Month: August 2019

Four Hundred Years Ago: This week marks four hundred years since the first slave ships arrived on our shores at Point Comfort, now known as Fort Monroe. For an excellent perspective on their journey, listen to the Reveal podcast “Year of Return” .

The Door of No Return: The first slaves left from the “Door of No Return”, one of the slave “castles” on the Africa coast of Ghana where they were sometimes held for months before making the horrible journey across the Atlantic.

Is it Our Problem? There is a raging debate in many circles about whether we should care about something that happened four hundred years ago, and events that those of us who were alive today did not engineer. Yet many descendants of those slaves – some of whom may work for you – want acknowledgment of their history. You may not agree that you should be accountable for slavery, current discrimination or the like, but sheer acknowledgment can go a long way.

What Should You Do?  

Lead Diversity and Inclusion Efforts: As a leader, encourage your organization to participate in diversity and inclusion efforts. Plan training, mentoring, advancement, community outreach efforts, recruitment and retention of employees who may be different in some way from most of your organization.

Stay Open to Feedback About Your Own Leadership: It’s easy to be defensive about our own leadership. Yet those of us who lead people who are different from us frequently need coaching to make sure that we examine our own actions. Are we truly fair and consistent in how we treat those we lead? Have we been open to 360 or other reviews about how we’re perceived? Do we seek out coaching before someone else thinks we should?

Learn More: As a leader, try to take the time to learn more about different cultures, viewpoints and backgrounds of employees and potential employees.

Why Use Consensus?   Most of our clients who use consensus do so because of the belief that going through the consensus process creates buy-in. They also believe that the process increases creativity and allows all voices to be heard.

But the Problem is Time!   Most leaders who want to use consensus vastly underestimate the amount of time building consensus will take. Consequently, some participants will simply give up and agree to anything to escape the meeting.

The Earl Warren Problem.  In the landmark decision Brown vs. Board of Education, Chief Justice Earl Warren (Warren was a President Eisenhower appointee. Eisenhower called him the worst decision of his presidency). Warren knew that unanimity would be important in untangling the web of racial segregation in schools. He spent the five months between arguments and the issuance of the historic 9 to 0 vote repeatedly gathering the Justices to discuss the issues. He took one justice to lunch 20 times in order to gain his agreement. The case changed the course of history and highlighted Warren’s remarkable leadership. Consider whether you would be willing to invest the same amount of time and effort to build consensus on your issue?

What Should You Do?  

Make Sure Consensus is Appropriate. When the stakes are high and you need the buy-in of all your people, consensus may be worth the time and trouble.

Focus on Needs and Interests, Not Positions. People usually arrive with an idea of what they think should happen, or their position. Try to uncover their underlying needs and interests.

Use a Facilitator. An experienced facilitator can save you a world of hurt. They can help you frame the issues and move people through them. In addition, it’s challenging to serve as both a neutral facilitator and a participant.

Conduct a Written Survey. Meetings favor the outgoing orators of the group. They may or may not have the best ideas. A written survey allows people who like to think before they speak to consider the issues and frame their response.

Form Subgroups. If the issues are complex, you can form subgroups to deal with each one. An especially useful strategy is to combine warring parties into one group. If they can come up with a solution, the rest of the team will frequently follow along.

Allow Enough Time. Consensus takes much more time on the front end but may save you time on the back end. If you – or another leader – cram down a decision, people may grudgingly agree but drag their feet or sabotage implementation.

One Reason We Make Bad Decisions:  New and fascinating research sheds light on one reason we all make bad decisions: the scarcity trap. This phenomenon affects nearly everything in our lives and connects people who appear to have nothing in common: those of us who don’t have enough money, time, resources, friends or food. When we’re in scarcity, the thing we think we need can become the only thing that matters to us. I highly recommend a recent story on NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast about this research — You 2.0: Tunnel Vision.

The Tunnel Restricts Our View:  When we have scarcity and it creates a scarcity mindset, it leads us to behaviors that, in the short term, help us manage scarcity, but in the long term only make matters worse. This type of scarcity is almost like an alarm that goes off in the head that’s saying: “Hey, we REALLY need this thing addressed. We REALLY need this thing addressed.” We lack long-term strategic thinking and focus only on what we perceive to be the immediate crisis.

Our Brains Narrows Our Focus:  When we feel that something important is missing in our life, our brain starts to focus on that missing thing. When we’re desperate for something, we can focus on it so obsessively, there’s no room for anything else. From an evolutionary perspective, the human brain is wired to respond to scarcity by tunneling in on the thing that’s missing. If our ancestors needed food, for example, tunnel vision helped them focus all their efforts on finding nutrition and those who did that, survived.

Mental Bandwidth: In tech terms, it’s called bandwidth. If we’re downloading a movie on our home Wi-Fi, for example, we may not have the bandwidth for anything else. Lack somehow changes our minds, and, researchers have found, can even lower how we perform on an IQ test.

When something we desperately need is in short supply, our brain tends to focus on that thing. This focus can be so intense that it impedes our ability to think about anything else.

What Should You Do?  

Recognize the Trap:  If you’re feeling desperate about something: lack of competent employees, a conflict with another leader, not enough time, realize that your perspective might be distorted.

Avoid Tunnel Vision:  While the psychological studies into scarcity and bandwidth are relatively new, the solutions are ancient. Avoid tunnel vision. Keep difficult things in one part of your life from contaminating everything else. Be present. Utilize mindfulness techniques. Exercise. Spend time with friends and family.

Try To Make Parts of Your Life “Mistake Proof”:  When we’re inside the tunnel, we make mistakes because we make bad decisions and we miss attending to responsibilities that are not inside the tunnel. Researchers think we should respond to these mistakes the same way we respond to mistakes made by airline pilots. There was a time when we thought that airline pilots who made mistakes were just bad pilots. A big reason air travel has become safer in recent decades is that there has been a shift in thinking. Designers have made cockpits fault-tolerant. Rather than trying to find perfect pilots, cockpits are now designed to account for human error. The goal is to alert pilots when they’ve made a mistake and to diminish the consequences of mistakes.

Surround Yourself with Perspective Supporters:  Find people — inside and outside of work — who can call you on your tunnel vision, who can remind you when you’re lacking the 30,000-foot view. Ask for their perspective and take the time to listen to their advice.

For further information about decision making and problem solving read:

Want to Bullet Proof Decision Making? Here’s How
Decisions! Decisions! How Objective Are You Really?
Are You Asking the Right Question? Problem Solving as Problem Reframing

We Need To Talk:  If you want to strike fear in the heart of your staff (or your spouse or partner!), just say: “we need to talk.” Most leaders walk in without having a well thought out idea about what they want to say.

Avoiding Tough Conversations:  We all have excuses for avoiding tough conversations: lack of time, lack of energy, fear of losing a friend or starting a fight, and lawsuit paranoia. None of these excuses will save you when faced with an employee who needs you.

Your Staff Needs You:  Yes, employees need you. New employees or employees who are having performance issues need frequent – preferably daily – contact with you. All the research on younger workers (the so-called Generation X or Y or Millennial Generations) points to the idea that the best and brightest of that group have been raised by parents, teachers and coaches who constantly gave them feedback and coaching. They expect, need, and thrive on it. While someone from an older generation might resent all this intrusion, others will most likely expect your “face time” (or phone time, if you’re managing remotely) – and feel neglected if they don’t get it.

The Power of Scripts:  To soothe your own anxiety before approaching a tough conversation, don’t overlook the power of scripts to help you do it correctly.

What Should You Do?  

Write Out Scripts: Yes, I’m serious. Before you walk into a meeting with a staff member who is having performance or other issues, write out what you’re going to say. This will help you feel more prepared, lessen your own nervousness and help you be more skillful.

Seek Help: Talk to your HR rep or other conflict expert, read books on difficult conversations, or speak to another leader you admire to help you prepare. Most people avoid difficult conversations, so there’s no shame in seeking assistance. Workplace studies have shown that few things affect an employee’s performance, loyalty to the organization, or desire to stay, more than his or her relationship with their immediate boss. It’s well worth the time and effort to make sure that yours is a good one.

Consider This Sample Script: Here’s an example of a sample script for an employee with performance issues:

GRACE: Terry, I need to talk to you about your performance.

TERRY: Yes?

GRACE: You don’t seem to be meeting your daily goals anymore. (States the problem clearly.) I’m wondering what’s going on from your perspective? (Asks open-ended questions).

TERRY: I don’t know. I just don’t seem to have any enthusiasm anymore.

GRACE: I see that. What do you think would make that change?

TERRY: I’m not really sure what to do.

GRACE: Well, we need to find a way to help you improve. Is there any part of your job that you enjoy?

TERRY: I don’t like many cold calls at all anymore. What I do like is the follow-up calls for existing customers.

GRACE: Interesting. Well, here’s what I’d like you to do. Keep a log all week of which activities you do that help increase your enthusiasm and which do not. I’d like to find out what gives you energy at work. (Checking for strengths mismatch). Here’s a form I’ve used in the past for this kind of analysis. I’m not sure that we can meet your needs with this job, but as a first step, I’d like to find out where you’re at.

TERRY: Great, I’ll try it.

For more information about how to have difficult conversations and resolve conflict, read these helpful tips:

Difficult Conversations: How NOT to Get Them on Your Side
How to Tackle a Tough Conversation by Breaking it Down
Want to Resolve a Conflict Fast? Here’s How to Settle a Dispute Like Herb Kelleher
What’s the Surprising and Most Effective Way to Resolve Conflict at Work?
Stop Escalating Conflict With This Quick Step