Archive for Work
Finding the “want to”
Posted by: | CommentsMany years ago, I read about a survey of workers in the United States, who were asked if they could work harder on the job than they currently were. 85% of those surveyed said that they could. And more than half claimed that they could double their effectiveness “if I wanted to.”
I don’t know about you, but I want the people that I lead to “want to” be as effective as they possibly can all the time! And I want them to always give 100 percent of their effort.
The good news is that I believe that the people on my team DO work to the best of their ability. As I thought about my team and saw how hard they worked in comparison to the statistics, I wondered to myself, what makes John Maxwell Company staff “want to” double their effectiveness?
I believe it’s because team members receive five things from the leaders:
1. Relationship. My organization has been blessed with some exceptional people. It starts at the top with the CEO of the John Maxwell Company, Mark Cole, who has a real talent for connecting with his team. He truly practices what I preach when I tell people to reach for a person’s heart before asking for their hand.
2. Ownership. John F. Kennedy once said, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” I believe team ownership depends on a clear vision cast by the leader, which spells out their contribution.
3. Reward for work. Recent generations have gotten used to being rewarded just for showing up. But what really motivates achievers are rewards that are tied to production.
4. Pride. This is a direct result of ownership. When a team member understands how his contribution matters, and makes that contribution, the natural outcome is pride in the work. You can increase that pride by always offering recognition for a job well done.
5. Confidence through equipping. Harvey Firestone said, “It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.” Beyond casting vision, a good leader equips his people and helps them to grow. This adds value to their lives and sets them up for success.
Every leader wants a team that enthusiastically does the job to the best of their ability. More than that, we want our people to go “the extra mile.” I’m blessed to be able to rely on a leader like Mark Cole, who makes sure our John Maxwell Company team benefits from relationship, ownership, reward, pride, and confidence. And team members respond by doing their best work.
I believe that if you provide your team with the above five gifts, then they are more likely to “want to” offer you their best in return.
Leading difficult people: Excited Eddie
Posted by: | CommentsI love spending time with enthusiastic people. I’m pretty high-energy myself. An enthusiastic follower can be a joy to work with. His excitement about his work has the potential to energize the entire team.
With one exception.
Let’s talk about Excited Eddie. He’s got loads of enthusiasm for his work, but only to a point. You see, his excitement only lasts for as long as the project is new. Eddie is a fantastic starter, but his ability to finish projects is lacking.
Just like Fearful Fred and Slumped Susan, you need to lead Excited Eddie in a way that works with his personality. If you understand, listen to, and lead him appropriately, you can harness his startup enthusiasm and help him to finish well.
Understanding Excited Eddie:
- Behavior: High Enthusiasm
- Motivated by: New Challenges
- Strength: Starts Strong
- Weakness: Seldom Finishes
Listening to Excited Eddie:
- Privately sit down and listen to Eddie’s exciting startup stories.
- Ask him for the “rest of the story.”
- Take into account how his emotion may cause him to exaggerate.
- Let him see what he lost by not seeing things through.
- If he desires to finish well, develop a game plan.
Leading Excited Eddie:
- Give him a new challenge.
- Keep him focused.
- Reward him for finishing well.
- If he’s a good starter, assign a steady and detailed person to assist him.
Growth plan:
Read Today Matters together.
Do you lead an Excited Eddie? Or are you personally more likely to start strong than to finish strong? Through guidance and effective rewards, you can channel Eddie’s enthusiasm so that it carries his work through to completion.
The Right Thing 101
Posted by: | CommentsA few years ago, I published a book called Ethics 101. In it, I proposed that ethics was not a changeable thing, based on your situation or personality or industry. Instead, I explained that I believe that ALL ethics boils down to one thing: The Golden Rule.
Essentially, asking the question, “How would I like to be treated?” is an integrity guideline for ANY situation.
Think about it: How DO we like to be treated?
1. We want to be valued.
Did you know that in the American marketplace today, 70% of those who leave their jobs do so because they do not feel valued? Don’t you want others to accept you for who you are and show you through their actions that you matter?
Valuing others, not for what they can do but simply because they are human beings, is the foundation of ethics.
2. We want to be appreciated.
Closely related to the need to be valued and loved is the desire to be appreciated for what we can do. Don’t you want to excel and achieve? Knowing that what you do matters builds your self-confidence and self-worth.
How do we express appreciation? Begin by thanking people at every opportunity. Give credit to others. And make a point of praising people in the presence of those close to them, like family members. Broadway producer Billy Rose shrewdly observed, “It’s hard for a fellow to keep a chip on his shoulder if you allow him to take a bow.”
3. We want to be trusted.
George MacDonald said, “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” Think about it: Good marriages, business relationships, and friendships all require trust. Without it, you don’t have open and honest communication, and the relationship can be only temporary.
It takes a leap of faith to put your trust in another person, especially someone you don’t know well. But as Henry L. Stinson said, “The only way you can make a man trustworthy is by trusting him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.”
4. We want to be respected.
When others trust me, I receive responsibility and authority. When others respect me, it touches something deeper within me. It gives me dignity and builds my confidence. As Arnold Glasow said, “The respect of those you respect is worth more than the applause of the multitude.”
The respect of a leader gives people the freedom to perform at their best and the incentive to work with excellence. I can’t think of a more positive working environment.
5. We want to be understood.
Charles Kettering said, “There is a great difference between knowing and understanding. You can know a lot about something and not really understand it.” Likewise, we can know a lot about a person and still not really understand them or why they do what they do.
But the desire to be understood is so strong that many disagreements can be resolved simply when one party (or both) gets the sense that they’ve been understood.
Understanding others means extending yourself and meeting them where they are. You must put the burden of connecting on yourself, not on them.
6. We don’t want others to take advantage of us.
We can cut through almost all of the ethical and moral dilemmas of life by observing this principle with others. If anyone could interpret what I do as taking advantage of them, then my actions are probably a bad idea.
What do you think of the needs listed above? Did I miss anything? And just for the sake of discussion, let me pose a question you can answer in the comments:
Describe a situation in your past in which a person in authority expressed value, appreciation, and respect for you. Why does that instance stand out to you? How did you respond?
Find more on ethics for all areas of life in Ethics 101.
The 3 R’s of Decision-making
Posted by: | CommentsThis past week on Twitter, I’ve been sharing some of my favorite quotes on priorities and time management. Important topics for every generation, priorities and time management seem to become more and more crucial every decade.
Today, in the age of the smartphone and social media, even technology has joined the fight for our most precious commodity: TIME.
A few decades ago, I came up with three critical questions on priorities. They still serve me well today, and I hope they’re valuable to you.
Before any decision on where to invest my time, this is what I ask myself:
- What is REQUIRED of me? Any realistic assessment of priorities in any area of life must start with a realistic assessment of what you must do. For you to be a good spouse or parent, what is required of you? To satisfy your employer, what must you do? If you lead others, then what must you personally do that cannot be delegated to anyone else?
- What gives me the greatest RETURN? As you progress in your career, you begin to discover that some activities yield a much higher return for the effort than others. After determining requirements, focus on choices with a high return on investment (ROI).
- What gives me the greatest REWARD? If you do only what you must, along with what is effective, then you will probably be highly productive. But you may not be content. I think it’s also important to consider what gives you personal satisfaction.
Note: These questions are meant to be asked IN ORDER. Many of us would love to skip down to #3 and focus on the most rewarding/fun/exciting activities. But no one can be successful who doesn’t possess the discipline to take care of the first two areas before adding the third.
The time that you have on this earth is precious – every minute of it. As Ralph Waldo Emerson advised, “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
~Adapted from Today Matters
If at first you do succeed, try something harder
Posted by: | CommentsThe willingness to take greater risks is a major key to achieving success, and you may be surprised that it can solve two very different kinds of problems.
The problem of hitting ALL of your goals,
AND
The problem of hitting NO goals… because you never make any.
Let’s look at #1: You’re not afraid to set goals and commit to a course of action. That’s the good news. But the goals you set are not hard to meet. In fact, you achieve success in them with little effort or time invested. That’s the bad news, because the road to success is uphill. You can’t coast and climb at the same time. Your solution: Take more risks; set more challenging – even frightening – goals. No, you probably won’t achieve all of them. But you will have stretched yourself and grown in the process. And the successes you have will be that much sweeter.
Now, on to #2: You may work hard and keep busy, but your labor lacks direction. Your successes are haphazard and unrepeatable. You’re like an archer without a target: sending arrow after arrow off in some general direction. Your avoidance of goals probably means you’re afraid to fail. “If I don’t set any goals, then I can’t fail at meeting them,” is your mantra. Again, you’re not taking any risks. Your solution: Paint some targets, in a variety of sizes. Give yourself big, medium and small goals, so you can start succeeding and develop momentum.
For today: Think about something you’d like to achieve. Make it big enough to scare you a little. Now write down a plan for moving toward it. Create mini-goals within the big goal, to set yourself up for continual progress. And include some risks. Find parts of the process where you can push the envelope, take more chances, and increase your opportunity for success.
