Leading people

Building Trust In Teams

Why Should You Care About Building Trust in Teams

High Trust teams focus their energies on important issues and business deliverables.
Focus on the important issues minimizes attention paid to organizational politics and other impediments to getting things done.
High trust teams deliver better solutions.
Building Trust in Teams leads to higher employee satisfaction and retention

Signs Your Team is Suffering From a Lack of Trust

Team members hide their weaknesses and mistakes.
Team members don’t ask for help.
They won’t provide constructive feedback.
Jump to negative conclusions about the intentions or competence of others.
Hold grudges and are generally uncooperative.
Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together.

Steps to Building Trust in Teams

Leadershipis the key to Building Trust in Teams. As the leader, there are three necessary ingredients when you are Building Trust in Teams:
- Competency – As the leader you must have minimum level of competence in the discipline your team is working in.
- Intention – The leader must take the time and effort to lead.
- Relationships – Business is a contact sport, and relationships with team members is critical. This does not mean that the leader has to be best friends with each of her people, but it does mean she needs to make an effort to
Clear Focus. Teams with a high level of trust are those that have a simple, well understood goal that team members coalesce around, and work hard to achieve.
Mutual Accountability. Building Trust in Teams means that individual accountability is in place. The strongest teams are made up of individual members that don’t want to let each other down.

3 Things to Remember About Building Trust in Teams

They have to trust you first. As the leader you need to earn trust in your people.
Recognize the signs of mistrust and deal with them. If you suspect there are trust issues amongst your team, you need to act quickly.
Building Trust in Teams requires clear expectations for the team and team members.

How to Destroy Trust and Alienate People

There are certain things I trust. I trust the sun to rise in the morning. I trust the lady who does my dry cleaning to always wish me a “more-nice day”. I trust that Justin Beiber is past his 15 minutes. I also trust that the word “trust” is a loaded word.

Often, people think that the only way to lose or violate trust is to do something very clearly wrong or dishonest. It is actually much easier than that to destroy trust. Trust is quite simply, managing expectations in others, and then delivering on those expectations.

This is how it goes horribly wrong for politicians – large segments of the population demand that politicians lie to them during a campaign. Any political candidate that dare speak an uncomfortable truth, will be marginalized immediately. Then once elected, the disconnect between the expectations that have been set, and those that are delivered becomes patently obvious, and the public feels betrayed.

Just so you don’t end up being viewed like a politician, here are five ways to quickly destroy trust:

Say one thing and do another. Much like the politician above, this is the fastest way to ensure that no one will trust you.

Try to please all the people all the time. Life is a series of trade-offs – particularly for people in positions of leadership. As a leader, there should be some contingent of your followers that should be marginally pissed-off at all times – because it is impossible to keep everybody happy.

Pander to your audience. Targeting whomever you are communicating to is a good idea. However, if you find yourself targeting to such a degree that your message is fundamentally different amongst different stakeholders, you’re going to alienate someone (if not everyone).

Fail to tackle difficult issues. Every leader bears the burden of dealing with difficult issues. They will not magically disappear or solve themselves – in fact, an issue ignored is most often one that grows out of control.

Under-value giving credit, and over-value assigning blame. Leaders need to be humble – give away credit when things go well, and step up and accept more than your share of blame when things go poorly. You gain a whole bunch of trust by doing so.

5 Reasons Performance Reviews Suck

In the past fifteen years, I’ve been in and out of dozens of organizations, all of which had some process for conducting Performance Reviews. Of all of them, only one organization did them consistently, and did them well. The rest of them conducted performance reviews that ranged between ineffective, and highly offensive.

This got me to thinking what all these organizations have in common when it comes to Performance Reviews, so here are the top five (of several dozen) reasons why Performance Reviews usually suck:

1) Everybody wants more feedback – as long as it’s good. Yep… as much as your Gen Y types tell you they crave feedback, they really only want it if it confirms their worldview that they are beyond fantastic. Any suggestions for improvement are usually met with a thud. It is only the most elite of corporate cultures that have overcome this aspect of human nature. These organizations train and encourage people to constantly seek out feedback that will make them better – which sometimes requires facing up to the fact you don’t do some things well.

2) Performance Reviews are non-specific. They often contain broad sweeping statements about someone being “good with customers”, or “needing improvement on follow through”. These observations are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. If it’s not specific, don’t bother. Bring data or specific behavioral observations.

3) People are too polite. Most supervisors hate performance reviews more than the employees. So they try to get through them as quickly as possible, without hurting anyone’s feelings. Great organizations, and great leaders use performance appraisals as catalyst for improvement. This actually requires giving people feedback on how they can improve – rather than just trying to keep the peace.

4) Performance reviews are structured too much like report cards. If the performance review is simply “the year in review” without any mention of the future, or developmental opportunities, then it is a waste of time. Even more of a waste of time is a 4 or 5 point rating system that employees are graded on with little thought or explanation. No wonder people hate them.

5) They are disconnected with what people do every day. The big problem with performance reviews is that they are designed by HR people, or external consultants who have absolutely no idea what people in a particular role do everyday. Hence people are assessed on things they rarely or never do, and the bulk of their efforts are not captured by the criteria or format used.

Employees don’t have any accountability for the Performance Review process. OK… I said five reasons, so this one is a bonus. In most organizations, the employee merely shows up for a performance review meeting, having lent no thought or effort to outcome. Great organizations and great managers insist that employees complete some form of self-assessment in advance of the meeting so that the success of the process is shared.

Conducting a Mid Year Performance Review

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Why Conduct a Mid Year Performance Review?

Most organizations set their objectives at the beginning of the year, but much can change in six months time. You need to keep objectives aligned with business changes.
The Mid Year Performance Review acts as a formal “check in” with the employee. If you are only formally reviewing performance at the end of the year, you run the risk of surprising the employee with a poor review. A Mid Year Performance Review gives the employee the opportunity to take corrective action before the formal end of year review.
It can solidify the actions you need the employee to take for the balance of the year. It is an excellent opportunity to clarify and review specific goals and actions to be achieved by the end of the year.

Steps to Conducting a Mid Year Performance Review

Employee provides self-assessment. Employees should have as much responsibility in the performance review process as the supervisor does. The best way to ensure this accountability is shared is to insist that the employee conducts his/her own self-assessment using the same criteria and format as the supervisor will to assess performance. The differences between ratings provides a fertile ground for discussion.
Manager collects performance data and feedback. The manager should use data wherever possible, and at the very least list specific behavioral examples. To use vague or non-specific statements when assessing performance is neither professional, nor useful.
Review assessment and write review. Review the employee’s self-assessment, and write your own review as to the employee’s performance. Incorporate all the data and examples you gathered in step 2, above.
Conduct the Mid-Year Performance Review discussion. After both employee and supervisor have done their preparation, they need to meet to formally discuss performance.

The Mid Year Performance Review Discussion

This is the most important aspect of the Mid Year Performance Review.
Conduct a quick retention interview along with the performance discussion. For example, you may simply want to ask how the employee perceives his/her work environment, and how challenged and satisfied they feel working there. Too often, organizations wait until the Exit Interview to gather this feedback.
The employee should be given the opportunity to describe their deliverables against each objective and other projects. They should be able to articulate what they’ve done in the first half of the year, and how that has contributed to their stated goals and objectives.
During the Mid Year Performance Review meeting, discuss feedback grounded in multiple perspectives from the organization. In other words, how are the efforts of this employee important to the larger organization.
Ensure that key priorities are clear, and alignment is obtained on balance of year objectives. This is an opportunity for both the employee and the supervisor to discuss changes or “course corrections” to ensure the employee is successful for her end of year review.

Three Things to Remember about Mid Year Performance Reviews

This is a listening exercise for the supervisor. Listen carefully to both the content and context of the message being delivered.
Be candid and balanced in your feedback. Both parties will get much more out of the discussion if they are honest and forthright with each other. Being too polite will not drive performance. Nor will berating and humiliating the employee.
Clarify how you will support the employee. It is important for the supervisor to commit to what she will do to enable the success of the employee.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Conducting a Mid Year Performance Review (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

How to Set Goals and Objectives

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Below we discuss the following aspects of How to Set Goals and Objectives:

Goals and Objectives in the larger context of Performance Management
Why managers should bother with Goals and Objectives
Three Steps on how to Set Goals and Objectives

How to Set Goals and Objectives in the Larger Context of Managing Performance:

Every organization should have an infrastructure for managing employee performance. Below is a simple model that shows how to Set Goals and Objectives in a broader context:

Goals Versus Objectives:

There are many different definitions of “Goals” and “Objectives”. Here is how we delineate the two:

Goals are higher level than objectives
Goals have longer time frames than objectives
Objectives are more specific than goals
Several objectives may contribute toward a single goal.

Why Bother to Set Goals and Objectives

To Set Goals and Objectives closes the gap between Strategy and Execution. Goals and objectives are needed to translate high-level strategies into more manageable behaviours that need to occur on a daily basis.
Without well-written goals and objectives, evaluating performance becomes unnecessarily more difficult. Goals and objectives translate into tangible actions that are observable and often measureable.
Setting Goals and Objectives drives focus and alignment through the organization. When Goals and Objectives are clear, and cascade through an organization, alignment is assured.
By setting Goals and Objectives, you help define and drive performance.
Goals and Objectives clarify the employee’s priorities and allow them to allocate their time and resources effectively.

Cascading Goals and Objectives

When you set Goals and Objectives, you need to ensure alignment between different levels of the organization. Starting at the most basic functions of a company, the Goals and Objectives must contribute or “roll up” to the Goals and Objectives of the next level up in the organization. In situations where there are many layers, this alignment must be carried on until the very highest level of the organization.

Three Steps to Set Goals and Objectives:

Align the organization’s and team goals. Regardless of where you are in an organization’s hierarchy, you need to look above you, and ensure that you understand those higher-level goals, and ensure your goals will contribute to those.
Draft your goals and objectives. After you’ve looked up the hierarchy, sit down with your team and draft your team objectives, and personal goals and objectives accordingly.
Meet to discuss and finalize. You need to meet with your boss to discuss and finalize your Goals and Objectives. You then need to meet with your team to ensure that all Goals and Objectives are fully aligned.

Drafting Clear Goals and Objectives

The SMART acronym is instructional when refining Goals and Objectives:

Specific: Well written Goals and Objectives state a clear end result. The objective names the end result, output or intent, so there is no room for misinterpretation. When writing Goals and Objectives, use concise verbs, such as:
- “to establish,”
- “to increase,”
- “to reduce”
Measurable:Your Goals and Objectives must be quantifiable in some way. Some general categories and examples associated with measuring objectives include:
- Quantity number of units produced, items processed, calls taken, contacts made, etc.
- Quality number of specs met, percentage error rates, percent waste rates, number of complaints received, accuracy of reports, etc.
- Cost dollars spent, percentage within budget, dollars spent on overtime, etc.
- Time in Use percentage of target dates met, number of deadlines met, number of units shipped on time, etc.
Attainable: there must be a reasonable chance that the objective can be achieved; some people suggest an 80% probability is effective as a motivator. If you set Goals and Objectives that are too much of a stretch, people won’t take them seriously.
Relevant: Goals and Objectives must be related directly to the individual’s sphere of influence and key job accountabilities.
Timebound: states a time frame, target dates, and/or milestones during the year that are expected to be met.

If you struggle with writing performance objectives, here is a formula to get you started:

I will ( action )
so that ( outcome ).
by ( date )

For example:

I will work with my team to develop performance objectives so that 100% of my direct reports will have documented objectives by January 31.

3 Things to Remember About How to Set Goals and Objectives:

Involve your team when establishing Goals and Objectives. These should not be done in isolation.
Meet often to discuss progress. Do not allow the setting of Goals and Objectives to become an academic exercise that is visited only once per year.
Include Business/Operational and Leadership objectives. Most people establish their business or operational Goals and Objectives, and fail to define Leadership ones. If you are a leader of other people you need to set Goals and Objectives that pertain to that function. For example:

a) The number and quality of one on one meetings

b) % compliance on performance appraisals

c) measure of employee development activity

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about How to Set Goals and Objectives (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Laundry Lists and Diffused Focus

The fun part about our job is being exposed to a number of different industries and organizations. One of my favorite things to say is, “I’ve worked in Nuclear Power Stations, and in grocery stores, and 90% of the management issues are the same.” I usually get significant pushback from the Nuclear Engineers on this one, but it’s true.

Often the response I get from this statement is a question about the most common thread that weaves organizations and their performance together. The answer, quite simply, is “Focus”. The great performing organizations define and continually refine the limited number of things they need to do well, and then execute those things.

The reason people lose focus is because they get so busy managing tasks, they forget to look up every now and then and make sure they are doing the right things. Or, as I like to say, “They are so busy doing their jobs, they forget to do their jobs.”

As a busy manager, the next time you feel more overwhelmed with work than the bartender on the Kennedy Compound, spend a couple of minutes to review what your top 3 to 7 objectives for the year are. What are you doing to achieve those objectives this week? Better yet, review your top objectives every day before you start diving into tasks.

If you find yourself involved in meetings and activities that have nothing to do with those 3 to 7 objectives, then you need to question what you’re doing. Worse yet, if find yourself with 25 or 30 objectives, you need to go back to drawing board, and transform your laundry list into a more manageable, critical action list.

Achieving focus is conceptually very easy, but requires a lot of discipline to do well.

How to Make Sure People Don’t Care

There is so much stuff out there telling managers what they should do to be more effective, and how they can be better leaders of their people. This week, I thought I’d take a different approach, and suggest to managers how they might make sure that none of their people care.

It seems that many leaders will read an article or attend a seminar and them come back to the office and do the same thing they were doing before. They then find themselves stressed-out and miserable, as they can never seem to get a grip on their jobs or on leading their people. It seems something is lost in the transfer between reading or hearing something, and applying it to our own circumstances.

As for the people those managers are leading: they all start out with a different level of giving a crap, and they are then pushed towards the mean (or average) of “giving-a-crap-edness” of the culture around them. The great managers push that average line up, and inspire people to come along for the ride. Bad leaders, push the line down, and tacitly encourage people to give a crap about far fewer things, and at far lower a level.

So here are some things bad leaders do to ensure no one cares:

Enable unnecessary bureaucracy. This is why many public sector organizations suffer with poor morale.
Not dealing with performance issues. I’m not going to work all that hard for you if I know my peer is doing nothing, and not getting called on it.
Not administering consequences. People need to know that both good and poor performance will be recognized and “rewarded” as such.
Micro-managing. If you are going to redo all my work anyway, I’m not going to put much effort into it.
Playing favorites. OK… maybe a meritocracy only exists in a University Professor’s textbook, but you’ve got to at least try to give the appearance of fairness.
Reinforce a blame culture. People’s best work comes from taking risks, which they will not do, if they get crucified every time a small error is made.

There are lots of other ones, too, but leaders should start with these ones, and determine to what degree they do these things. The further away you are from these things, the more likely you are to be pushing that mean line of discretionary effort upwards.

Capturing Discretionary Effort

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Below we discuss the following aspects of Discretionary Effort:

What Discretionary Effort is
Why managers should care about Discretionary Effort
Who does a good job of capturing Discretionary Effort
How your organization can capture Discretionary Effort

What is Discretionary Effort?

Quite simply, Discretionary Effort is the difference between the full potential of any given employee, and the minimum required to NOT get fired.

Why You Should Care About Capturing Discretionary Effort

Often people talk about the intangible benefits of capturing Discretionary Effort. According to a 2010 survey, here are some tangible benefits:

Productivity – is 20% better with a more highly engaged workforce.
Retention – highly engaged people are 87% less likely to leave their organization.
Safety – highly engaged employees are five times less likely to have a safety incident, and seven times less likely to have a loss time accident.

What Organizations do a Good Job of Capturing Discretionary Effort?

There is a misconception that it is only cutting edge technology companies in the Silicon Valley that can aggressively improve employee engagement. This is not the case. In fact, it is often businesses in seemingly mundane businesses that routinely make up Top Employers Lists:

Wegmans Food Market – Retail Food (Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 US Employers)
Container Store – Retail (Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 US Employers)
Luminus – Community Housing (Sunday Times Top 100 UK Employers)
Beaverbrooks – Retail Jewelers (Sunday Times Top 100 UK Employers)
BC Biomedical – Medical Laboratory Services (Canadian Business Top 100 Employers)
Great Little Box Company – Manufacturing (Globe & Mail’s Top 100 Employers)
Diageo – Manufacturing (Great Places to Work Australia 2010)
Sentis – Education and Training (Great Places to Work Australia 2010)

How to Capture Discretionary Effort

The pool tables, concierge services, bring a pet to work policies and on-site masseuse may work well for some organizations. For others, there are some conceptually easier ways to create a great work place:

Create clear expectations. You people need to have a very clear idea of what it is you want them to do. Most people want to have a sense of accomplishment, which is extraordinarily difficult if they have no idea of what the organization expects from them.
Connect people to a larger picture. There is an old adage about the difference between a bricklayer, and a cathedral builder. They may be doing exactly the same work, but the job has significantly more meaning for the latter one. How can you connect your people to the larger purpose of the organization, or a greater cause?
Create improvement opportunities. The days of linear career paths are quickly ending. What learning and development opportunities can you provide for people. For many employees a lateral move, or a special project is better than a promotion, so what can you do to give people the opportunity to improve?
Encourage social networks at work. People will feel much more engaged if they feel they have good friends at work. It also makes it much harder to leave an employer, if a good portion of your social network is there as well. In many cases people spend more time with their coworkers than their families, so do not underestimate the importance of solid social networks at the workplace.
Make people feel important. Regardless of the job, people like to feel that their contribution matters. Leaders often underestimate the impact they have on people, and by doing something as simple as offering your full attention when you talk to someone, you can make them feel valued.

3 Things to Remember about Capturing Discretionary Effort

This is not a task, but a way to operate. You can’t go out and capture discretionary effort, and then tick it off on your list. This is an ongoing challenge for those in a position of leadership.
It’s not about the concierge and the spa. Look to do the fundamental things first, and only graduate to the sublime, once you know you have a well-lead organization.
You need to invest in leadership. People and organizations need to take leadership seriously, and continually improve that part of their business.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Capturing Discretionary Effort (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Top 10 Work-Life Balance Tips

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In addition to the Top 10 Work-Life Balance Tips, we also address:

What is Work-Life Balance?
Why what you usually hear about Work-Life Balance is inadequate.

What is Work-Life Balance?

Quite simply, Work-Life Balance is successfully reconciling the demands made upon you by your work, and the demands made upon you by other aspects of your life.

What Work-Life Balance is Not

Contrary to much of the discussion out there, Work-Life Balance is NOT about figuring out how to cram more leisure activities into your already busy schedule. The most balanced people find themselves happier doing less, not more.

What You Usually Hear About Work-Life Balance

“Work-Life Balance will enhance workplace productivity”. This is true in many cases, but such statements imply that sole responsibility for achieving Work-Life Balance is that of the employer. This is not true, and irresponsible, as employees need to share accountability to make it happen.
“Many people self-identify as workoholics”. This is true – in fact a 2011 General Social Survey (StatsCan) revealed that nearly one-third of people self-identified as workoholics. The problem here is that this is the very last form of self-destructive behavior that people still admire. You don’t hear people bragging about their drinking problem, or their gambling addiction, but people will entertain others around the water cooler with their self-perceived status as a martyr because they worked 80 hours last week. Employers definitely have a responsibility here, but the employees’ accountability is definitely often over-looked.
“There are increasing demands on people to take care of children and elders, etc.” This is also true, but no more so than in previous generations. It is true that many households have two people working outside the home, which creates more challenges, but it can only be perceived as a conflict, if taking care of one’s family is considered “work” rather than “life”. Such statements reinforce the fallacy that the opposite of work is leisure, when in fact that is not true.

Top 10 Work-Life Balance Tips

Don’t be a Perfectionist. If you need to dot every “i” and cross every “t”, you won’t have a lot of extra time on your hands. The most successful people are satisfied with 80% on most things, and save their need for 100% for the few, truly important things.
Disconnect. Many people voluntarily check their work email at all hours, and find themselves “multi-tasking.” For the vast majority of people, this is voluntary. With the exception of when you are “on-call”, there is no need to bring work to your evenings and weekends on a regular basis.
Say “No”. You don’t actually have to be on every project or committee, and you may want to be selective with your volunteer activities. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN’T do it all.
Minimize & Mitigate “Drive-bys”. If you work in an open office, or are otherwise prone to many interruptions, use headphones, or some other method to signal you are not available. If you do not have an office door – create one.
Delegate. Many people, particularly in positions of leadership do not do this well. Identify some things you can get off your plate, and get someone else to do them. What might be boring and routine for you, could be a stretch assignment that someone else might be able to pour some real energy into.
Reel Back Your Expectations. The romantic notion of being a corporate executive working 100 hours per week, participating in the triathalon, and coaching each of your six children’s soccer teams works only on TV sitcoms. In real life it is not possible, and people have to make adult choices about what is most important to them. The most successful people make these trade-offs in a way that fulfills them.
Don’t Think You’re Indispensible. You may be very valuable to your organization, but no one is indispensible. It may make you feel important, but any company that has an over-reliance on any one (or small group of) individual(s), is not properly managing its risk. If you feel indispensible, consider it a business problem, not an ego boost.
Block Your Time. Be completely present at your kid’s soccer game – block that time for him/her. Most of the time multi-tasking doesn’t work, so don’t try.
Indulge in Some Small Pleasure Daily. This might be a simple as leaving your office for coffee for 20 minutes every morning, or perhaps going to the gym at lunch. Whatever it is, find something that you love, or relaxes you, and try to do that thing daily.
Exercise Discipline. Reading the above, it would easy to conclude that we’re suggesting it’s easy – it is not. Just like being a performance athlete, it takes a lot of work to get into the shape you want to be in, and just as much work to maintain it. Stick with it – it will be worth it.

3 Things to Remember About Work-Life Balance

The people who say this is easy are lying.
Much of this pressure is self-imposed.
You can’t have it all – you will have to give-up something.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Top 10 Work-Life Balance Tips (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Improve Morale — Discipline People

So if I read all the management literature correctly, then to improve employee morale, I should hire a concierge, allow people to bring their pets to work, and every day at 3.00pm we should join hands in a circle and sing campfire songs. Personally, I can’t think of anything that would make me start looking for alternative employment faster.

So what does impact morale, and should managers care?

First of all, they should care – just not about concierges and employee sing-alongs. Morale is a key driver of attendance and retention both of which have a clear and immediate impact on costs. Morale also creates and maintains employee discretionary effort — which has a clear and immediate impact on productivity, quality and safety. Besides all of that, it’s just way more fun to work at a place where people are engaged.

There are several ways for leaders to impact morale. Perhaps one of the most important is a consistent, fair, and well thought out progressive discipline process. Yep, that’s right… I’m suggesting that progressive discipline and higher employee morale are highly correlated. Here’s why:

When one member of a team consistently doesn’t pull his weight, it is rarely the boss that feels the impact of this. Most often it is that laggard’s peers. By addressing one person’s poor performance, others are both relieved and validated. They are relieved that the discipline will either lead to the person beginning to pull their weight, or that the person will be replaced by someone who will. They are validated by the demonstration that their effort is superior to that of the person receiving the discipline.

The most highly effective workplaces have predictable and clear consequences for both good and poor performance, so it is not good enough for a leader simply to focus on discipline. However, many managers put off uncomfortable discussions about poor performance using the excuse that any intervention will harm morale. In fact, the opposite it true.

Oh No. Now you’ve got to go do it.

Go ahead… discipline someone for poor performance, and improve your team’s morale.

Building Trust In Teams

How to Destroy Trust and Alienate People

5 Reasons Performance Reviews Suck

Conducting a Mid Year Performance Review

How to Set Goals and Objectives

Laundry Lists and Diffused Focus

How to Make Sure People Don’t Care

Capturing Discretionary Effort

Top 10 Work-Life Balance Tips

Improve Morale — Discipline People

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