ask yourself, “Did I spend my last 60 minutes on my priority?” If “yes,” congratulate yourself and keep on it. If “no,” refocus.
Reflect (3 minutes at the end of the day): Evaluate your performance. What did you do well? What happened to distract you? And how can you improve tomorrow?
Remember, if you avoid setting priorities, your time will eroded away. The key is focus, and writing down your priorities can make a tremendous difference.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, August 25th, 2009
Managing interruptions and staying on top of daily multi-tasking each day is critical to being effective in business today. When business leaders discipline themselves to set clear priorities and communicate “norms for engagement” with co-workers productivity and results soar while overwhelm begins to decrease.
I recently had to find a new doctor. After I filled in the initial visit paper work, the receptionist handed me a document titled “Doctor’s Rules and Regulations” (norms for engagement). It clearly outlined the Dr. had only 10 minutes for each appointment. It directed me to bring one issue to the table at each doctor’s appointment. If I had two issues, I needed to make sure that I presented both within the 10 minute parameter.
The document then illustrated a time calculation: if each patient was one minute late multiplied by 45 patients per day equals the last patient waits an additional 45 minutes. He had clearly identified his priorities and this was his effort to communicate them to me.
Although my experience with the doctor was a little harsh, I recognized that he was clearly outlining his norms of engagement in my best interest. Think about it — one day I might be that last patient myself.
If you want to be more effective and manage your interruptions with increased ease, it is really important to sit down at the beginning of the day to consider your priorities. Whether it takes 5 minutes or 20 minutes – it is probably the most important time in your day
to get clear on what you need to do,
to be responsible for performance and results, and
to clearly articulate your own norms of engagement to the people with whom you work.
That’s exactly what the doctor had done. He had clearly outlined his expectations of how I would prepare for the meeting, his expectations of how I would bring issues to the table. With this he clearly articulated our ‘norms of engagement’.
Take some time to identify what your priorities are for the day and to communicate them. Articulate your priorities clearly to others to establish “norms for engagement”.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, August 14th, 2009
This weekend I went to see Julie & Julia. Loved it! It got me thinking about “The Feedback Self Disclosure Matrix,” a tool that can help all of us – particularly CEOs and senior managers – create deeper connections and better results in our businesses and with our teams.
This matrix is based on the foundations of the Johari Window model that was developed by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in the 1950s. The Matrix is comprised of four quadrants.
Each quadrant represents a part of our self, representing particular behaviours, feelings, motivations that are known by (self) and about the person (other).
At the bottom of the illustration you see how the four different quadrants of the ‘self’ can be altered in size reflecting the relevant proportions of each type of ‘knowledge’ of/about a particular person.
The four quadrants of our “Self” are Private, Public, Blind and Unknown.
The horizontal axis shows how much a person asks for & receives feedback.
The vertical axis measure the amount the person self-discloses & gives feedback.
This dynamic feedback model illustrates:
People with highemotional intelligence (large ‘public self’ – orange box) ask for feedback, give feedback and self disclose often. They have well-developed public personas.
Those who are protected (large ‘private self’ – green box) keep ‘what they know about themselves’ private. These individuals rarely choose to self-disclose. Their Private Selves are large, making it difficult for colleagues to comfortably collaborate and communicate with them. These individuals often control the flow of conversation by asking many questions. They rarely share their own experience. So, they don’t get much feedback so their Emotional Intelligence is suspect.
Aggressive (large ‘blind self’ – yellow box) give plenty of feedback but don’t ask for it a lot – their Blind Selves dominate. They aren’t as aware of themselves or environment. This hampers their ability to work collaboratively or take in feedback from others. They have a low level of Emotional Intelligence.
The Well of Potential (large ‘unknown self’ – brown box) these folks neither ask for feedback, nor give much feedback – if they started to open up, they would experience a great deal of professional and personal growth because they would be developing their Emotional Intelligence.
After seeing Julie & Julia, my girlfriend left the theater inspired to do more cooking – I left with the realization that this blog is a perfect vehicle for me to self-disclose. I can decrease my ‘private self’ while increasing my ‘public self’. As I write this I realize that will take additional courage on my part – yikes. I’ll get feedback!
I’m rarely at a loss for words. I think nothing of standing in front of 500 people to lead a professional development seminar. But spilling my guts in front of a video camera to post a new blog is scary. I get the shakes even writing this!
Back to the movie …
Julie trembled in her boots as she blogged about her frustrations, joys and commitment to learn how to cook the Julia Child way. She opened her Private Self to make her experience more public. I connected with her more deeply because of it.
Executives with high emotional intelligence are better able to lead and motivate their people.
Sharing their Private Selves is an important behavior. I realized that just standing up in front of a room and blogging are public activities, but it doesn’t automatically mean I’m revealing or connecting.
There is learning here for me, as there is for the CEO’s, sr. managers and executives that I work with.
Lets drop the hesitation. Pick-up a bit of courage. Boost our Emotional Intelligence. So, we’ll no longer miss an opportunity to gain more feedback and build deeper connections.
I’m committed to doing so – thanx Julie!
With time, courage, and your feedback, I’ll explore my Unknown Self, become more comfortable with my new Public Self, and get better results through improved Emotional Intelligence.
Are you comfortable sharing your Private Self in your business life? Think it might be important to develop your Emotional Intelligence? What do you think? Download Feedback-Self Disclosure Matrix
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, July 23rd, 2009
Total Video Viewing Time: 2:30.
In this video, I discuss the source of Boardroom Apathy.
It is human nature to disengage, pull away or conform if we sense that our co-worker or manager is resistent to a two-way dialogue, not interested in our opinion or viewpoint. Our tendency is to resign, give up, disengage … essentially lose our connection with the other and even ourselves.
In order to re-connect with ourselves and to re-engage with co-workers and managers, we need to focus on our self awareness, self management and leadership assertiveness — the sources for heightened emotional intelligence.
Be self-responsible with your own connection and engagement:
Self awareness: Be aware of your own feelings of apathy, disengagement, lack of energy.
Self management: Pull yourself out of your apathy by making a statement such as ‘I need to share my viewpoint on this…’.
Leadership assertiveness: Make a clear request to be heard!
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, June 28th, 2009
Sorry about the volume of this video – some of it was shot in studio and some outside; audio levels vary.
In April, I participated in Habitat for Humanity’s Toronto Women’s Build. I was in a group of 60 business leaders gathering to give back, to have a fun day and to somehow swing a hammer to build one of sixteen new homes for families in need.
As eager business women with type A personalities, we were all juiced and ready to jump in!
Habitat for Humanity gave us the overall vision of the day. Our project manager then started us with some tactical direction – it excited all of us for a short period of time. Then we all became very ineffective. Our participation slowed and motivation waned.
A fellow entrepreneur, Joan, saved the day with her high level of Emotional Intelligence:
Self Awareness in her ineffectiveness,
Self Management in her ability to manage her frustration and,
Her courage to act with Leadership Assertiveness; simply requesting that the project manager share the tasks vision.
Watch this video – a great case study for team effectiveness. Consider the following:
Describe the project/task vision. All of us need to understand where we are going so that we can get there.
Provide direction then support. Provide detailed direction to the newbies on your team (like us — highly motivated but lacking in task specific competence in how to build a house). Provide support when you recognize effectiveness is declining.
Encourage your team members to uplead. Joan exercised her leadership assertiveness in asking our project manager to explain the vision of the task – this is ‘upleading’,
As a leader, respond to the upleading immediately. If a member of your team behaves with a positive uplead – grab it and act immediately. Our project manager did just that! She led us to the sample home and showed us the needed end result.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, June 19th, 2009
CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke of Reneevations discuss self awareness and choices that each of us can make to heighten our emotional intelligence. How you manage your energy really impacts how successful and fulfilled you are in your professional and personal life.
Choices to manage/move your energy:
Make More of the Situation = be creative in the face of adversity – create a solution that serves you better,
Make Less of the Situation = direct your energy toward a more positive outcome in lieu of being ‘stuck’,
Make Nothing of the Situation = CrisMarie discusses how she made less of and then nothing of her 1988 Olympic experience.
Life is an energy game – make your best choice today!
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