Motivation
Motivating yourself and others. What techniques do you currently use, and what other options are there?
Six steps to empowerment
Mar 19th
I recently coached a wonderfully talented and experienced senior manager who had just started a new role at a large international company. The job was well paid, close to home and well within her skills levels. When Mary landed the role she was excited at the potential the opportunity presented to really contribute to the success of the organisation.
Three months on and she was on the verge of handing in her resignation. Why? Mary was bored and was feeling under utilised and under valued. She was going into work and carrying out duties that she did not find challenging or stretching. Mary had been bought in to help set up and run a new department in the company which involved selling a new service to a section of the market that were unfamiliar with it and the benefits it could bring. This challenge tied directly into her previous experience, but instead of being given the freedom to shape and influence the direction of the department she found these decisions being taken at Board level by people with no real experience in this area.
Mary was going home each day boiling with frustration, full of ideas on how to improve performance that were being ignored by Directors who had fixed views on what should be done based on little more than emotion and anecdotal evidence.
Sadly this is a fairly common picture up and down the country with Business Leaders not prepared to “take the risk” of creating an environment and culture which allows talented people to flourish. Too often Leaders feel the need to keep control in the belief that they should know best and have all the answers to the issues faced by the company.
Instead Leaders should be looking to empower their people whenever possible. To do so isn’t to abdicate your responsibility as a Leader, instead it’s an opportunity to recognise the importance of your team members and give them a platform to demonstrate their potential. As a result your people will feel valued and their commitment and loyalty will increase.
Here are 6 tips on how to take the first steps to empowerment:
1) Clearly define their responsibilities. Unless people are absolutely clear what is expected of them, there is the chance they will fail to meet expectations and also will not understand why. This will breed resentment and uncertainty, a recipe for disaster. Do they know what success looks like?
2) Give them authority equal to their responsibilities. Having defined their role and responsibilities allow them to make the necessary decisions within that remit. Constantly asking for permission on minor issues only serves to decrease morale and drive.
3) Give them knowledge and information. Information is power and open communication and sharing of appropriate levels of information is important to ensure people feel valued and able to contribute effectively.
4) Trust them. Giving them responsibility involves letting go of the apron strings. Discuss and agree outcomes and then let them get on with it, letting them know where you are should they need help and advice along the way.
5) Give them permission to fail. If they never take risks, they will never grow. There are many opportunities on projects etc for people to fail that aren’t catastrophic to the overall goal. By allowing people to fail, they can learn and develop their decision making skills. Remember what happened when you made mistakes? What did you learn?
6) Recognise them for their achievements. This is a critical part of the process. If they don’t receive praise and recognition for their performance, where is their incentive to strive and challenge themselves?
How many of these 6 steps are you already practising?
If you were to ask your staff how empowered they feel, what do you think they would say?
What more could you do?
Mary? She decided to have a meeting with the Directors and challenge them to follow the 6 steps above. Three month later, Mary is happy in the role, and the department is now starting to take great strides towards achieving the agreed goals. Surprising how much can be achieved with open communication and a frank exchange of views….
Are you an Imposter?
Mar 4th
Watching the Oscars last weekend and the various winners coming up on stage to make their acceptance speeches, I found myself thinking about Michelle Pfeiffer who I had been watching in Frankie and Johnny the previous evening.
While Michelle has been nominated for an Oscar three times, she has never actually won one, although she has won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe during her career to date. At the peak of her career she was an A list actress, a superstar in the world of acting, and it was at the height of her fame that she came out with the following quote;
“I still think people will find out that I’m really not very talented. I’m really not very good. It’s all been a big sham.”
She’s not alone in having these thoughts; here are Kate Winslet’s thoughts on her acting career;
“Sometimes I wake up in the morning before going off to a shoot, and I think, I can’t do this; I’m a fraud. They’re going to fire me — all these things. I’m fat; I’m ugly… “
How can 2 award winning actresses, widely regarded as among the best in their field, believe such things about themselves? These beliefs are surprisingly common and are known as the “Imposter Syndrome”.
The Imposter Syndrome describes how people suffer from the feeling that they are imposters and they do not belong where they are and they don’t deserve what they have accomplished through their own talent and hard work. Instead they tend to attribute any success they have to luck, help from others, timing or the ability to fool others into thinking they are smarter than they really are.
Unless they learn to deal with this self doubt, people suffering from the Imposter Syndrome will sell themselves short, become risk averse and will hold themselves back from achieving as much as they could.
So how can you break this thought process and accept the skills you have? Here are 6 tips on dealing with the Imposter Syndrome:
1. Separate feelings from fact. There are times you’ll feel stupid. It happens to everyone from time to time. Realize that just because you may feel stupid, it doesn’t mean you are.
2. Recognise and accept your strengths. Instead of blaming luck or others when something goes well for you, accept you have played the major part in the success you achieve. Be proud of what you have done. If you don’t believe in yourself why should others?
3. Develop a new response to failure and mistake making. Henry Ford said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Instead of constantly beating yourself up for making mistakes learn from them, put them behind you and move on.
4. Develop a new script. Your script is that automatic mental record that starts playing in situations that trigger your Imposter feelings. When you start a new job for example, instead of thinking, “Wait till they find out I have no idea what I’m doing,” try thinking, “Everyone who starts something new feels awkward in the beginning. I may not know all the answers but I’m smart enough to find them out.”
5. Visualise success. Professional athletes spend time before an event picturing themselves succeeding and getting a sense of the feelings they will have when they reach their goals. The successful people in sports and business don’t think in terms of failure and defeat, expect success and you are far more likely to achieve it. Don’t wait until you feel confident to start pushing yourself. Courage comes from taking risks. Change your behaviour first and allow your confidence to build.
6. Keep a journal. Write down what you do. It doesn’t have to be war and peace, just a note of the tasks you have completed, the challenges you have faced, how you felt before during and after. This will build up a dossier for you and act as a reminder for you of just what you are capable of the next time you encounter self doubt.
Do you ever feel like a fake?
When do you feel like that?
How have you tried to deal with these feelings in the past?
What could you do differently in the future?
Who said what….
1) “I just never know if I’m going to pull it off, I have terrible grave concerns about my own ability.” Matt Damon
2) “I still think people will find out that I’m really not very talented. I’m really not very good. It’s all been a big sham. …” Michelle Pfeiffer
3) “I used to have this dream that somebody was knocking at my door. I’d say ‘Who is it?’ and they’d answer ‘Police.’ I’d open the door and they would say to me, ‘Pack your bags. We realized you have no talent.” Leslie Nielson
4) ‘I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?” Meryl Streep
5) ” Sometimes I wake up in the morning before going off to a shoot, and I think, I can’t do this; I’m a fraud. They’re going to fire me — all these things. I’m fat; I’m ugly… ” Kate Winslett
6) “I still believe that at any time the no-talent police will come and arrest me.“ Mike Myers
10 signs of poor management
Jan 21st
People leave their managers not their jobs.
Research has shown that a majority of people leave their jobs not because they don’t like the work they do, but because they don’t get on with their Boss. The major reason cited in exit interviews is the relationship they have with their line manager, and as managers we have a responsibility to consider the impact we have on those around us with our actions.
There are a number of examples of poor management techniques which contribute to the breakdown in relationship between management and staff, here are 10 of the most common:
1) Not listening and not making people feel valued
People like to deal with those people who are professional and who make them feel valued. Too often a poor manager will not take the time to actively listen to their staff, instead choosing to check their e-mails, take phone calls and allow a variety of other interruptions whilst they are having a conversation/update/meeting with their people. How frustrating does it feel when you have the feeling that someone is not really paying attention to what you are saying? How do you think others feel when you are doing this to them?
2) Micro managing – shows lack of trust
If you spend all your time checking up on what others are doing, how do you find the time to do your own job? People will never give of their best if they have the feeling that they are not to be trusted or that they constantly have someone looking over their shoulder and checking up on them. If you expect the worst of people that is what they will usually deliver, as that is what you are looking for!
3) Too much focus on the task and not the individuals
If a manager has too much focus on achievement of a task they tend to disregard the individuals involved in helping achieve said task. Their behaviour is impersonal, they don’t tend to have any interest in how their people are feeling, and praise recognition and encouragment are in short supply. This is another example of people not feeling valued and can quickly lead to disenchantment.
4) Not enforcing standards
People need to have a clear understanding of their roles and expectations, and it is equally important that, having defined the standards that are expected, these are enforced. Too often a poor manager will fail to take the appropriate action when standards are not met and this then sends the message that the standards are not important or relevant. People respect a manager when they display strength, integrity and a sense of fair play. Not enforcing standards implies these qualities are lacking in a manager.
5) Not communicating expectations effectively
If people don’t have a clear understanding of what success looks like how will they know if they have done a good job? “If they don’t get shouted at,” is not the right answer! When people understand what is expected of them and how they can meet those expectations they tend to have a greater degree of confidence in their ability to meet those expectations – assuming those expectations are realistic in the first place!
6) Lack of feedback – positive and negative
If you dont take the time to tell people how they are doing, how will they know if they are meeting expectations? If they receive regular timely feedback they will have a greater understanding of what they need to do in order to achieve their objectives, be it a continuance of current behaviour or a correction in their activity. If the feedback is presented in a constructive, objective and calm manner it can be a great development tool to help people grow and improve.
7) Using communication on a need to know basis only
Another quick way to frustrate people is to keep them in the dark about issues that have some bearing on their role in the organisation. If plans and other areas of the business are treated as secrets not to be shared with other departments, how can staff gain an understanding of how they can play an effective part in the achievement of company goals. Effective communication of the company vision and objectives has an important role to play in improving employee engagement.
8) Making decisions and then asking for feedback
If people are to take ownership of their departmental/team goals they need to feel that they have a part to play in the decision making process. Weak managers will view their role to be the one to have all the answers and to hand the decisions made down to the workforce. If the decisions are being made from the top down what is the point in asking those on the ground floor for their thoughts? If the decisions have already been made what difference will it make if they think it is a good idea or not? At best it is an exercise in patronisation!
The final decision should rest at the top, but it is good management practise to canvass opinion from the relevant sections of the company, before the decisions are made. It is quite often the case that the people at the sharp end will have the experience and knowledge to best know how to handle certain situations, doesn’t it therefore make sense to obtain their feedback before deciding on a particular course of action?
9) Passing the buck
I know one manager who announced to a new member of staff on their first day that any success they achieved in their role would be down to the manager, but they would get the blame for anything that went wrong! How do you think that member of staff viewed their manager?
The art of good management means taking responsibility when it is due and allowing others to take the credit when it is deserved. Poor managers look to point the finger of blame away from them at every opportunity, this only has short term benefits for the manager, as their limitations are soon identified.
10) No sense of humour
If you don’t enjoy your job, why should the people that work for you? A sense of humour is a vital element in the make up of successful managers, it indicates you are working for someone who is in control, someone who is relaxed and someone who is confident in achieving success. It doesn’t prevent you from being professional as there is a time and a place to have a laugh, and a time and a place to fully focus on achieving objectives, but a little lightness goes a long long way.
Think about the best managers you have worked for, how do their qualities match those listed above?
Now answer the same question about the worst manager you have worked for or with……
How do you compare?
Does money really motivate senior managers?
Jan 20th
Facilitated a course this week for senior managers of a Blue Chip company when the subject of the factors that motivate people at work came up. A couple of delegates were of the opinion that there was nothing better than an envelope from your Boss with a short note thanking you for a good job together with a big cheque!
We discussed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Human Givens, but I think this 10 minute video does a great job of explaining where money fits into the motivation ladder.
Boooooooo!!
Oct 30th
After appearing on a phone in last week, this week seemed to be a week to listen to them!
This one was a football phone in and a football fan had called in to justify why he and his fellow fans thought it was a good idea to boo their own players. Jason Roberts, a professional footballer, was aghast at the idea.
“How can you possibly think that booing your own players is going to help them?”
“It might not help some, but there are definitely some players who want to prove you wrong when you boo them”, was the confident reply.
A player at Spurs had a different view;
“when your fans get behind you it’s the most exciting feeling possible. It’s so important that a player feels appreciated by his own fans – otherwise he has to fight against them as well as the other team and their supporters.”
Whilst at Liverpool Fernando Torres said;
“With just 45,000 fans there, that roar they give makes you think you have wings on your feet.”
I wonder if the fans at Chelsea give him the same sense of invincibility?
There doesn’t appear to be any logic in the football fans argument that booing your own players will make them player better. It also begs the question why in other environments, work and home life for example, do we spend so much time telling people what they are doing wrong rather than telling them what they are doing well?
There has been an example of this in the last week with the row between Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, with the French president expressing rage at the constant criticism and lectures from UK ministers.
Sarkozy bluntly told Cameron: “You have lost a good opportunity to shut up.” He added: “We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings.”
You wonder if there would have been a different interaction if Cameron and the Government had taken a more positive approach, whilst still having the same goals they currently have….
Recent research suggests that the vast majority of what children hear consists of them being told not to do this and not to do that. If we are not taking the time to explain what they do well, and why they do it well, how can we expect them to grow and improve?
In work environments, the more enlightened managers and leaders spend their time trying to “catch people doing something right” and then giving them suitable levels of praise and recognition. In doing this it is important to bear in mind that the praise needs to be specific and related to a specific behaviour or action, rather than praise for praise sake.
There are many Business Leaders who have been influenced by the work of Ken Blanchard and he believes if he had to choose just one thing to teach about for the rest of his life, he has no doubt that “catching people doing things right” would be his lasting message. His research has shown that positive reinforcement and redirection can help increase productivity.
Think about somebody that you have worked with and admired. How did they behave? How did they treat you? How much belief did they have in you? What impact did this have on you?
Now think about somebody who you worked for that you didn’t respect or admire and ask yourself the same questions.
Research in the States has shown that 64% of people leave their jobs not because of the company or the work conditions, instead they leave because of the Boss they work for. This demonstrates that the way we motivate at work is key.
The question is, what type of fan are you?
Do you have many self limiting beliefs?
Jul 12th
” When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~ Dr Wayne Dyer
What we believe in limits or expands our world. These beliefs shape our thoughts and actions because we treat them as though they are a true and objective representation of the facts.
Beliefs can influence whether or not you attempt to achieve a particular goal in life. They determine what you pay attention to, how you react to difficult situations and ultimately your attitude.
Success and failure begin and end in what the mind believes is possible.
So how can you change a limiting belief?
The main keys to doing this is complete honesty and challenging yourself. Here are a few steps to help kick start the process:
- Identify the thought or belief
- How does this thought/belief make you feel?
- Is thought/belief 100% true?
- What would be a more honest thought/belief that also reflects your values?
- What can you do that reflects your new thought/belief?
Adopting a positive mental attitude will also help:
- Use positive self talk - up to 1500 words a minutes flow through our minds, how many of them are positive? Positive talk will lead to increased confidence and higher self esteem.
- Control the pictures in your mind. People use mental pictures to represent places, events, dreams and goals. If you create positive pictures your actions will be positive.
- Feed your mind a healthy diet. seek out positive information, and limit the negative.
- Associate with positive people. levels of success achieved can be linked to the people you associate with.
- Be proactive. Don’t wait for something to happen, take control and seize the initiative!
How many of the above do you already practise?
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement… no pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” Helen Keller
The importance of belief… from a six year old
Jun 2nd
Two of the major factors in achieving your goals are the need to believe in yourself and perseverance. If you don’t believe in yourself why should anyone else?
Can you remember what it felt like when you first learn to ride a bike? Can you remember the joy? This might remind you…
So there you have it, you can if you believe you can, and if you can’t just keep trying. Simple really.
Leaders must take responsibility if they are to achieve success
Apr 27th
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” Jim Rohn
Studies have shown that for more than 75 percent of employees, dealing with their immediate boss is the most stressful part of the job. In fact a 2009 Swedish study tracking 3,122 men for ten years found that those with bad bosses suffered 20 to 40 percent more heart attacks than those with good bosses.
Leaders matter, because whether or not they know it, their followers monitor, magnify, and often mimic their actions and behaviours. The actions, attitudes and behaviour of Leaders have a dramatic influence on the culture and performance of the organisations they operate in and their impact is often under estimated by the majority of leaders.
Having said that evidence shows that Leaders rarely account for more than 15% of the gap between good and bad company performanc, although they often get more than 50% of the credit and blame.
If you are a Leader, this is the way it goes; make the best of it. If you claim that you don’t have much influence over what happens to the team or company you lead, your people will lose confidence in you. Leaders who blame outside forces for their troubles come across as insincere and powerless. By refusing to take responsibility, they implicitly raise a damning question: “If you didn’t have the power to break it, how can you have the power to fix it?”
The public also sees a boss’s refusal to accept responsibility as a sign that nothing has been learned from the errors.
Watching and listening to Arsene Wenger over the last month, as Arsenal’s season has yet again fallen apart, has been a demonstration of this. Instead of him and the team taking responsibility for dropping the points which effectively put them out of the race for the Premier League title, his ire has been directed at the match officials, who have given decisions against Arsenal, and at their opponents who have prevented Arsenal from playing their football.
Here’s what he had to say after Arsenal drew against Liverpool, despite taking the lead some two minutes before the end of the game:
“We conceded a penalty after 11 minutes and the extra time was only eight minutes, I don’t know where this additional time came from,” said Wenger.
It's all going wrong for Arsene and Arsenal
“The referee has not explained anything to me but I know it was no penalty. Lucas played in an intelligent way.
He stopped his [Eboué] runs, Eboué wanted to go to the ball and he stopped him and referee said nothing. What can you do about it?”
So, in one short quote, he has blamed the referee for playing more time than he thought was warranted, blamed the referee for giving a penalty, he didn’t believe was a penalty, and blamed the Liverpool player for “cheating” to stop the Arsenal player reaching the ball thus winning the penalty for Liverpool.
After a goalless draw against Blackburn Rovers in March Wenger suggested that the fixture list is skewed in favour of Manchester United because of how often his team are asked to play after their main rivals in the run-in to the Premier League.
Of course it might be a different story in private, but in public Wenger is very quick to blame anyone but himself and the team for not achieving the success many believe his style of football deserves. In his latest comments he has been pointing out that winning isn’t actually the most important goal, with player development and regularly finishing in the top four of the league more than satisfactory.
This is basically an admission of defeat and a poor message to send to his team. It has also lead to his Captain, Cesc Fabregas, speaking out:
“If you went to Spain and said to Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho or Unai Emery that they would have three years without winning a trophy, it would be obvious they would not continue,” Fabregas was quoted as saying.
Fabregas also appeared to give his verdict on Wenger’s policy of developing young players instead of making big-name signings, and how that has cost them winning trophies. “A decision has to be made: to go out and win or develop players.”
With his apparent inability to take responsibility for Arsenal’s failure to win a trophy for the last 6 years, Wenger is in danger of tarnishing his reputation and he and the club have some important decisions to make in the summer.
The first step will involve identifying and agreeing the goals for the club. If they are happy aiming for top 4 and developing the young players then perhaps they won’t need to change too much, although a regular place in the top 4 will be under threat as teams around them strengthen and develop a greater winning mentality.
If the goal is to win trophies then there will need to be a change in mentality by Wenger. He needs to find a way to bring a more ruthless streak to his team and while this can be helped by bringing in experienced players he also needs to change his attitude and beliefs.
One of the most important factors here is him making sure the roles and responsibilities of the individuals in his team are fully understand and that they are accepted and they know the consequences should they exceed them, meet them or indeed fall short (meet or exceed the success and acclaim they desire, or perhaps being dropped should they fall below the standards required).
With himself this will mean him focussing on what he can influence and change rather than constantly blaming outside influences which are not within his area of control. At the moment his constant public blaming of officials and opponents is giving his players an excuse to hide behind and an opportunity to evade responsibility for results.
Wenger would do well to heed the words of Michael Jordan, who believes success is achieved by taking responsibility for yourself:
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen”
Or even OJ Simpson during his sports career:
“The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that’s the day you start to the top.”
How do you, or your boss, demonstrate leadership qualities?
How would your people describe you as a leader?
Do you and your people take responsibility for outcomes or are people quick to blame others when things go wrong?
If it’s the latter what are you going to do about it?
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?
Coach Potatoes is the blog for the people at The Coach Business.
At The Coach Business we specialise in providing valuable effective coaching to management teams at all levels in both the public and private sector. Our experience in based on over 20 years of managing, coaching and developing people in a Blue Chip environment and our goal is to achieve tangible improvements in performance for our clients. If you have an issue you would like to discuss or are seeking advice please contact us at support@thecoachbusiness.com for further information or to arrange an initial consultation.
