Archive for February, 2011
Is an Oscar a cause or an effect?
Feb 23rd
Finally got to see The King’s Speech last night, a great film and no doubt this weekend Colin Firth will add the Oscar to the Bafta he has already won for the role.
I thought Geoffrey Rush was also brilliant in his role as the King’s Speech Therapist and he has also been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
As well as being a good film I also found it interesting to watch the techniques employed by Rush’s character to help Bertie (Firth) overcome his stammer. We had already seen a variety of “leading experts” try to help him, all with no success. The one we saw in the film spoke with great authority and tried a number of techniques to help solve his problem but only seemed to manage to increase Bertie’s frustration. In the clips we saw there seemed to be a complete lack of empathy with the Prince (as Bertie was then)
Enter Lionel (Rush) with a completely different approach. The first thing he did was demonstrate that Bertie could actually talk without stammering, thus proving to Bertie that this was a mental issue and not a physical one. Lionel had a number of exercises, techniques and “tricks” to use to improve the situation Bertie faced, but the main emphasis for his method was to try and encourage Bertie to identify what had actually caused Bertie to start stammering in the first place. As he pointed out babies didn’t start talking with a stammer, instead it was something they learned to do as a reaction to an event in their lives. If Bertie could understand what caused the stutter he would be taking the first steps to overcoming the problem.
All too often in coaching and training situations people tend to focus on dealing with the effects of a situation rather than examining the cause and trying to resolve this instead. Training on the effects can be done but only tends to be a short term solution. If you want to invoke long lasting change it is critical to gain an understanding of and then deal with the cause. The better someone can understand the triggers that lead to a particular type of behaviour or thinking, the better placed they are to modify that behaviour to meet the desired goals.
I have been doing some work with a group of managers recently to show them how coaching techniques can be used to improve performance. One of the main factors in this is to understand that it is not enough to simply use the techniques with their people. They need to combine this with a greater understanding of what makes their people tick and how best to motivate them. This will then improve the effectiveness of the training provided, and increase the ownership of the outcomes with the individuals involved.
This is something that Lionel does very well in The Kings Speech. It takes him a while to break Bertie down, but he uses a laid back style with a humorous approach to relax Bertie, thus helping reduce the stress that Bertie feels and is only adding to the pressure of the situations Bertie finds himself in. Once Bertie has accepted Lionel’s approach and the manner in which he challenges him he is far more receptive to trying different methods and techniques.
The question to ask yourself when dealing with a training/coaching issue is to ask yourself what is causing this behaviour/action/result? If you can attribute it to something else, then you are dealing with an effect.
e.g. A financial institution I am familiar with has just introduced a CRM system for their workforce. Their goal is to ensure that customers are contacted on a regular basis about the various products that they might be interested in. If the employee doesn’t talk about the relevant products in the correct time frame it will throw up a warning flag (assuming the employee fills in the information correctly!). It’s a good system and offers many benefits to employees and customers alike. However the system is merely dealing with the effect of not enough sales in particular areas. What they also need to do is gain a better understanding of why the sales aren’t already happening. Is it a lack of skills (the ability to sell the product) or knowledge (knowledge about the product and the process) or is it an attitude (desire to sell) issue? Having a flag on a system telling you this is the week to mention x product to a,b,c customers isn’t necessarily going to increase sales, having the aptitude or confidence to maximise on the opportunities presented will. As yet, the company concerned do not appear to have plans in place to reinforce the knowledge, skiils and attitude required to improve performance.
If you haven’t already seen it (and hopefully I haven’t given too mch of the plot away!) The King’s Speech is well worth watching. Another film good for demonstrating the difference between a good coaching technique and a poor one is My Fair Lady. Rex Harrison plays Henry Higgins, another Speech Therapist, and he also shows how important it is to have an understanding and belief in the person being coached in order for them to achieve specific goals.
Is an Oscar an effect of great acting?
If people change their perception of you when you win an Oscar, is the Oscar the cause?
What other films/TV shows are out there that show coaching in action?
Motivational Communication Skills
Feb 15th
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”
Willie Nelson
Imagine this scenario:
You are an very experienced sales manager and have been asked to manage a team of senior sales people who have been struggling recently. You are in your first group meeting with the Sales Director. He is asking for updates from the other managers and turns to you and asks if you think you can achieve your targets with the team you have. You reply:
”I’m afraid after working with them yesterday and spending a day last week observing them on calls, I can’t answer that question.
I would like to say so, but it would be foolish of me to make rash statements.”
What do you think your Sales Director would read into what you have said?
He could think; “sensible answer, he needs more evidence before he can reach a conclusion.” Equally he might think, “hmm he doesn’t sound too confident, sounds like he’s trying to hedge his bets.”
Would your answer instil confidence in the Sales Director?
If your sales team could hear you saying it how do you think they would feel?
Would they feel encouraged, indifferent or would your answer increase the doubt in their minds that they might miss their targets?
What else could you have said?
“There’s a lot of ability in the team and I’m really looking forward to working with them. The target is in sight and if we put in the right amount of effort we’ve got a great chance of success.”
Still not guaranteeing to hit target, but do you sound more confident and put your Sales Director at ease until you can get a firm handle on what is going on? Have you also given a morale boost to your new team and demonstrated some confidence in them and their ability?
The reason for posing the questions is that Mr Motivation himself, Roy Hodgson is back in business.
Roy Hodgson, the new West Bromwich Albion Manager
Today he was officially unveiled as the new Manager of West Brom, who currently sit in 17th place in the Premier League. They have 27 points and the consensus is that 40 points will probably be necessary to avoid relegation. With some 36 points still to play for and half their games against teams in the bottom half of the table their destiny is very much in their own hands.
One of the first questions in the press conference today was to ask Hodgson if West Brom had the players to avoid the drop. Did he use the opportunity to build up his players, tell everyone how much ability there was in the squad? Nope., instead we we got:
“I’m afraid after 90 minutes working with them today (Monday) and 90 minutes watching them on Saturday, I can’t answer that question. I would like to say so, but it would be foolish of me to make rash statements.”
Inspirational and optimistic as ever then….
He didn’t stop there though, asked about the task he had at his new club, he came out with;
“We don’t have much time. Like a lot of other clubs, we’re in a desperately difficult situation at the bottom of the league, trying to retain our status.”
Instead of talking about a “desperately difficult situation” why not talk about a great opportunity to cement their place in the Premier League with a great bunch of players? If his new players didn’t previously have doubts about their ability to maintain their place in the “best league in the world” they surely do now!
I have no doubt that Roy Hodgson is only giving his honest assessment of the situation and it won’t have even occurred to him that he might be putting negative thoughts into his players minds, after all he is talking to the media and not the players, but he is demonstrating an extreme naivety about how his words might be interpreted. Indded some media outlets were reporting that Hodgson does not have confidence that West Brom can stay up, whereas others report that he is hopeful and confident in his ability to avoid relegation.
You can bet that his players will have heard what he has said to the media today and will be putting their own interpretation on his comments. If players are already feeling nervous about the task they face his answers to the media’s questions will not have eased their fears. It is absolutely critical to think about what you say as your words can so easily be twisted and exaggerated.
The danger Hodgson faces now is that his team will go into games worrying about making mistakes and their subconscious minds will be focussed on what can go wrong rather than what is going well.
As a manager it is very easy for you to put negative thoughts in the minds of your people, with your choice of language dictating how your message is received.
Derren Brown demonstrated this superbly in his show on Channel 4, when he told a 19 year old girl NOT to push a button on the desk as this would electrocute a kitten that was in a glass box in the room with her. Derren then set up a countdown click and left her alone in the room for two minutes as she watched the seconds tick down to when the experiment would be over. With two seconds to go the girl crossed the room and pressed the button….
Of course the Kitten wasn’t killed but was simply a demonstration of how you could put someone’s focus on negative actions by putting negative thoughts in their minds. Doing this ultimately resulted in the negative action being carried out.
You can see the clip on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDwe_PNrACI
The whole clip is 23 minutes long, but the main part as described above starts on 18 mins 20 secs.
Roy Hodgson put negative thoughts into the minds of the Liverpool players in his time there, and he appears to be on the verge of doing the same with the West Brom players. It will be interesting to see if West Brom manage to avoid the drop.
While we wait to see, think about the messages you give to your team, your friends and your family. Do you spend your time looking for what can go wrong or do you talk about the opportunities that are out there?
“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Ghandi
Making a difference as a Manager…
Feb 14th
“Every day he gives you little bits of advice and makes you think. When you believe in a manager it is always really important. You listen to him all the time. He has opened our mind to doing things differently.”
Lucas Leiva talking about the impact Kenny Dalglish has had in the short term back as Liverpool manager. 
Roberto Martinez, the Wigan Athletic manager, whose side played Liverpool for the second time this season identified one crucial factor that set aside Dalglish’s Liverpool from that managed by Roy Hodgson earlier in the season;
“Belief, that’s the difference. You can see this Liverpool side plays with huge belief.”
Apart from swapping Suarez for Torres these are the same players, so how had Dalglish managed to turn round the attitude in such a short space of time?
If you listen to what Dalglish has had to say to the media since taking over the message has been a consistent one. He is delighted to be managing great players, none of whom are more important than the next player and they have the honour of playing for a fantastic club. He is confident they can produce the results that are required and his main focus is putting the fun back into training.
He has concentrated on emphasising players strengths, reminding them what they are good at and encouraging them to come up with solutions themselves. He has handed responsibility for what happens on the pitch to the players and you can see in the performances that the players have risen to that challenge and started to play to their potential.
As Lucas indicates in his comments this demonstration of belief in the players has encouraged them to view situations from different perspectives and to seek different ways of achieving their objectives. This is a classic example of how coaching people on their strengths can lead to improvements in other areas that need attention.
As a team Liverpool are much stronger defensively and they have been more open to the ideas introduced by the coaches such as Steve Clarke because they are in a positive frame of mind and believe they can and want to improve their performance.
When working with managers in business too often you see them trying to “catch people doing something wrong” and this merely serves to create a climate of fear, where people are more worried about making mistakes than they are in stretching themselves. This narrows the mind and leads to reduced creativity thus making it more difficult to envisage positive solutions to difficult situations.
Looking to catch people doing something well instead can lead to a far more positive culture at work with a happy and inspired workforce. How can you do this? Here are 5 steps you could introduce today:
1) Ask your people what they enjoy about their jobs.
2) Ask your people what they would like to improve about their jobs – and if possible make changes to improve this situation.
3) Can you describe how what they do contributes to the team’s goals?
4) Remind them how important and valuable their role is in achieving team goals.
5) When they do something well, tell them and thank them.
I was working with a group of sales managers recently and encouraged them to think about the steps above. At our next meeting I asked them if they had been able to implement some of these steps into their daily routine. Brian, one of the more experienced managers, told me about an update he had completed with Sally, one of his team, who had a reputation for being demanding and impatient with other departments within the company. He had received another complaint about her and in the past he would have read her the riot act and sent her way with a flea in her ear. This time he had talked to her about how much he valued her contribution to the team and how her customers were always happy with the service she provided and explained how he was puzzled that she didn’t seem to have a similar relationship with people inside the company. Sally replied that she felt she needed to chase other departments to make sure she maintained a high quality service to her clients, but eventually agreed that perhaps this wasn’t the best way to go about it.
A few days later Brian was surprised to receive two phone calls from senior managers of other departments within the company to tell him how they had noticed a real change in behaviour in Sally and asking him for the secret! When Brian fed this praise back to Sally he could see a visible change in her posture as she revelled in the praise and recognition. Brian was also delighted to see such a quick turnaround after a relatively simple change in approach to his conversation with Sally.
Dalglish has managed to achieve the same with the Liverpool team with a different emphasis in approach and outlook. Lucas Leiva has talked about it and so has Steven Gerrard:
“the last three or four weeks have been really positive. We’ve had some good results. The lads are smiling again. I’ve actually enjoyed going to work again.”
Do your people enjoy going to work, and if not why not? What can you change to improve the culture at work?
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