Linked 2 Leadership

November 2009
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We Created Them… Now What?

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Barb Miller

As I walk the halls of organizations today, I hear comments like:

“They want to be promoted as soon as they arrive!?!?“

“They think they know it all!”

“They have such a sense of entitlement…“

I hear these comments coming from Senior and Boomer managers about Millennials or Gen Y employees.

Leading Across the Generations:

For the first time in history, we now have four generations in the workplace. Today’s four working generations are named Seniors, Boomers, Gen X and Millennials. There has always been a generation gap between groups of people, but now it is more like a chasm. It is ironic that Senior and Boomer managers are complaining about the younger generation because, these are the parents that created them!

I’ll own up to it. I’m a Boomer parent. Many Boomer parents applauded every achievement our kids realized; we gave everyone on the soccer team a trophy. No more MVP players for Millennials, everyone received recognition. As parents, we asked for their ideas around the dining room table; we may even have let them take part in consensus decision-making about issues that affected them. We treated them as adults. One third of Millennials are only children so they grew up in an adult world.

So why are we so surprised when they bring these experiences and expectations into the workplace? We are shocked when they want on-going feedback? We bristle at their sense of self-confidence and self-assurance at such a young age? We resist when they want to be included in decision making. But why are we so confused?

We created them!

Now how do we manage them in the workplace?

Here are some tips for Senior and Boomer leaders to work optimally with Millennials employees:

• Provide On-Going Feedback

This is actually a best practice for all managers so you don’t have to treat Millennials any differently. Millennials are especially open to coaching since they have had a variety of coaches, therapists, tutors and helicopter parents supporting them throughout their short lives. They arrive in the workplace expecting a support system to help them succeed.

• Provide Training

Millennials are enthusiastic learners. Give them as many learning opportunities as possible but avoid the standard classroom approach. Make the training tech-laden, interactive, and fun! Millennials see work as play. Help them enjoy themselves and perhaps you can enjoy yourself along with them!

• Organize Teams

Millennials thrive with social interaction and collaboration. Encourage them to take part in as many teams as possible. They worked in teams during schools so they have more of a collaborative style than their elders who aspire for individual recognition.

• Mentor and Be Mentored

Let Millennials feel they can contribute by having them mentor their elders on technology. In return the elders can mentor the Millennials on understanding the organizational culture and transferring institutional knowledge.

• Be Flexible

This is another managerial best-practice. Since Millennials are so tech savvy, they do not see the need to come to a central office location. They can work and collaborate anywhere, anytime. Millennials also value their personal life and their personal time. This is another reason they crave flexibility. Flexibility is also another important best practice for leaders in the 21st century. Flexibility is one of the primary criteria for placement on one of the Best Places to Work lists: Fortune Magazine and Working Mothers Magazine.

The Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Places to Work and the Working Mother’s Magazine 100 Best Companies reports provide all the data one needs to see that flexibility in workplace environments translated to bottom line results. The top firms listed are not only flexible but these companies also have higher return on investment for their shareholders as reported by the analysts at Russell Investments. Every year Russell analysts compare the performance of a stock portfolio based on the Fortune 100 Best list to other indices.

Russell Investments states “100 Best companies have out-paced the rest of their Russell 1000 brethren in three-year total return by 26 percent.“

Millennials have so much to offer our organizations. They are quick learners and they are innovative. They welcome learning opportunities. They enjoy working in a collaborative environment. They thrive on challenges and want to have stimulating and meaningful jobs. They are more civic-minded. They want to be respected.

Sound familiar… don’t we all seek respect in the workplace?

You and your organization can acquire tremendous benefits from implementing some of these ideas and overcoming the knee jerk reaction to be turned off by people who are different, who show different values and different work styles. Leaders have always been challenged to work with different personality styles or employees who have different needs. Leading across the four generations is just another diversity challenge that requires the implementation of leadership best practices.

Can you step up to the challenge? As the economy improves and you hire more Millennials what will you do to prepare yourself so you are not frustrated by the style differences? How can you use leadership best practices to lead across the generations and meet the diverse needs of each generation? Would your company welcome a 26% ROI increase?

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Barbara Miller is Managing Director of Artemis Management Consultants
She can be reached at bmiller@artemismanagement.com

Image Sources: tvsa.co.za, unr.edu, imgsgssl.jobing.com

Filed under: Coaching Corner, Future Leadership Issues, Leadership Lessons Learned, Life Balance | Tagged: Attitude, Coaching, leadership, leadership skills, teamwork, work life balance | Leave a Comment »

Leadership Leaderboard: What If Leaders Were Ranked?

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Eleanor Biddulph

Leadership Leaderboard

It seems our society has a tendency to rank nearly everything. Here are just a few to help make the point:

The 100 best companies to work for are ranked by Fortune Magazine
America votes…and ranks American Idol contestants
Consumer Reports rates many products we all buy
Television shows are ranked by Nielson Media Research
Each year, U.S. News and World Report ranks the best colleges

Keep this in mind as you go through your day; how many other examples do you see?

Try to observe your own behavior in response to these rankings. Are you influenced by them? Do you buy books based on the N.Y. Times Best Seller list? When you travel, do you choose a restaurant by Zagat’s? Do rating systems cause you to make certain decisions or adopt certain behaviors?

Imagine if workplace leaders were ranked in a similar manner.

What types of things would be considered to create the ranking? I am not sure how they would be measured or weighted, but here are some suggestions to consider:

Ability to influence action
Impact on team morale
Leads with compassion
Spends time in service to others
Makes the tough decisions
Develops other leaders

Leadership Rankings in Sports

I thought about this as I read the udpated BCS rankings earlier this week. Locally here in central Ohio, we had a big game recently as Ohio State played at Penn State. Going into the game, OSU was ranked #16 and PSU was ranked #11.

Ohio State won the game, beating Penn State 24-7. Just that one game had a significant impact on the BCS ratings. Today, OSU jumped up five spots to #11 and PSU fell seven spots to #18.

I wonder how we would fare if leaders were ranked weekly based on their most recent performance.

Imagine being held accountable by such a system?

Can’t persuade your team to get on the same page – move down a spot
Spend time on the floor getting to know your people – move up three spots
Fail to listen as an employee tries to share a health challenge – move down five spots
Too tired to serve and spend more time in your office – move down three spots
Offer career counseling to and up-and-comer on your team – move up three spots

You get the point, I’m sure.

Would a weekly rating change your behavior? Would it shift your priorities? What if your employees voted on your leadership each week? Where would you rank in the “Leadership Top 25″ at your workplace?

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Eleanor Biddulph is the Executive Vice President of Client Services at Progressive Medical, Inc.
She can be reached at eleanor.biddulph@progressive-medical.com

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Filed under: Leadership Assessments, Organizational Health, Professional Growth | Tagged: Attitude, leadership skills, motivation, Organizational Health, soft skills | 6 Comments »

Managing Mondays: “HELP! I’m Buried Under Here!”

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Jason Christensen

Do you ever feel like you are getting buried under a ton of bricks by your work? Does it feel like you are unable to breathe? And no matter what you do you will never seem to catch up with your workload? Well join the club; the club of millions of people across the globe fortunate enough to be employed in this age of cutbacks and layoffs.

With cutbacks and downsizing at organizations, there is more work to do for the people still working there. Everyone is taking on heavier and heavier loads, bearing more weight for the company. And you’ll do it without a flinch or the bat of the eye, after all look at your alternative – unemployment! You may be only one person around to complete all the tasks, but you need to learn to cope and to manage yourself as a more productive and effective employee. You will be pleased with yourself when you do. But you might ask, what is the first step I take to get out from this overload of tasks? How do I begin> What can I do…I feel overwhelmed…

Prioritizing can help!

This is one of those times where you need to spend a little time to save yourself even more time. Start by writing down each item on your to do list. It’s okay if you fill up the whole page, just invest in getting your list written down no matter how big or small. Next, label each item prioritizing it as an A, B or C item.

A = Item which is urgent in respect to time. No matter the importance it needs to be done right away.
B = Item of importance and somewhat time sensitive, but not with an immediate need.
C = Item which is not urgent or does not have a time line.

Once you have each item prioritized, you have done the hard part. Your path to success is clear.

Start with the A items, work through each task, move to the B items, complete each task and eventually move on to the C items completely clearing your list. Well maybe not. You see, it is not likely your list will ever be clear on any given day. It is likely you will continually be adding new items to your list which is why you will need to re-prioritize as new tasks come in. Each task will vary in importance, so be flexible with your priorities. Allow new projects to take precedence when need be.

As times passes, items which are lower on the list often increase in priority. Something which was not important last week could take precedence today; so it is important to review your list daily.

“As new items keep piling up taking precedence; when will you ever get to those C items?” Great question.

A and B items can often take much time and concentration, but if you use your time wisely, you will find time to complete all your tasks. First take a good look at those C items determining if they are really something you need to get done or are they non-productive filler items which can be scratched off your list. Next, take a look at your schedule to find bits of time where you will not be able to focus accurately on the important A or B tasks; this could be on the seat of airplane, on the commute into work or while waiting for an appointment; no matter the case, use this time to knock out a few of those C items. It could be a phone call or quick email. Either way, use this gray time do what you can to complete a few C items.

Fighting Fires

What if you have multiple high priority items needing completion right away? Take a look at each item determining which item is most important or urgent. If you come across a hard decision it becomes a judgment call. No one knows your job better than you so make the call. If you are not confident in your ability to do this, contact your manager, present them with the conflict, offer potential solutions, and then ask for help, guidance, or opinion.

When you are feeling buried alive remember to ask yourself what is important, prioritize it and carry out your goals one by one.

Are there other things you can prioritize in your life?

What other methods do you use to get yourself out from under the workload?

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Jason Christensen is National Accounts Manager for The Stanley Works.
He can be reached at jasonchristensen_blog@yahoo.com

Image Sources: topschoolfundraisers.com, languagesafari.com, utvet.com

Filed under: Leadership Lessons Learned, Life Balance, Practical Steps to Influence, Professional Growth | Tagged: business, Coaching, effectiveness, leadership, Management, organization, planning, prioritizing, productivity, Time Management | Leave a Comment »

In Defense of Negativity

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Jennifer Werth

There’s good reason to not feel so positive these days.

============================================

war in Afghanistan

nuclear threats swine flu

market crash global warming injustice

housing foreclosure crisis

downsizing selfish leaders demanding customers

low sales high unemployment

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Events, attitudes, and circumstances can throw us for a loop. How we react to these things can be based on fear, experience, upbringing, our values, understanding, and openness to change. We can react negatively in spite of our age and all the self-help books we’ve read.

We have good reason. Negativity is akin to grieving.

Why not be a sourpuss? You can share with the world your anger by wearing a frown on your face, ignoring people you work with, being snappy with answers to questions, being incredibly aloof, only giving out small tidbits of information but not all the information your coworkers need to do their jobs well…

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What else can you think of?

Perhaps you could also rally resentment against a manager by quietly questioning their whereabouts when absent from the office. This is especially effective when you know the manager is at a legitimate meeting, but no one else does. You could undermine the manager’s leadership when they have delegated something by going to that person and asking any series of questions such as:

“Why doesn’t he do it?”

“Does he even know how this is supposed to work?”

Or better: “That’s not appropriate.”

One could make a new employee that they resent feel this negativity vibe in a variety of vibrant ways.

Perhaps one could make them:
Not be a part of a new hiring initiative
Feel incredibly unwelcome through the silent treatment
Withhold information from them
Point out superficial, made-up, or exaggerated faults about them to fellow colleagues.

(Negativity Tip: This last idea is best executed in small huddled groups where upon seeing the new person coming across you in the hallway or break-room, you immediately stop talking and remain silent until the person passes. Hehehe…It’s a blast!)

Denying critical elements that a new employee needs to do their work is also an excellent negativity tool to wield. Examples of this could be falsifying customer deadlines, withholding an office key, or forgetting to convey important messages. This type of anger transfer is especially useful in spreading negativity when the new person has nothing to do with why you are angry, hurt, or unappreciated. The effectiveness of this negativity is wonderful because the poor sap never sees it coming and will be completely blindsided by the treatment.

But why go to all that bother?

Wouldn’t all this bad behavior only drain energy from you? What good could come of it? If you find that you’re not able to accept new direction or effect change in your workplace positively through collaborative healthy means, perhaps a job change is better for everyone, especially you.

The difficulty in negative behavior is that it rubs off. Like it or not, we tend to learn and mirror patterns we witness in others. Negativity is best tackled quickly.

Luckily, good leaders know this too. They know how to ignore petty negative passive outbursts and when to step in. They understand that learning the root of the anger will help bring resolution quicker moving everyone forward. Establishing trust and creating an environment where a negative employee can open up and start to describe what is wrong in a one-on-one environment can lead to mutual understanding and positive change in how you work together. Long term everyone benefits, even if this employee chooses to leave the company.

How have you tamed a bad seed?

What tools do you use to help your teammates shine?

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Jennifer Werth runs a lean process development & training organization.
She can be reched at jennifer@werthexpertise.com and through her blog.

Image Source: spacetricot.com

Filed under: Leadership Lessons Learned | Tagged: communication, leadership, negativity, office bully, resolution, trust | 6 Comments »

One Wedding…Four Funerals!

Posted on November 5, 2009 by John Lovig

When I was 16 I had the opportunity to work for a florist, one of the oldest businesses in town. Three of the twenty-something employees were family members, with the rest being hired help. It did not take me very long to discover that family businesses were more complex than one would care to think.

My manager (also part owner) was a generous person and cared deeply for his customers, however, he had a propensity for yelling. He would yell at his sister and uncle, who both worked there. He would yell at them in front of other employees, he would yell at them in front of customers. He was good at yelling.

He would yell at employees and, believe it or not, sometimes even customers! Yep, his temper would make Steve Jobs look like a cuddly kitten. One would think this behavior is enough to derail most employees. But why would he do this? What was his deal?

But Why?

As a young person entering the workforce, I was puzzled about why yelling was part of a business structure. To me it seemed odd that something so destructive would be part of operating a business. It wasn’t until I began my studies in psychology that I could actually label this phenomena. My manager probably had a low emotional intelligence quotient. There were a number of issues that arose from his actions:

He evoked negative emotional responses from his family, his employees and his customers
There was a high rate of turnover
He had a fairly negative reputation around town

and worst of all…

No one cared about his success or that of his business

Some may say, “Well John, he happens to be in business for himself, its not like he was selected by someone to do the job“. I would agree with almost anyone on that topic, but there is a mirror in business. And this is important to understand if you are leading people in any type of environment.

Many times organizations promote employees who are subject matter experts or who have strong technical skills. These employees may or may not be fit to lead others. They may lack much in the way of conveying vision, implementing strategy, or being able to work with or even motivate others. Being the one to promote another into a leadership role, one must be careful to assess these leadership abilities in the candidates they are looking to fill an important role. From my experience at the floral shop, I would certainly vote for assessing candidates for their emotional intelligence.

There are many ways to assess an employee’s emotional intelligence. It may not be the only consideration when choosing to fill a leadership role, but it certainly is very important if the organization values efficiency and productivity.

Managed to Fail. Failed to Lead.

My boss failed to lead his employees. Many times he managed to alienate them and certainly kept people edgy in an already stressful business. Employees had to already worry about making floral arrangements for the important life events of their customers, or having to take orders from a grieving family. The last thing they needed was an angry tyrant ready to yell and belittle them at the drop of a hat.

My time working for the florist was one of mixed feelings for me. I found personal satisfaction in providing a high level of customer service, but was always fearful to displease my employer. Ultimately, I stay grateful for my time and experiences there. I learned much and it helped fashion me into who I am today. If it weren’t for my boss, I doubt I would be so attuned to the implications that emotional intelligence may have for leadership effectiveness.

Do you or someone else around you tend to lose their temper with your employees? What does that do to the working environment? How important is it to focus on the human side of management? How emotionally intelligent are your leaders? Does your organizational assess leaders for emotional intelligence? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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John Lovig is an HRIS Analyst at Yale University.
He can be reached at johnlovig@gmail.com

Image Source: alanphoto1.com, realityupgrade.com

Filed under: Leadership Assessments, Leadership Lessons Learned, Organizational Health | Tagged: business, emotional intelligence, Family Owned Businesses, Management | Leave a Comment »

Take These TIPS to Heart To Be an Extraordinary Leader

Posted on November 4, 2009 by David Hasenbalg

Did you ever just have to get it off your chest?

Recently I was having a detailed, rational, intelligent conversation with a colleague about leadership. Okay, to be honest, it was really more of a b*t<h session about their boss. But isn’t that the way that leadership is really evaluated in the proverbial trenches? People will talk about their leaders with friends, co-workers, family, pretty much anyone who will listen. It’s one thing to be talked about. There is nothing you can do about it; it’s inevitable. It’s another thing entirely to be b*t<hed about. I believe that leaders can control whether or not their people take complaints to this level.

Believe me, this was a true b*t<h session.

In this conversation, the main complaint was that the people who worked for the leader in question were constantly caught off guard. They didn’t know from one day to the next or one situation to the next exactly how the boss was going to react. It created an environment of unpredictability. This unpredictability led to unproductive behaviors, like always having to “CYA” (cover your actions).

Why is it that some leaders, whether consciously or inadvertently, foster an environment where your people really don’t know what to expect from you?

I was able to share with my colleague a lesson I learned as a young U.S. Army officer.

The commanding general of one of the posts where I was stationed in the early 1990s was Major General Thomas A. Schwartz. (He subsequently went from wearing those two stars to four stars.) Shortly after taking command of the division he shared a leadership technique with all of the officers on the post that I have taken with me and still use to this day.

Just remember the acronym T.I.P.S. I will paraphrase here and embellish the key points.

T.I.P.S.

Talk to your people

Keep them Informed

Be Predictable

Be Sensitive to their individual needs

Talk to your people. Find out what is really happening. You can’t learn much of anything if you aren’t talking to the people you are trying to lead. More important than just talking is listening to what they are saying. That is why God gave you two ears and one mouth. You are supposed to listen twice as much as you speak.

Keep them Informed. Let your people know what is happening. Let them know what you think. Admit to them the things that you don’t know. You may be surprised how much mileage this will get you with your people.

Be Predictable. Don’t make them guess. If they don’t know what to expect from you, they won’t trust you. If they won’t trust you, they won’t follow you. And, if they won’t follow you, then you can’t lead them. If that happens, you are no longer a leader but, rather, a box on the org chart.

Be Sensitive to their individual needs. Contrary to what some people may think, leadership is not a “one size fits all” model. The leader who interacts with everyone exactly the same is guaranteed to mis-communicate with 75% of their people. Take a minute to understand what drives your people, what they respond to, and how best to utilize their talents and abilities.

Thanks to General Schwartz for sharing this leadership model. I hope you can use this model to improve your own leadership style.

What are you doing to make sure that you are communicating effectively with ALL of your followers? Are you using these same techniques with your boss(es) and peers? What sort of feedback mechanism do you have in place to insure that you are hitting the mark as an effective communicator? Let me know how it works for you. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Dave Hasenbalg is Chief Operating Officer of Customized Solutions, LLC and does coaching and public speaking on Leadership and Operational Excellence.
He can be reached at dhasenbalg@customized-solutions.com

Image Sources: ninthsplace.blogspot.com, bluurb.files.wordpress.com

Filed under: Leadership Lessons Learned, Practical Steps to Influence, Servant Leadership | Tagged: Attitude, communication, emotional intelligence, Inspiration, leadership, Leadership Development, leadership skills, motivation, Self-development, servant leader | 1 Comment »

Foot In Mouth Disease

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Joy Griffiths

Have you ever had one of those moments when you said something that seemed perfectly reasonable inside your head, but the minute it came out of your mouth you wanted to fire your scriptwriter…?

Recently I was very fortunate to attend a workshop run by Clive Gott for people with an interest in professional speaking. Clive is entertaining and inspiring, liberally using humour throughout his many stories with authenticity and integrity. Like me, Clive is from the northern part of England, where we tend to tell it like it really is – so he really was speaking my language. (That said, we also know when to do subtlety, tact and diplomacy, especially in a professional setting, but I digress…)

The Workshop

“It’s not all foot lights and fat fees practical day” was the working title for the workshop, so not a training course as such, but with Clive’s gift for laughter and story telling it promised to be a great day, filled with fun and insight.

In his informal and open style, Clive simply shared with us how he does presentations, the mistakes he has made in the past, and the lessons learned as he celebrates 10 years as an inspirational speaker. He really is excellent at what he does.

The session started traditionally enough with each delegate introducing themselves – name, business we’re in, what we were looking for from the day, the usual sort of thing. This would be a seemingly easy thing to do. A simple task you would think, unless you were suffering from acute FIMD (Foot in Mouth Disease), an embarrassing but non-contagious condition which I had apparently contracted driving up the motorway that morning.

So, when it was my turn to introduce myself and make a great impact on the group, all I could get to come out of my mouth was this:

“Hi, I’m Joy Griffiths, my company is Joyous Solutions and I help people to reach their goals faster….”

The Doctor’s Diagnosis

So how did my introduction go? How was it received? Clive was not impressed. He quickly pointed out that this is such a well-worn and hackneyed phrase that it really doesn’t do it in today’s competitive marketplace. It was clear that I was under the weather with FIMD.

Of course he was right, I was totally lackluster and missed the mark with my introduction exercise (…but in my defense, I can only say that it didn’t sound anything like that in my head before I opened my mouth….) My sickness defeated my open slavo.

The Patient’s Response

In a previous life, I might have taken Clive’s challenge very personally. I would have felt self-conscious and would have been trying to decide what went wrong. I would be running my “debut” over and over in my head, wanting to run out of the room immediately and go home to hide.

“How dare he say that?” I would think. ” What right had he to make me feel bad?“

I was taken aback for a few moments with his critical comments. I felt very bad about what I had said and the “judgmental” comments coming from someone I admired. But rather than dwell in doubt, fear, or self-pity, I took the time to reframe what I was thinking long enough to distance myself from the words and really consider what was going on here.

I thought to myself “But I’m a big girl now, right? Why should he not challenge me when he knows it is for my benefit? Did he really make me feel bad – or did I do that to myself?

Objective Information

What was the intent behind Clive’s comments – was he saying these things to deliberately hurt me? Absolutely not. His intention was to help me improve my marketing messages by providing objective information to me. In recognising this as constructive criticism, I could let it go of the negative feelings that I generated. I could be liberated to really be present for the rest of the session. I won the internal battle and was able to continue enjoying the group interactions.

I was able to get over my feeling by employing some things I have learned about communication performance. Some of you (especially the NLP buffs) will recognise:

The meaning of a communication is determined by the response you get

There is no failure, only feedback

These days I have the resources to really consider the actual words I used and how I could have delivered a better message. Instead of getting upset about saying “the wrong thing” I chose to consider what exactly I could learn about improving my own communications to get responses that are closer to my expectations and desires.

Language is extremely potent. It has the power to create within us truly wonderful or dreadfully awful feelings. Language is capable of making our spirits soar up to the heavens, or plummet our psyches in flames to the ground.

These feelings can lead us to show useful (good, positive) - or less useful (bad, negative) – behaviours. In our personal lives this can make or break relationships. The same can be true in our professional lives. As leaders we surely aspire to creating positive cultures and outcomes.

Can you think of a time when a leader you know created good or bad situations by the language they used? How did this impact the culture? Can you think of a time when your words didn’t get the response you expected from somebody? What could you have said differently? And when you get it absolutely right, can you duplicate that formula in the future? How have you overcome the dreaded Foot In Mouth Disease? I would love to hear your stories!

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Joy Griffiths is Director of Joyous Solutions Ltd.
She can be reached at joy@joyous-solutions.co.uk

Image Sources: girlofwords.com, rlv.zcache.com

Filed under: Coaching Corner, Leadership Lessons Learned, Life Balance, Organizational Health, Practical Steps to Influence, Professional Growth, Servant Leadership | Tagged: Attitude, business, Coaching, communication, executive coaching, executive development, leadership, Leadership Development, leadership skills, leadershipdevelopment, leadhership, Lessons Learned, Linked 2 Leadership, Linked2Leadership, Management, Organizational Health, Self-development | Leave a Comment »

Always a Bridesmaid…

Posted on November 2, 2009 by George Brymer

In the early half of the twentieth century, the makers of Listerine had a problem. Their amber-colored concoction tasted terribly (a competitor would later use the euphemism “medicine-y” to describe its unpleasant flavor). How, company officials wondered, could they possibly convince consumers to purchase such a foul-tasting mouthwash?

Fortunately for Listerine’s future, its marketers understood our innate human tendency to focus on negative information. Hence, the company invented a forbidding-sounding condition they named halitosis—better known today as bad breath—and ran advertisements aimed at convincing the American public of its social consequences.

In one memorable Listerine print ad that appeared in the 1920s, copywriters recounted the tragic circumstances of “Pathetic Edna.” Readers were expected to consider Edna’s story sad because of her marital status: she was, after all, nearly 30 years old and still unmarried. What’s more, because of her halitosis, Edna had to be content being “a bridesmaid but never a bride.”

Thanks to Edna’s unenviable saga—and an intrinsic propensity researchers now call negativity bias—sales of Listerine soared from $100,000 in 1921 to over $4 million in 1927.

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Negativity Bias

In 1998, John Cacioppo led research at Ohio State University testing the hypothesis that negative information stimulates our brains more than positive stimuli does. Cacioppo showed college students a series of photographs expected to arouse positive, negative, or neutral feelings. Using EEGs to monitor electrical movement in his subjects’ brains, Cavioppo found greater electrical activity occurred during those moments when students viewed pictures inducing negative thoughts.

Simply put, we have a negativity bias.

Negativity bias is tied to our inherent response system that prepares us to fight or flee whenever danger is apparent. That explains why employees pay closer attention to negative information they garner from coworkers than they do good news delivered by the boss. The boss said we’re getting raises, but I hear they won’t be as big as last year.

Therefore, rather than a characteristic of problem employees—or a symptom of poor leadership—negativity is human nature at work.

Can understanding negativity bias help you lead your employees? I think so. For example, you can use negativity bias when trying to drive change. Instead of reciting the positive selling points of the change you’re making (“The new timekeeping system will streamline payroll processing…”), point out the negative pitfalls of maintaining the status quo (“The current payroll system is so unreliable, I’m afraid we might not get paychecks produced on time someday…). No paychecks? Now that’s pathetic.

Don’t let negativity at work leave a bad taste in your mouth. Make it work for you.

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George Brymer is author of Vital Integrities and the creator of The Leading from the Heart Workshop®.
He can be reached at george.brymer@allsquareinc.com

Image Sources: whatwegrow.blogspot.com, nzgirl.co.nz

Filed under: Coaching Corner, Leadership Lessons Learned, Organizational Health, Practical Steps to Influence | Tagged: business, Coaching, communication, leadership, Leadership vs. Management, Lessons Learned, Management, Talent Management | Leave a Comment »

Managing Your Stress

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Bryan Gilman

2009 has been a very stressful year for the workforce, from the front line worker up through the highest executive. So how do you manage your stress?

A certain amount of stress can enhance your job performance, which allows us to perform at the top of our game. On the flip side, too much stress can be harmful.

Good for Me, or Bad?

Recently Judith Ross from Harvard Business Publishing wrote an article on “How to Manage Your Stress Level”, which took a close look at the relationship between stress and performance. The result was that “as stress goes up, so do efficiency and performance. However, once stress exceeds a certain level, they noted, its benefits disappear and performance declines. Mental flexibility, concentration, and mood all take a hit.”

In the book “Today Matters” John Maxwell talks about the 12 daily practices for success. John discusses how you can make each day a masterpiece by practicing these daily dozens.

Attitude Finances

Priorities Faith

Health Relationships

Family Generosity

Thinking Values

Commitment Growth

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By focusing in on these 12 items everyday you will be balanced in your work and thus reducing the unneeded stress.

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In my case, I had done a good job with all of these habits except for my health. For years I had lead large growing IT organizations while at the same time flipping houses on the weekends, leaving very little time for my health.

When I got laid-off, I began to focus on my health. This ultimately had the biggest impact on my stress level, positively affecting my heart, mind and spirit. I had to come to the conclusion that I needed to spend my time doing things that would serve my future.

Here some things you might need to focus on to help reduce stress:

Assess your stress level stamina

Find your pace at work

Get enough sleep

Eat healthy

Work out

Get enough sleep

Laugh more

What are you doing to assess your stress level at home, at work, and in between? How are you quantifying the toll it is taking on your work, your relationships, your performance, and your health? How are you managing your “daily dozen” to improve your day-by-day performance and you overall satisfaction in life? I would love to hear your story, so please reply!

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Bryan Gillman is Director of Branch Operations at NextGen Information Services.
He can be reached at bryang@nextgen-is.com

Image Sources: mom-goals.com, health.infoniac.com

Filed under: Leadership Lessons Learned, Life Balance, Servant Leadership | Tagged: courage, leadership, Management, Self-development, Stress Management, work life balance | Leave a Comment »

Just Do It, Just Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Nicole Gnutzman

The culture in America values action over almost everything else. Our desire here to do something, sometimes anything, is strong. Of course, this can be a huge strength, but it can also get us into trouble. And when we get into trouble and don’t get the results we want, we rarely wonder why; instead we blame external forces (someone or something else) and “keep on trucking,” as they say.

Look Before You Leap

To reflect before acting is also an action. I’m not talking about “analysis paralysis” here, but rather understanding how things fit together and affect each another in this interconnected world of ours before taking action. Without that clear understanding, we impatiently rush ahead and either come face to face with what Peter Senge, and other systems thinkers, call unintended consequences (and wonder why) or we come to the abrupt realization (when it really matters) that we don’t have what we need (whether that’s the right resources or commitment) to get results. And this sets us back if we’re lucky, temporarily, and if we’re not, irrevocably. And it just doesn’t have to be that way.

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Don’t just stand there; do something.” Well, perhaps it’s time to turn that around to “Don’t just do something, stand there.” And, perhaps, as Peter Vajda, author, coach and co-founder of SpiritHeart, contends, it’s really just a question of patience.

Impatience “causes us to spend inordinate amounts of time working and re-doing what we did when we were impatient,” which leads to anxiety and stress.

But patience, in this world dominated by action, only makes good sense when it’s accompanied by results. By making a small upfront investment in reflecting on the consequences of your actions before acting, you can save frustration, anxiety, and stress for yourself, and avoid huge setbacks, redo’s, and added (unplanned) costs in your organization.

Results naturally come with this kind of thinking ahead.

Taking the time to make that small upfront investment involves thinking through the implications of your actions first, and I mean really thinking them through:

Think about how each thing you do, and each thing you ask others to do, will impact your staff, your stakeholders, management, and others on the impact path (and, if you don’t know or aren’t sure, ask others)
Run your ideas out to their logical conclusion over time, and then decide which action benefits not just you, but the organization
And then share with everyone impacted by your decision how you got there so they can see what you see and understand where you’re coming from

When you do that, when you take that reflective action, when others see that you are thinking about the impact of your actions and about what’s good the whole of the organization, you’ll be pleasantly surprised just how effortlessly you will achieve the results you want when you most need them.

Have you ever gotten so caught up in just doing something that you ended up somewhere other than where you intended? When unintended consequences happen do you take the time to reflect on why? Have you achieved better results when you’ve thought through the implications of your decisions? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this.

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Nicole Gnutzman, Principal at Innate Strategies & workshop leader of Effortless Leadership.
She can be reached at nicole@innatestrategies.com

Image source: meetforeal.com, angelfire.com

Filed under: Leadership Lessons Learned, Leadership vs. Management, Life Balance, Practical Steps to Influence, Servant Leadership | Tagged: Analysis Paralysis, Anxiety, Decision, emotional intelligence, Ethics, Impact Path, Implications, Leadership Development, leadership skills, Leadership vs. Management, Lessons Learned, Patience, Reflection, Reflective Action, results, Self-development, Servant Leadership, stress, Stress Management, Unintended Consequences | 1 Comment »