How To Create A Positive Work Experience

In the book, The Optimistic Workplace, author Shawn Murphy, explains that the following beliefs are essential to helping create a positive work experience:

1. The team is more important than any individual. For optimism to be strong, a cohesive team is vital. People need to believe the team will be there for them when needed. A team is weakened when the first priority is the needs of each person, or when ego dictates a team's actions or inaction. And, avoid relying on the usual suspects, the same few superstars, to handle high-profile projects.
2. There's value to experiencing joy at work. Joy can open brains to better see connections and various options to solve work problems. Joy is about playing. Play at work is useful when creativity and innovation are needed. The usefulness of creativity and innovation at the workplace is linked to increasing employees' knowledge and skills. 
3. Doing good is good for business. It's not just about philanthropy. Do good by not contributing to the stress levels of  your employees who struggle to find a healthy mix between their personal and work lives.
4. Relationships between leaders and employees need to be richer. Relationships are central to cooperation, collaboration, and successful outcomes. 
5. Work should align with purpose and meaning. Purpose and meaning are too often downplayed while businesses emphasize financial motivation. A focus on financial motivators blinds leaders from helping employees do work that matters.
6. Leaders need to actualize human potential. Actualizing human potential is built on the fundamental belief that people are inherently good, will do good, and can be trusted. 

Shawn Murphy

Murphy is an independent consultant with 20 years' experience working with a variety of organizations. 

Six Tips For How To Solicit The Feedback You Need As A Leader

Getting feedback is an important way to improve performance at work. But sometimes, it can be hard to seek out, and even harder to hear. 

“Feedback is all around you. Your job is to find it, both through asking directly and observing it,” says David L. Van Rooy, author of the book, Trajectory: 7 Career Strategies to Take You From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

As today's guest post, Van Rooy offers these six tips for how to get the feedback you need to improve performance at work.

Guest Post By David L. Van Rooy

1.      Don’t forget to ask:  One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming things are going perfectly (until they make a catastrophic mistake). By not asking, you’re missing out on opportunities for deep feedback: the difficult, critical feedback that gives you constructive ways to improve.

2.      Make sure you listen:  Remember, getting feedback is about improving your performance, not turning it into a “you versus them” mentality. Your reaction is critical. Do not rationalize the feedback or explain it away. Do not blame others or get angry. If you react in any of those ways, you are less apt to get accurate feedback from that person again. All too often, people let feedback that is given with positive intentions spiral into a negative situation by reacting destructively.

3.      Ask clarifying questions:  If feedback surprises you, it may be a matter of miscommunication or misperception, and asking questions will give you a clearer picture. Staying clearheaded enough to ask questions and listen to specific suggestions will help you understand the full scope of the feedback and ways that you need to take action to improve.  

4.      Take time to digest:  This is especially important if the feedback is difficult to hear. Taking time to digest and process before you respond helps you react constructively. Say something like “Thank you for the feedback,” and schedule a later time to follow up. Then, you can come back with additional clarifying questions and a plan to change and improve.

5.      Don’t just look to bosses for feedback:  Some of the best and most insightful feedback will come from colleagues and direct reports. These are the people who get to see and interact with you the most. Instead of relying solely on guidance from a supervisor, ask colleagues and direct reports to provide feedback, because they may spot potential problems before you or your boss would notice. Seeking feedback from people in other departments lets you hear different perspectives from people focused on other sides of the business.

6.      Get feedback through observation:  Learning from your successes and failures is a kind of feedback that helps you change your course of action. Consider the example of a speaker who notices people looking confused or inattentive and uses that feedback to change his approach and recapture their attention.

The 10 Characteristics Of High Performing Teams

According to Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, authors of the book, The Collaboration Imperative, high-performing teams have the following characteristics:

1. People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas.
2. Everybody is working toward the same goals.
3. Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks.
4. Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected.
5. Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
6. The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts.
7. Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed.  Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles.
8. The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executive sponsor, after which little second-guessing occurs.
9. Each team member carries his or her own weight and respects the team processes and other members.
10. The leadership of the team shifts from time to time, as appropriate, to drive results.  No individual members are more important than the team.

Leading Through Language

Communication expert Bart Egnal reveals why jargon is so prevalent in the workplace, and why it usually undermines those who use it, in his book, Leading Through Language.

Step by step, Egnal demonstrates how effective leaders reject fuzzy terminology in favor of the language of leadership. And, by language of leadership, he means using language that clearly and powerfully brings ideas to life for the audience.

The book has two parts. The first part examines why jargon exists and discusses its implications for leaders.The second part teaches how to use language that conveys ideas with energy, clarity, and conviction.

Egnal also explains that before you think about language you need to adopt a leader's mindset using these six principles:

1. Begin with vision. You must define the vision as a possibility that others can embrace or aspire to fulfill.Yet, it must be concrete enough that people can grasp it as something clear and achievable.
2. Define your own conviction. When you speak from a place of conviction, your language becomes personal, authentic, and powerful.
3. Move from information to inspiration. The number one reason speakers fair to inspire their audiences is that they focus on information rather than ideas. Leadership is not based on transferring information; it is based on transforming people.
4. Be courageous. You must be ready to deliver ideas that challenge your listeners to adopt new approaches.
5. Make it an everyday process. When you think about leading in every interaction, you will not reserve the language of leadership for "command performance."
6. Be audience-centric. You must engage your audience by showing them what's in it for them.

Finally, Egnal shares this good advice from Anna Tudela, Vice President at Goldcorp:

• Eliminate "minimizing" modifiers that so many of us use without realizing it. These modifiers undermine your ability to project confidence.

So, avoid these modifiers:

• Just
• Sort of
• A bit
• Perhaps
• Probably
• I think
• I'd guess
• We might
• It could

Egnal is President and Chief Executive Offer of The Humphrey Group, a global firm focused on building leadership communication skills.

How To Attract, Recruit And Retain Star Talent

Hiring Greatness is the book by David E. Perry and Mark J. Haluska, who combined have closed more than 1,800 search projects.

In their book, the authors share their guide for how to attract, recruit and retain star executives.

They advise that it is far more important that a leadership candidate possess specific intangible core attributes, than just decades of industry experience. And, these core attributes go far beyond mere technical skills. For Perry and Haluska, there are 28 core attributes they always look for in a candidate.

Those 28 fit within five pillars of success:

1. Character
2. Intellect
3. Business Intelligence
4. Leadership
5. Emotional Intelligence

They also recommend that when interviewing a candidate you particularly like that you take a healthy step back to figure out why you feel so strongly about that person. So, that you ensure you are not being biased by the following prejudices:

1. Charm - Outward personality is never an accurate predictor of success in any role.
2. Industry Experience - Make your decision on the basis of a broad range of factors, not only on industry experience.
3. Pedigree - Keep the candidate's credentials in proper context.
4. "Golden Boy" - Discount references from people who have worked indirectly or consulted for a candidate but didn't directly work for or with them.

Additionally, when seeking a leader, look for these key leadership attributes say Perry and Haluska:

• Leaders who are adept at creating a deep level of trust with employees and stakeholders at all levels.
• Leaders who can use their intellectual capacity to make quick,solid business decisions in tough competitive environments often without having all the details, so intuition is important.
• Leaders whose perception of the opportunity evolves over the course of the interviews, because you'll pick up clues about what's important to them.
• Leaders who have the ability to create excitement as well as enthusiasm and engage employees and stakeholders.

Finally, after talking to a candidate's references you should have information on:

• The candidate's significant accomplishments.
• The depth of others' feelings, positive or negative, about the candidate.
• What management guidance or further professional development is required.
• Leadership and personal style.
• Relationships - internal and external.
• Depth of technical and professional skills.
• Career progression and career interests.
• Reasons for changing jobs.
• Predominant leadership style.
• Strengths and weaknesses.

How To Listen And Learn As A Leader

In John Baldoni's book, The Leader's Guide to Speaking with Presence, he provides these tips for listening as a leader and learning as a leader:

When Listening As A Leader:

• Look at people when they are speaking to you. Make eye contact.
• Ask open-ended questions, such as "Tell me about..." or "Could you explain this?"
• Consider the "what if" question:  "What if we looked at the situation like this?"
• Leverage the "why" question:  "Why do we do it this way?"
• Employ the "how" question:  "How can you do this?"

When Learning As A Leader:

• Reflect on what people have told you.
• Think about what you have not observed.  Are people holding back?  If so, why?
• Consider how you can implement what you have observed.
• Get back to people who have suggested ideas to you and thank them.
• Look for opportunities to collaborate with others.

For nearly 20 years, Baldoni has coached and consulted for a number of leading companies in a variety of different businesses, ranging from automotive and banking to computers, high technology, fast food, and packaged goods. 

How To Spot A Leader During A Job Interview

The next time you are interviewing a candidate and you want to access their leadership skills, consider asking the candidate these questions:

• What personal qualities define you as a leader?  Describe a situation when these qualities helped you lead others.
• Give an example of when you demonstrated good leadership.
• What is the toughest group from which you've had to get cooperation?
• Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas?  What was your approach?  Did it work?
• Describe a situation in which you had to change your leadership style to achieve the goal?
• One leadership skill is the ability to accommodate different views in the workplace, regardless of what they are.  What have you done to foster a wide number of views in your work environment?

Thanks to Sharon Armstrong, author of The Essential HR Handbook, for these helpful questions!

Always Follow Through

Set a good example for your employees and follow through on everything you say you are going to do.

If you promise to get an employee an answer, get it for him or her. If you say you'll send a team member a report, do so. As the Nike campaign/slogan so aptly says, "Just Do It."

Too many leaders don't follow through. Perhaps they get busy. Perhaps they forget. However, following through is critical to keeping your team effective and efficient. And it's necessary for gaining respect from your employees.

Following through also means doing so in a timely fashion. If you take too long to follow through, it's as bad as not following through at all.

Ten Important Questions Business Leaders Should Ask

Here are 10 important questions business leaders should ask, according to Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge, authors of Helping People Win At Work:

1. Does my business have a clear, meaningful, and easily understood vision/mission?
2. Do I have the right people in the right seats on the bus?
3. Do I have a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal), and have I communicated it to my employees?
4. Are my values driving the behavior I want in my organization?
5. Am I creating a culture that increases employee engagement?
6. Am I cultivating a spirit of internal and external learning?
7. Do my employees know what an A looks like, and am I supporting them to get that A?
8. Are our products/services creating lasting, positive memories for our customers?
9. Do I have the best, most timely data and information to help my business make good decisions?
10. Are our key performance indicators the right ones, and are we measuring what matters?

And, one more questions to ask is:

• Do we celebrate success?

Book Highlights: The Leadership Contract

"Truly accountable leadership is the only way to build an organization that can survive and thrive in our increasingly complicated world," says Vince Molinaro, author of his revised and updated bestseller, The Leadership Contract.

More specifically, Molinaro believes that a new set of leadership expectations is redefining how each of us will need to lead in the future. He explains that as a leader you will need to take accountability to:

• Align and engage
• Take an enterprise-wide perspective
• Build relationships
• Master uncertainty
• Develop other leaders
• Model the values

And, to be a truly accountable leader, Molinaro says that you must serve the five core obligations of leadership:

• Yourself
• Your customers
• Your organization
• Your employees
• Your communities

One of my favorite parts of the book are the Gut Checks for Leaders at the end of each chapter. The Gut Checks list critical questions to ask yourself, such as:

• Do you lead every day with a sense of clarity regarding your obligations?
• What are the major complexities and pressures of your role?
• What is the hard work of leadership that you must tackle in your role? What hard work are you avoiding? Why are you avoiding it?
• How will having tough conversations make you a more accountable leader?

Molinaro, PhD, is an author, speaker, and, leadership advisor to senior executives, heads of human resources, and boards. He is the Global Managing Director of Strategic Solutions with Lee Hecht Harrison.

Seven Ways To Be An Open Leader

Open Leadership author Charlene Li reminds leaders to periodically ask themselves these "open leadership skills assessment" questions:

1. Do I seek out and listen to different points of view?
2. Do I make myself available to people at all levels of the organization?
3. Do I actively manage how I am authentic?
4. Do I encourage people to share information?
5. Do I publicly admit when I am wrong?
6. Do I update people regularly?
7. Do I take the time to explain how decisions are being made?

Thanks for these great questions, Charlene!

Why You Should Use Storytelling As A Business Tool

From Paul Smith's book, Lead With A Story, here are the 10 reasons for embracing storytelling as a business tool:

1. Storytelling is simple
2. Storytelling is timeless
3. Stories are demographic-proof
4. Stories are contagious
5. Stories are easier to remember
6. Stories inspire
7. Stories appeal to all types of learners
8. Stories fit better where most of the learning happens in the workplace
9. Stories put the listener in a mental learning mode
10. Telling stories shows respect for the audience

Smith goes on to say that:

• you don't need a degree in English to tell a story
• stories can spread like wildfire
• lessons from a story are remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than learning derived from facts
• stories spark curiosity and interest rather than the urge to evaluate or criticize
• stories get your message across, without arrogantly telling listeners what to think or do

Read Good To Great

If you haven't read, Good To Great, by Jim Collins, do so.

Near the top of virtually every list you'll see of the best leadership books, you'll find Good To Great.

The book, five years in the making, and published in 2001, addresses the all-important question of: Can a good company become a great company, and if so, how?

Some of the lessons from the book are:

• "Leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted."
• "Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights."
• "Good-to-great companies use technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it."
• "Engage in dialogue and debate."
• Good-to-great companies are those who have the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.

Good To Great's lessons are for entrepreneurs running small businesses, for CEOs of large businesses, and for leaders and managers within businesses at all management levels.

The five years of research that Collins and a team conducted to prep for the book consisted of examining 1,435 U.S., publicly traded companies and their performance over 40 years. The book focuses on 11 good-to-great companies.

The Little Book Of Leadership Development

The Little Book of Leadership Development, by Scott J. Allen and Mitchell Kusy, is a very compelling read, packed with practical tips and techniques for both leading and helping others to learn how to lead effectively.

What you'll find is basically 50 one- to two-page chapters, each highlighting a leadership tip.  Some tips seem easy and no-brainers. Others are more difficult to implement.  But, even the "easy" ones are surprisingly absent from many organizations, so they are well worth a reminder of what to do and how to do it correctly.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the book that highlight the keen observations by the authors:

• As a leader, if you are active, involved, and perceived by members of your team as an individual who care about their development and growth, you will increase your chances of success and theirs.
• Your team needs to know your expectations, goals, vision, and, most important, how each individual adds value.
• Rewards and recognition are particularly effective when the award was developed by team members and represent peer-to-peer recognition.
• Nothing is more frustrating than working for a manager who does not communicate organizational or community information.
• When you have no new news, letting your team know that you have nothing to report lets the team know you haven't forgotten about them.
• Coaching works best when you set clear expectations and stretch goals; challenge and support; monitor performance; provide feedback in small, concrete chunks; follow up consistently.
• At all times, everyone on your team should be working on a least one project that is taking their skills to the next level.
• Adults learn best through reflection. 
• Encourage team members to debate all sides of an issue intellectually and they will be more apt to think more innovatively than those who view an issue in a dualistic--absolute right or wrong -- manner.
• The more often your team members hear a consistent message, the more likely they will understand that what you are saying is important and credible.
• Create a culture where, if someone complains, they know that they will be expected to be part of the solution.
• Great leaders are great teachers.

This book seems ideal for busy managers who don't have lots of time to read leadership books.  It's only 132 pages. And, it would be a great first book to share with managers new to their leadership role.

Five Leadership Quotes For Today

Some of my favorite quotes for leaders are:

• A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit -- Arnold H. Glasgow
• I praise loudly, I blame softly -- Catherine II of Russia
• Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress -- Mohandas Gandhi
• A long dispute means that both parties are wrong -- Voltaire
• The least questioned assumptions are often the most questionable -- Paul Broca

These and many more compelling quotes can be found in Susan H. Shearouse's new book, Conflict 101.

Avoid These Eight Performance Evaluation Pitfalls

Here is a good reminder from author Sharon Armstrong about how to avoid eight performance evaluation pitfalls. These are in what I consider is the best chapter of the book The Essential HR Handbook, that she co-authored with Barbara Mitchell.

1. Clustering everyone in the middle performance-rating categories
2. Overlooking flaws or exaggerating the achievements of favored employees
3. Excusing substandard performance or behavior because it is widespread
4. Letting one characteristic - positive or negative - affect your overall assessment
5. Rating someone based on the company he or she keeps
6. Rating someone based on a grudge you are holding
7. Rating someone based on a short time period instead of the entire evaluation period
8. Rating everyone high, to make you look good

There's other great information in this 250-page book that is valuable for any manager, and especially good for managers who are new in their leadership position.

How To Be A Developing Leader

One of my favorite lessons from the book, The DNA of Leadership, is the importance of being a developing leader.

Developing leaders:

• Create the next generation of leaders
• Are great listeners
• Grow talent by challenging others to take on more than what they think they can do
• Are open, honest and direct
• Model the behavior they want to mentor for others

If you haven't read Judith E. Glaser's book, The DNA of Leadership, give it a read. You won't be disappointed.

Encourage Employees To Learn From Their Mistakes

Mistakes happen. The best thing you can do as a leader is to help your employee learn from his (or her) mistake.

If your employee is afraid of ever making a mistake, he will be paralyzed from taking action or taking even calculated risks. If he knows that mistakes happen in the course of doing business and that one learns from making mistakes, you will have a more productive employee.

Most important, be sure your employee knows that if he makes a mistake, he should let you know as soon as possible.

As soon as he does, quickly rectify the situation.

Then, discuss with him how the mistake happened. Find out what he did or didn't do. Ask him what he thinks he can do in the future to avoid the mistake from happening again. Chances are he has already figured this out. If not, teach him what he needs to do differently to avoid the mistake from reoccurring.

Finally, you may discover that the mistake happened because policies, procedures or your assignment instructions were confusing or unclear. Learn from that discovery and decide what you can do differently as the manager to help your employees avoid future mistakes.

Five Tips For Brainstorming With Your Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you.

Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well.

And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips:

1. Encourage ALL ideas.
2. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested.
3. Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful.
4. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming.
5. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Five Open-Ended Questions To Ask Your Customers

Consider this advice from author Paul R. Timm. He recommends a different twist on asking your customers questions:

• Stop asking your customers the "typical" questions and instead ask them open-ended questions.

Here's specifically what Timm recommends:

Don't Ask:

• How was everything?
• Can I get you something else?
• Did you find everything you need?
• Will that be all?
• Was everything satisfactory?

Instead Ask:

1. What else can I do for you?
2. What else can I get for you?
3. What else can I help you with?
4. What else could we do to better serve you?
5. How else can we be of help?

These open-ended questions will let your customers really express their ideas, opinions and needs. Timm is the author of, 50 Powerful Ideas You Can Use To Keep Your Customers.

Effective Listening Do's And Don'ts

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman's book, The 11 Laws of Likability.  They are all about:

• what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener:

Do:

• Maintain eye contact
• Limit your talking
• Focus on the speaker
• Ask questions
• Manage your emotions
• Listen with your eyes and ears
• Listen for ideas and opportunities
• Remain open to the conversation
• Confirm understanding, paraphrase
• Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile)
• Ignore distractions

Don't:

• Interrupt
• Show signs of impatience
• Judge or argue mentally
• Multitask during a conversation
• Project your ideas
• Think about what to say next
• Have expectations or preconceived ideas
• Become defensive or assume you are being attacked
• Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language
• Listen with biases or closed to new ideas
• Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

What Your Employees Want To Hear You Ask During A Performance Appraisal

Here are five important questions you, as a manager and leader, should ask during employee performance reviews:

1. What have I done to help - or hinder - your job performance?
2. What can I do in the next review period to help you achieve/improve?
3. What conditions here enable you - or make it hard - to do your best work?
4. What do you want most from your job?
5. How can I help you reach your career goals?

I speculate that most employees have never heard most of these questions from their supervisors on a consistent basis during performance reviews.

Thanks to Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell for these questions -- just some of their great advice from their book, The Essential HR Handbook.

How To Be A Humble Leader

From John Blakey's new book, The Trusted Executive, published just a couple weeks ago, here are these four tips from Jim Collins for how to be a humble leader:

• Demonstrate a compelling modesty, shunning public adulation and never be boastful.
• Act with quiet, calm determination and motivate others through inspired standards, not inspiring charisma.
• Channel ambition into the company, not the self, and set up successors for even more greatness in the next generation.
• Look in the mirror, not out of the window, when apportioning responsibility for poor performance.

The Four Things To Ask During An Exit Interview

As a leader, it's critical that you understand the real reasons employees leave your company. To do that, you need to ask specific questions that may not be ones you currently include in your exit interviews.

Fortunately, Richard Finnegan, shares in his book, Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad, four key questions you should include in your exit interviews:

1. Why did you decide to leave us?
2. Of all the things you've told me, what is the top thing that caused you to resign?
3. It's great that you've found such a good opportunity, but why did you look?
4. What one thing could we have done that would have caused you to stay?

Your goal is to learn the most important leave reason rather than learn which three or five things contributed to your employee's decision to leave. The four questions above will help you learn the most important reason.