Coach Train Learn

Five Steps to Effective Feedback

You might be surprised how effective feedback can be to your team, but you have to get on and do it, so here’s some great tips!

Scrooged – A Dickens of a Way to Manage Change!

Managing change in our lives and in our businesses is vital in the modern environments in which we live. There is much to learn from that old and cantankerous Dickens character, Mr Ebenezer Scrooge himself…

The truth is, although he had an outward persona of grumpiness, deep down somewhere there was a man with a heart, seeing his life drift away from him.

We all do this to some extent – to hide away our true selves behind a veil of something we are more comfortable with. Sometimes we appear intimidating, cruel or even harsh. We avoid the intimacy we really seek, because of past experiences.

For old Scrooge, this became clear with the visit of the three ghosts, as well as what I find the most scary of all, the visit of Jacob Marley, his former partner, who seemed doomed to be stuck in that no-mans-land world between life and the ultimate infinity.

So, what happened then?

Firstly, Scrooge was reminded of who he might become if he carried on as he was. Marley gave him the example of the outcome of carrying on with his current behaviours.

Secondly, the Ghost of Christmas Past happened by. Showing Scrooge his almost forgotten past, where often he had experienced the fun that truly is possible, yet for so many of us is lost and overwritten by the experiences we have, as we grow through childhood and adult life.

Thirdly comes along the Ghost of Christmas Present, where Scrooge becomes aware of opportunities every day, perhaps even every hour, that we all have, yet our frame of mind causes us to miss them.

Awareness of these possibilities is quite a step, yet when we start to take the time to notice, we can easily change our behaviours for the better, not just for ourselves, but by others too.

Finally, the ambiguous Ghost of Christmas Future. Will it happen, or is there a choice? Where Scrooge will end up if he doesn’t make some changes. Interestingly, whilst Scrooge laughs along with the Ghost of Christmas Past and gets into those wonderful experiences of his youth, he’s not smiling anymore when it comes to the future.

And, even more oddly, it seems that the impact on others, what might happen to Tiny Tim, hurts and frightens him the most.

What can we learn from this? Quite a lot actually…

• Our past holds the clues to who we might be.
• We get stuck into one way of thinking and that does us no favours.
• Focusing on money (remember he’s a miser!), is an escape many of us choose.
• There are possibilities every single day to get more from our lives – to be authentic with ourselves.
• The future is impacted on by our behaviours and actions – we can make a difference.
• There is much pleasure for ourselves in helping others – it is not an action that causes us pain!
• We have choices to make and they are entirely in our hands. These are decisions we are making every day of our lives.

Managing change becomes all the easier when we realise what we had, where we are now and what might become of us in the future, unless we choose differently. It really is up to us – and that is the challenging part.

Above all, this enchanting story is well worth the read at this time of year – there are many more interesting lessons to learn.

As well as a delightful Christmassy story too!

Growing Capable Employees – The Easy Way

Do you ‘CELT’ each day?

If you want to get yourself excellent employees, fully formed and using their full potential – maybe it’s time to think about it!

Through engaging our people, we can bring the best from them – maybe even more than they might have thought possible, though as a manager who believes in them, you knew just a bit better, didn’t you, so there are few tiny tactics here…

C is for Coach
By encouraging each individual to find their own solutions, through thoughtful questioning and giving the opportunity to explore their own ideas in the listening space you create for them, they will help themselves – and ultimately you – with the brilliance that comes out. As a top manager, you are the coach for that!

E is for Experience
Nothing brings out potential better than providing the chance to experience new challenges in the work they do. Giving the chance to try something out will always ensure that there is growth for people, sometimes small, often big too. As a conscious manager, you are the facilitator for the experiences that can be created for your people.

L is for Learning
By exploring out the learning they capture, as you keep regular loose and friendly contact, you will both embed the value of the new experience and, if you’re smart, create spaces for even more explorations for them with the feedback you give them and even better as you explore their feeding back to themselves too. The best managers are great at this!

T is for Teach
As they build their skills through your coaching, their experiences and the learning they gain, there are opportunities for them to share that with others. Encouraging this makes it stick better, builds their confidence and spreads the word far wider than you could as a manager alone. Really smart managers leverage the numbers!

It’s not rocket science – many managers will have been doing this already in some form or other, yet focusing on this  little process for a while as you do the day job will help your people grow, every step of the way – and every day of the week too.

When you ‘CELT‘, you make the difference to one and then many. When you build this into your daily routine – such that becomes just the way you manage naturally – you make your life much easier, build capable individuals into your team and generate a much wider growth culture – for all your people.

With a culture like this, many of the issues managers face, such as employee turnover, absence, motivation and weak team spirit are simply history.

Will you ‘CELT‘ today? All your people are ready and waiting, so it’s up to you!

The Power of Positive Feedback

When I’m working with managers, I often ask them what they feel when they hear these words from their boss.

“Would you like some feedback?”

To be frank, their answer, like mine when I was a manager, would usually prefer to be ‘No, thanks!’, yet we always say, rather hesitatingly, ‘Yes, please!’ and wait for the painful words!

The reason for our apprehension is that if and when the question is asked, we just know that something painful is about to arrive!

Feedback is almost always perceived and ‘bad news’ when it is offered, because it is only offered when there is some criticism about to hit home.

Feedback has a bad press.

It has that poor reputation because it is so often used as a sad epithet for a way to tell you off! It isn’t valid feedback at all. It”s used simply as a license to complain, criticise or otherwise get bad news across.

The good news is that for you, there’s a different way, that is much more valuable.

Only give positive feedback to your people!

At least to start with and even when there is something that they might need to change, you sell it much differently.

‘There’s one thing that would make things even better.
You might want to consider (or think about), reviewing
the preparation for the presentation next time
and see how it goes’

Now isn’t that nicer and more valuable!

For the moment, spend a whole week offering positive feedback and see what happens – more, see how you feel.

In week two offer the alternative feedback when things could have gone a bit better if they thought about alternatives, using the words above.

Your people will love it – and you – for the kind and encouraging things you say.

And above all, it’s a far nicer job for you to do as well.

Coaching Innovation: An interview with Intuit’s Bill Campbell

A great article with astonishing insights with Bill Campbell, the veteran Silicon Valley CEO and mentor of CEOs, where he talks about his years in high tech.

Check it out at The McKinsey Quarterly

It’s Not What You Say, It’s The Way That You Say It

“OK, so what’s happened? … Well, yes you can do it that way. And let me show you a way that sometimes works well for us too”

“You did what – that’s crazy. Why didn’t you do it the way you were told? Don’t you ever listen to what I say?”

Two approaches – pretty clearly eh?

If you were on the receiving end of these two acknowledgements of when something seems to have gone wrong, how would you feel about the relationship you have with your boss/manager etc? Continue Reading »