How to avoid the Sucker Aversion affect – reward team performance.

February 07th, 2012

Many of my clients have recently downsized and are expecting fewer people to do more work. The business world has changed and companies are realizing they need to adopt new behaviours in order to be successful these days. In order to keep up with the demands, companies want more effective teamwork to keep productivity levels high.

I read an article in the Globe and Mail Report on Business. In “There is no shirk in teamwork” article, Wallace Immen describes teamwork and productivity as it relates to personalities on a team. He talks about how the ‘sucker aversion affect’ is a result of one person (a bad apple) not caring about project results or how the very idea of working collaboratively with others can spread quickly amongst a team and erode team productivity.

Wallace discusses how ongoing team peer feedback and rewarding team performance help defuse the negative impact of the sucker aversion affect. This struck a chord with me, as I’ve had personal experience with the the sucker aversion affect in recent team facilitation’s and wanted to share with you the various outcomes.

1. With ongoing peer feedback, a bad apple left the company and team results are now soaring.
2. Now that a reward structure is team-based rather than individual-based, a CEO recently reported hearing people ‘laugh in the hallways’. Furthermore, relationships are better and individuals are more engaged in their work.
3. A team-lead reported that the shift to rewarding team work has resulted in faster execution on projects.

So, I ask all of you. Peak into your boardrooms, are groups working individually on projects and being pulled into the sucker aversion vortex or are people rewarded for team-work and giving on another feedback to short-circuit the bad apples behaviour?

How “Final Statements” relieve anxiety

September 11th, 2011

At the end of my meetings, I generally close with each participant voicing their appreciations, difficulties and final statements about the meeting. This is a time when each team member shares their experiences of the meeting without interruption or feedback. This allows everyone to move on to their next meeting or task with a clear mind and a fresh focus.

Appreciations are what you enjoyed about either a team member or a part of the meeting. Difficulties include tasks you will need to put extra effort into or perhaps something you might normally put off or avoid. Final statements are your overall thoughts of either what the meeting accomplished and/or any next steps the meeting generated.

The other day I was on a conference call with one of my teams about a project we were all working on. As the meeting progressed, I started to feel very anxious. I’d made a promise to several people and was getting scared that I wouldn’t be able to follow through on my promise. I could feel this overwhelming time deadline coming up closer and closer, so I shared my anxiety with my team during my final statement.

Shortly after our call ended, I received emails from 2 of my teammates, each offering different perspectives and solutions on how to get the task at hand done and meet that deadline. Instantly, my feelings of anxiety melted away.

What I also realized was how effective final statements can be and that they really work. Had I not vocalized my anxiety, I would’ve lost a lot of sleep and energy.

Have you ever been in a situation like this?

At the end of your next meeting, try ending it with appreciations, difficulties and final statements. See how this meeting format improves the teamwork and productivity in your company. Better yet, let us know by commenting on our blog.

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #11: Ask Dr. Phil

August 25th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #11: Ask Dr. Phil

How do you know if you’ve done a good job on a project? What about the impact your input has on a team presentation? Sure, your teammates might say ‘thanks’ or ‘good work’, but what if you’re looking for a more constructive response?

The idea of soliciting feedback is generally met with resistance, as we’re afraid of the outcome. What if we hear something about ourselves that we don’t want to know? But effective feedback can significantly improve results and strengthen teams.

Instead of being scared of feedback, I use it as my GPS to see how I’m doing and ask for it regularly  from my teammates…

Ben, what did you think of my draft presentation?

Graham, can you give me some feedback on the effectiveness of our blog?

Kathy, was how I directed you on that particular task clear and concise?

A simple question can lead to a great deal of personal learnings. Which teammate will you ask for some feedback from today?

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Can you believe next week is the last week of our Teamwork Challenge? Time to pull out your party hats and celebrate!

The Teamwork Challenge Tip #10: Let Go

August 17th, 2011

Building a high-functioning team takes courage, commitment, tenacity and a willingness to work with one another. In order to improve teamwork, it’s important to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then review to see if it worked or fell short of success.

Teamwork Challenge Tip #10: Let Go

I hate to say it, but I’m still impacted by something a business partner said to me years ago. I had just made a presentation to potentially build a community within our business and my business partner shouted out ‘business is typically not done that way!”

Retrospectively, I think geez, I wish my response had been ‘that is exactly my point!’ Instead, I chose to think his opinion was more valuable than mine! Yuk. From then on, I had a tough time presenting ideas to him and couldn’t overcome my feelings of inadequacy.

A candid conversation with him about how his comment impacted me was all I needed to do to let go and move on. Do you have some unfinished business to take care of? Have you been holding on to something a co-worker said about an idea you had or something you did or said? Take a moment to have a chat with that teammate and let it go.

Remember to try something new, change a behaviour, spice up the team a bit with a new approach and then analyze the results. Let us know if this week’s teamwork challenge tip made a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of your team.

Just two more weeks of The Teamwork Challenge. How much have interactions within your team improved? We’d love to get your feedback.

Corrective Feedback can Get Your Meetings Back on Track

May 04th, 2011

Have you ever been in a meeting and realized that every time a particular individual speaks, the meeting goes off course? Meeting after meeting, you watch this individual and you wonder how this person is able to take the meeting off course every time.

Get your meetings back on track using these three rules:

1. State your observation
2. Get curious
3. Suggest something new

Recently, I facilitated a meeting where exactly what I have just described was happening over and over and over again. I finally took it upon myself to ask the individual’s permission to discuss his meeting behaviours. Once his permission was given, I stated my observation.

“George,* I noticed that when you make a statement, you then add a story to illustrate that statement’s point. Out of that story, comes the second story and then often comes a third story. Do you have an awareness of this?”

George responded, “Yes.”

I then got curious, “Okay, why do you do that?”

George explained “When I’m making my statement, I’m looking for a response from the receiver. If I don’t see a head nod or some eye activity, I think they don’t understand what I’ve said so I add another story. If they do ask a question or make a statement, I continue with another story.”

I repeated back to him what I heard him say and then added “I understand you’re layering the stories because you’re making an assumption that your colleagues don’t understand you because they have not given you a response.”

George reconfirms that I have heard him correctly and then I continue by sharing with him my experience. “I start to lose the point you made in your original statement as I try to figure out how the multiple stories relate to one another…can you see how that might happen?”

When George says yes, I suggest to George that perhaps he could try a different behaviour to test if it would be more effective. “Try making a statement and then perhaps tell one story.  Solicit the receiver’s response by asking them to repeat back what they heard you say.”

George was willing to try this on for size. How about you?

*Name has been changed.

A Year in Review

December 22nd, 2010

We’ve been writing this blog for almost 2-years and couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for your participation.

This past year, we covered team alignment, meeting productivity, the importance of communication and emotional intelligence. Some of our favourite posts have been;

1. The Highs and Lows of Emotional Intelligence in Conflict Navigation
2. Emotional Intelligence and Teamwork
3. How to Prevent a Loss from Destroying Team Productivity

Since we started blogging, our most popular post has been The Secret to Email Productivity for Executives.

What was your favourite post and why? Your comments help keep our blog alive.

Which areas would you like more insight on? Emotional Intelligence? Communication? Feedback and Performance? Accountability? Team Development? Leadership and Followership? Perhaps you have a situation about a topic we have yet to cover. If you’re experiencing a stumbling block or a particularly difficult situation, chances are that others are as well. We love hearing from you, so please keep posting your feedback, comments and questions.

Look for a new post early in the New Year.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

Emotional Intelligence and Our “Private Self”

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 high emotional 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