Dear Madeleine,

I am at a crossroads and don’t know which way to go. During Covid, I got a great idea and started a very cool online business. I did so well that a few people invested in my little company, and for a while it grew like gangbusters. I hired some people to help out and we’ve had a great team for a few years now. We have all made decent money and had a lot of fun.

Over the last year, it’s been hard to compete with all the new entrants into the same space—most have more investment funds than I do. I’ve been approached to sell to a competitor who talks a big game but really just wants me out of the way. If I sold, I would have enough cash to pay back the investors, call it a day, and move on. Alternatively, I could raise more money and try to compete by upgrading our technology, hiring more people, etc.

Over the last year, I’ve been stuck in front of my computer 18 hours a day because of this business. There are so many other things I want to do. I was able to prove my concept and keep myself entertained, but now I’ve really lost interest.

My problem is my employees. I really like all of them and worry that they will feel betrayed if I sell out and walk away. There is no guarantee that anyone I sell to will keep them on, and they are all perfectly capable of finding new jobs, but I don’t want them to hate me. I am starting to feel trapped.

I have made a pros and cons list and discussed this with my nearest and dearest, but can’t seem to make a decision. I am interested to hear what you might suggest.

At a Crossroads

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Dear At a Crossroads,

I deeply appreciate how much you care about your people, but let us remember that you started your business as something fun and interesting to do. It sounds like at no point did you think “I am going to start a business so I can provide employment to people for the rest of their lives.”

I learned something that has turned out to be true from reading The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber decades ago. He said there are three kinds of people who start businesses: the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician.

The Entrepreneur is the dreamer—the person who spots a need or opportunity in the marketplace and creates something new to fulfill that need. This sounds a lot like you. You created something cool, and are now ready to move on to other things.

The Manager is the person who craves order and is good at creating the systems and processes that will ensure seamless running of the business. They are good at spotting problems and solving them for good. These are the people who tend to buy franchises because they come with a proven concept and systems. Creativity is not required.

The Technician is the person who is very good at a technical skill or expert at delivering a specialized service. Think massage therapist or, as the example Gerber used in his book, someone who makes extraordinary pies.

To create a business that thrives long-term, the person who starts it needs to understand which of these is their type, and find partners or employees who are the other two types. Both Entrepreneurs and Technicians desperately need Managers because there will always be tension that needs to managed. It is extremely rare that a person who starts a business is equally gifted in all three of these required areas.

These distinctions have been extremely useful to me personally, helping me to see that I am a Technician with an entrepreneurial spirit. Essentially, I realized quickly that trying to remain a Manager in a business that is up and running is a terrible idea for me. So I have had a career of starting things (sometimes successfully, other times not so much) and then handing them over to Managers.

This is a lot of detail to explain that, if your entrepreneurial bent were strong enough to keep you interested in solving problems and truly scaling your business, it would make sense for you to stay with it. But it is eminently clear that you have already lost interest. And you have an opportunity to sell what you created to someone who is enough of a Manager to scale and compete.

It sounds like you have a deep core need for variety. Core needs must get met or they will wreak havoc on your life and your business. Why would you saddle yourself with something you are already bored with? In this case, it would be for sentimental reasons—to deliver on a promise that you never even made. That, my friend, is a recipe for disaster.

There are steps you can take to care for your people as best you can. The first step would be to have a chat with each of them, explain your reasoning, and listen to their thoughts. You can express your care and concerns while still sharing what is real for you.

You can, of course, do your best to encourage your buyer to hang on to as many current employees as possible, which I am sure you will do anyway.

Finally, you can put your money where your mouth is. You might consider sharing a portion of the sale price with your people so that they each have a little nest egg, or enough to tide them over until their next opportunity presents itself. Once you have paid off your investors, you can do the math and figure out what makes sense to share with your employees. I think this would demonstrate your commitment and go a long way toward mitigating the pain of the loss and change.

Nothing lasts forever, At a Crossroads. You must honor your own needs and your strong instinct that it is time to move on. You can do that while also respecting your people’s hard work, the fun you all had, and how fond you are of them. You can close this chapter of your life honorably and without regret.

Love, Madeleine

About Madeleine

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response soon. Please be advised that although she will do her best, Madeleine cannot respond to each letter personally. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

Dear Madeleine,

I am a senior leader who reports to an SVP. I lead a business unit for a region. I recently had a one-on-one with my boss—a rare thing—and she gave me some feedback I am grappling with.

My company recently started doing pulse surveys, so I thought she might want to talk about the scores from my business unit that made it seem people’s morale was low. I was right.

She said I was very good at processes and systems and she was pleased with my unit’s results. Then she told me she thought I needed to work on being more inspirational. She asked me what my vision is for my business unit and I had to admit, beyond hitting our numbers and deliverables, I don’t really have one. Then before I could get more detail, she was called away and that was that.

I don’t even know where to begin on how to create a vision—or what to do with it once I have it. Any insight would be useful.

Feeling Blind

_______________________________________________________________________

Dear Feeling Blind,

This is a very common predicament for people who are straddling senior management and executive management positions. You have been consistently promoted because you are great at setting up processes and systems, holding people accountable, and executing results. But until someone points out that you need to start developing your ability to inspire and motivate people, it just doesn’t occur to you. So here you are.

It’s okay; you can do this. It might be uncomfortable but getting good at it at this point in your leadership journey will serve you very well.

The first step is to remember a leader you had in the past who did inspiration and motivation well. Try to remember what that leader did that worked. You can also ask your SVP for her vision so that you have an example of what she means—but the fact that you are drawing a blank on this leads me to think your boss may not have a vision either. Or if she does, she hasn’t shared it or it is unremarkable.

For guidance, I turned to the book FULL STEAM AHEAD! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life. Authors Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner define vision as “knowing who you are, where you are going, and what will guide your journey.”

Essentially, it means you are providing the why—the context and meaning of the work your people are doing. You are painting a compelling picture of a job well done that will Be motivating for your team.

People often talk about creating a vision—but I would argue that you probably have one already. It’s clear that you are super motivated, which is probably because you have a strong sense of what is possible and how the success of your team connects to the success of the organization. So your job is to articulate those things as simply as possible. My experience is that many leaders think these ideas are obvious to others because they are obvious to them. And this is never the case. You have to spell it out, and then you have to repeat it like you are broken record.

Blanchard and Stoner lay out the elements of a Compelling Vision. The questions and comments below each element are mine:

• It helps us understand what business we are really in.

You know what results you are after. But what will those results do the for the company? The world? What does your team do that no other team does? A great example is Disney, who we all know is in the theme park business but they say they are in the business of making memories.

• It provides a picture of the desired future that we can actually see.

What is possible for your BU if you continue to do well? Maybe you could grow? Attract top talent? Be a role model for other BUs?

• It provides guidelines that help us make daily decisions.

What values do you use to make decisions? Have you shared those? What behaviors do you expect from your people? Do they know?

• It is enduring.

What makes your team great? What makes it special?

• It is about being great, not just about beating the competition (or in your case, hitting the numbers.)

You and your team are doing a lot of the right things. What do you do? How do you do it? How can these things be replicated? How are you different from other teams or business units?

• It is inspiring, which is not expressed solely in numbers.

A vision is different from a goal, which can usually be expressed in measurable terms.

• It touches the heart and spirit of everyone.

It may feel too arrogant or touchy-feely to express possibility or highest ideals and use language that it isn’t brass tacks. This can be what makes it so uncomfortable for many. It took me twenty-two years to get the courage to include the word love in the vision for Blanchard Coaching Services. 

• It helps each person see how they can contribute.

More than ever before, employees are seeking meaning and connection. When people can see how what they do connects with the bigger picture, it makes their job much more compelling.

Once you have your answers to some of these questions, you are ready to get a draft vision down on paper. Don’t worry about getting it right the first time—just get it all down. Then revise, word craft, and keep at it until you have something simple. Short and sweet is much easier to remember.

You might want to follow your vision statement with a mission statement. The vision is what is possible, and the mission is why you do what you do, and for whom. A mission statement structure could look like this:

Our mission is to __________ (do something) for __________(what people?) so that __________(those people can have something, do something, and feel some way).

There is no reason you can’t involve your team at this point. Let them poke at it and provide further input.

Then share it. With everyone. Start meetings by restating the vision. Ask people to print it out and put it over their desks. If you are all in the office, have posters made. In the rough and tumble of the workday, it is easy to lose sight of the vision. You should take any opportunity you can to remind your people what it is.

This will undoubtedly feel downright weird and risky to you. Feel free to share your discomfort with your people so you aren’t trying to pretend to be someone you aren’t or be good at something you are doing for the first time. You can also share that the whole exercise is a work in progress and that you are open to reworking it.

The key is to start. Examine what drives you, what makes what you do matter. Get all of your thoughts down on paper and then start shaping them. Take your time. Be prepared to have things sound hokey, or high minded, or farfetched. It will all come into focus.

I have no idea if this is what your boss meant. But I can promise that the work you do on this will not be wasted time. It will give you new insight into your team and yourself as a leader—and it almost certainly will be inspirational.

Love, Madeleine

About Madeleine

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response soon. Please be advised that although she will do her best, Madeleine cannot respond to each letter personally. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

The Great Resignation. The Great Attrition. The Mass Exodus.

The historic turmoil taking place in today’s workplace has been given many names—and for good reason. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record-breaking 10.9 million jobs were open at the end of July 2021.[1]

This unprecedented turnover will stretch long into the future. Some 41% of the global workforce is “considering leaving their employer in the current year,” while “95% of workers are contemplating a job change.”[2]

All this turnover comes at a staggering cost: 30%–40% of the annual salary for entry-level employees; 150% for mid-level employees; and up to 400% for highly skilled employees.[3]

The costs are particularly steep for the sales function:

• The average salesperson needs 15 months before becoming a top performer.^[4]
• A company spends on average $106,374 for a salesperson’s salary, health care, etc., before the person starts to reach their quota.[5]
• The annual turnover rate for salespeople is 27%—twice that of the overall labor force.[6]

A little reflection reveals a sobering conclusion: A company cannot succeed if there is significant turnover in its sales force. The cost of the investment, the long lead time before success, the risk of a salesperson quitting, and the opportunities lost along the way are financially crippling.

The Pivotal Role of the Sales Manager

Sales managers have an oversized influence on the struggles and successes of a salesperson.

Gallup found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.[7] An article in Harvard Business Review went even further:

High-performing sales leaders reported an overall average annual quota attainment of 105% compared to 54% for underperforming sales managers.[8]

The same article stated that when salespeople rate their manager as being excellent or above average, 69% of them exceed quota.[9]

So how can sales managers help their new hires?

Using SLII® with New Hires

SLII®, the world’s most taught leadership development solution, is a proven way to help salespeople succeed. It categorizes a person’s capability for a given task or goal into four categories:

• D1—Enthusiastic Beginner. You’re usually at D1 when you’re starting to learn something new.
  • Remember how you couldn’t wait to ride a bike? You were at D1 on that goal.
• D2—Disillusioned Learner. You inevitably discover that what you’re trying to learn is harder than you first thought.
  • Pedaling, steering, and keeping your balance was trickier than it looked at D2.
• D3—Capable, but Cautious, Contributor. You need to build your confidence in using the new skill.
  • At D3 you could now ride around the block, but your first outing to a crowded park was a bit intimidating.
• D4—Self-Reliant Achiever. You’re highly competent at a task and committed to doing an excellent job.
  • When you reached D4, you could help your younger sibling learn to ride!

SLII® teaches managers to match their leadership style to an employee’s needs by using the appropriate directive and supportive behaviors. The four leadership styles are S1 (Directing), S2 (Coaching), S3 (Supporting), and S4 (Delegating). When leaders match their leadership style with an employee’s development level on a particular task or goal, the person develops competence, motivation, and confidence. And because their development leads to new career opportunities, they stay with your company.

New salespeople are at D1 or D2 on many tasks. They have considerable commitment (motivation and confidence) but little competence, even if they were a top performer at their previous job.

Here are examples of Style 1 leadership that sales managers can use to get new hires off to a fast start:

• Give clear goals
• Set timelines for accomplishing them
• Prioritize tasks
• Create a step-by-step learning plan
• Show what a good job looks like
• Give access to resources
• Share generous feedback on progress

Sales managers should also acknowledge a new hire’s transferable skills and commitment. People at D1 on a specific task or goal are receptive to direction when you acknowledge their commitment.

Sales managers can also paint a picture of success. That means showing the new hire what a good job looks like instead of letting the person develop bad habits as they struggle to find their own way. This tactic works because brain stores information as images, not words.

Time Well Spent

Millions of people worldwide are reevaluating their careers because of the pandemic. Competition for talented sales professionals is fierce. What’s a sales manager to do?

Take the time to invest in your new hires. Use SLII® when you lead. It will pay returns for years to come.

You can learn more about the impact that SLII® can have in your organization by downloading the new eBook Turning New Hires into Top Performers… Quickly. Looking for more content specific to sales management? Check out Meeting the Quota Challenge: Critical Skills Every Sales Manager Needs to Excel. Both downloads are free courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

ENDNOTES

[1] https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_actsubs&utm_content=signinnudge&deliveryName=DM150635

[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work#:~:text=Today%2C%20our%20research%20shows%20that,major%20pivot%20or%20career%20transition.

[3] https://www.clickboarding.com/employee-turnover-what-is-it/

[4] https://www.indeed.com/career/salesperson/salaries

[5] https://www.sba.gov/blog/how-much-does-employee-cost-you#:~:text=There’s%20a%20rule%20of%20thumb,little%20harder%20to%20pin%20down.

[6] https://hbr.org/2017/07/how-to-predict-turnover-on-your-sales-team

[7] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/231593/why-great-managers-rare.aspx#:~:text=Companies%20fail%20to%20choose%20the,of%20the%20time%2C%20Gallup%20finds&text=Managers%20account%20for%20at%20least,severely%20low%20worldwide%20employee%20engagement.

[8] https://hbr.org/2015/09/the-7-attributes-of-the-most-effective-sales-leaders

[9] https://hbr.org/2015/09/the-7-attributes-of-the-most-effective-sales-leaders

I’m excited to announce that The Ken Blanchard Companies has just made available a free ebook that provides practical information and easy-to-use tools to increase your leadership effectiveness.

If you’re familiar with my work, you know I’m a big believer in “different strokes for different folks”—meaning that I believe there is no best leadership style; the most effective leaders adapt their style to the development level of the person being led. This is the essence of SLII®.

Here are some of the assets you’ll receive in the free ebook:

• Leadership Style Quiz: Becoming aware of your default leadership style can help you improve your ability to influence others. Do you tend to be a more directive leader or a more supportive leader? Take our quiz to find out.
• Summary of SLII® Leadership Styles, Skills, and Micro Skills: The ebook summarizes the four SLII® leadership styles, the three SLII® leadership skills, plus the fourteen SLII® micro skills—a very handy overview for busy managers!
• Strengths and Weaknesses Quiz: SLII® teaches that people go through four development stages on any goal or task: Enthusiastic Beginner, Disillusioned Leader, Capable But Cautious Contributor, and Self-Reliant Achiever.

Blanchard research conducted with tens of thousands of leaders has found that only 1 percent of leaders are able to successfully match the needs of all four development stages. A majority of leaders—54 percent—use their default style with everyone. As you might imagine, this is not terribly effective!

Our Strengths and Weaknesses Quiz will improve your effectiveness by raising your awareness about your own leadership style and showing you when and how to adapt your style to the situation.

Concise and loaded with insights, our new SLII® ebook is a valuable tool for every leader. To download your free copy, follow this link: https://resources.kenblanchard.com/ebooks/are-you-a-directive-or-supportive-leader

For years, Victoria Labalme thought she couldn’t succeed without a clear plan. She made choices along the way that were not typical but felt right to her. Even when she felt like she was falling behind, she kept pursuing what interested her. One day, out of nowhere, she received a call that changed the course of her life. Looking back, she realized that the times she had started a project, trip, or dream without having a plan or an expected outcome were the times she had the best results—because she had kept moving forward, not knowing where things would lead. Those times led to her ultimate success.

In her new book, Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock your Hidden Genius, Labalme shares strategies that will help you, too, move through uncertainty and achieve success you wouldn’t have thought possible.

Labalme presents these strategies, developed through 25 years of performance coaching, in a unique, easy to read format. She encourages you to use Risk Forward as a guidebook and focus on whatever thought-provoking activities stimulate you to action. It isn’t a book that needs to be read from front to back. You can open it to any page and be enticed with an exercise to challenge your thinking and help you identify possibilities you otherwise might not have considered.

Labalme shares the most important question you must ask yourself to identify what really matters. She also offers four insights to help you find your way and three questions to ask when you need advice.  With chapter titles like Embrace the Fog, Begin from Within, and Honor Your Instincts, this book will have you looking at opportunities with a brand new mindset.

Risk Forward is filled with real-life stories along with practical tips and tools to help you put your talents to work and chart your own path to success. If you’re ready to do the work, this book is for you. To quote the author: “Some people in life know exactly what they want to achieve. This is a book for the rest of us.”

To hear host Chad Gordon interview Victoria Labalme, listen to the LeaderChat podcast and subscribe today. 

For more information about Victoria Labalme, go to www.riskforward.com/book or www.victorialabalme.com

Dear Madeleine,

I was promoted to VP of sales a few months before the pandemic hit. I feel like I have been in an industrial washing machine ever since, and am just starting to come up for air. There was a lot of training at the beginning but then our entire book of business and go-to-market strategies shifted. It has been mayhem, but things are starting to settle now.

I have an amazing team. I physically moved in order to take over a new region, so all of my people are relatively new colleagues, which is nice. About two years ago, our company changed CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. [Note: This is the system that sales leaders and marketing use to gain visibility into prospects, contact info, opportunities/pipeline, forecasting, account plans, competitive intelligence, etc.]

The new system is fine; not any worse or better than the old one. My people have figured out how to make it work for them and comply with requirements. But there are exceptions.

One sales rep, who creates amazing relationships with his customers and crushes his quota, cannot for the life of him get his info into the system. It’s great when he suddenly brings in huge projects, but then there is a scramble to deliver on the contract. Then there’s another rep who puts everything into the system beautifully but can’t seem to get anything done other than that—and she certainly can’t close.

My boss is giving me a hard time about both of them, but very little guidance on how to get them to where they need to be. Thoughts?

CRM Conundrum

__________________________________________________________________________

Dear CRM Conundrum,

I consulted our sales leaders here at Blanchard because I thought these may be common issues that they might have some good experience with. Judd Hoekstra and Sarah Caverhill both weighed in, so I credit them for a lot of this response.

I see 3 different issues in your letter.

1. One rep who crushes the numbers but won’t comply with keeping his data current in the CRM, which causes problems for you as a boss and for others downstream.
2. One rep who is very good at CRM management but doesn’t seem to know how to actually sell.
3. A boss who isn’t very helpful.

Today let’s deal with your sales genius who can’t/won’t comply, I will do a Part 2 later to address the other two issues.

There is an old New Yorker Cartoon of a guy in his underwear, smoking a cigarette and holding a martini at the water cooler, who says to another guy, “When you’re nailing the numbers, they don’t ask questions.” I bought a print and gave to our (then) VP of sales, but he didn’t think it was as funny as I did. I guess I have a really sick sense of humor. And until the advent of the now universally used CRM, I think it was kind of true that when sales reps would hit their goals, nobody much cared about how they did it or anything else. Your sales wiz is probably a bit of a holdover from those days. There is a progression to think through on this:

Get Clear About Development Level: What is your sales rep’s development level on using the CRM? In the language of our SLII® Model, development level is a combination of competence and commitment. There is a good chance that your rep hasn’t taken the time to get good at using the CRM because he doesn’t think he has to. The personality profile of people who are terrific at initiating and building terrific relationships that inspire buyers to commit usually does not include attention to detail and compliance with what they might consider to be annoying rules. And in today’s hypercompetitive job landscape, we are asking employees to be good at many skills. Being good at just one aspect of a job is no longer enough. So let’s be clear that you are asking a chicken to climb a tree or a squirrel to lay an egg—it won’t be natural or easy.

Gain Commitment: You are going to have to work with this rep on his willingness to commit to learning, getting good at, and using the CRM. First gain commitment, then get him the instruction and support that he will need to get skilled. How to do this? Explain how important the data is, why the organization requires it, and why you need it. Then set up small, reasonable milestones to get him where he needs to be. Sarah Caverhill shared an experience she had with a rep who refused to use our new CRM:

“I told her I understood she didn’t want to do it and asked her what was getting in her way. We identified a few things like ‘I get too busy in my day to do it’ and ‘I hate it—it’s drudgery.’ I explained that we need the data to run and grow our business. (Garbage in, garbage out—you want us to provide more resources? Then you need to do your part to help us see what’s coming down the pike. You want better project manager performance? Then you need to prepare your PMs with better info. And so forth.) I asked her if she understood the importance and she said she did. I then asked her what she could do to remove the things that were getting in her way and adjust her motivational outlook. We came up with several ideas. Eventually, she settled on one idea, which was to allocate 15 minutes each morning to updating the CRM before she started work. From that time on—and we’re talking years—I never had an issue with her opps being out of date. Sometimes the information was sort of a guess, but it was reliably input and often more accurate than I had expected.”

Be Fierce with Accountability and Enforce Consequences: If your sales rep simply refuses, you have a whole other problem. It sounds like he has gotten away with noncompliance thus far and is pretty sure that if he just ignores the situation, it will go away. If that is the case, you will have to discuss it with your boss and make a decision. There is probably a historical precedent in your organization that high performers can do whatever they want (in sales, especially, this is epidemic). So you need to choose to either perpetuate that culture or shift it—now. If you choose to perpetuate it, you will agree to let your rep not comply. Be aware that this will create issues of fairness if it hasn’t already: why do some people get away with bad behavior while others do not? All humans are hypersensitive to issues of fairness and will resent you for any preferential treatment you offer to anyone. On the flip side, you will have to come up with consequences for noncompliance, for which you are willing to hold both yourself and him accountable. This sets you up to be the compliance police, jury, judge, and parole officer, which will be a massive bummer—but that’s why managers make the big bucks. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Any system of requirements/consequences for noncompliance will work as long as you commit to it and take action according to plan. The final result could very well be that your rep will lose his job. This is why you need your boss to have your back. And, of course, it would hurt you to lose his numbers, so you will need to figure out how to cover your loss.

Judd Hoekstra says: “This is probably one of the more draining aspects of the sales leader role, because it’s ongoing unless there is alignment on tough consequences (like losing your job) for noncompliance.”

I will cover the other two issues next week, because this answer is already too long. I will float one more idea, though: Would it make sense to pair your sales rock star with your data tracking rock star? Pair a chicken with a squirrel? Have one show the other how it’s done? Is anyone else thinking that could be a good idea? Of course, then you would have a potentially fraught compensation formula to calculate.

Isn’t sales leadership fun? I admire all of you, honestly—I couldn’t take the heat.

More next week.

Love, Madeleine

About Madeleine

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response soon. Please be advised that although she will do her best, Madeleine cannot respond to each letter personally. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

Dear Madeleine,

I have been reflecting on 2020 and have just read the document with my goals for the year. I may laugh someday, but right now I am sad and demoralized. I accomplished literally not one single goal I had set for myself in 2020.

I wanted to lose some weight and get in shape. Nope. I joined a gym around the time of the shutdown and was so gung-ho that I paid for the whole year up front. Who knows what happened to that money?

A couple of my goals required money, which I am making a lot less of now than I was a year ago.

I had some developmental activity goals for my kids, but now I am just glad they are still alive after being quarantined at home, with me trying to work and them doing online school.

My partner and I had big plans for a romantic vacation—that’s off the table now.

I am thinking of just letting myself off the hook for 2021. Do you think that is a bad idea? Or is it smart? I really feel like just…

Giving In             

__________________________________________________________

Dear Giving In,

I found my goals, too! But I did laugh, because I am in pretty much the same boat as you and I have already cried a lot.

So here’s the thing, Giving In. Think about all the stuff you did accomplish that you hadn’t planned on achieving at all: You still have a job! You haven’t hurt your children! You and your partner are still together! These are all massive wins, my friend. If you had seen what was coming and your only goal had been to survive it, you would be feeling pretty great about your goal setting right now. So I think you must let yourself off the hook for 2020—you and the rest of the world.

Now, what about 2021? I say don’t give in, because here is what we know about goals: under normal circumstances people who set goals and write them down simply achieve more than those who don’t.

But the wisdom of good goal setting also tells us that our goals have to be realistic. I’ve always seen good results—for myself, my teams, and my clients—when goals are a bit of a stretch, but not ridiculous. We never really know what the future will bring, so you can only set goals with your current reality in mind. Ask yourself: what does my heart long for that I could take some steps toward right now? Find something you can actually do with just a little focus and the support of your partner, friends, colleagues, and kids. Maybe it’s a fitness routine you can do at home. I got through this year using Aaptive, an app that offers all kinds of workouts for folks at all levels. Maybe it’s walking around the block three times every day. Or maybe there’s something you could do with your kids at the end of online school every day. Given that nothing will be all that different for a while yet, setting an achievable goal will undoubtedly make you feel more optimistic and hopeful.

I would recommend this, however: Set one goal. Only one—but one you can crush. Leave the long list for another time. Or never. The biggest reason people don’t achieve their goals is that they have too many of them. There isn’t much research to support that assertion, but I am 100% convinced it is true based on my experience. Let’s tell the truth about what it takes to just get through the day, adulting and behaving yourself, paying the bills on time, showing up for work and speaking in complete sentences, and making sure dinner will happen somehow (cereal counts). Then let’s throw a pandemic on top of it and all bets are off.

You will probably need to mourn the dreams you had for 2020. It’s okay to be sad. But making some headway on a new dream, a dream that makes sense in light of our current reality, will give you a sense of control, autonomy, and mastery that will set you up to be ready when the world shifts back toward what we once thought of as normal. And history does teach us that it will shift.

So make a list of what you accomplished that you hadn’t planned to. I’ll bet it is really long, and something to be proud of. Be as sad as you need to be for the losses of 2020. And then get moving toward something you really care about that has deep meaning for you. Enlist help from anyone who can help you. It will make you feel better, I promise.

Love, Madeleine

About the Author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Dear Madeleine,

I manage a department in a large manufacturing organization. Some parts of our business are going gangbusters, but my area is suffering from a slowdown due to the restrictions and economic impact of Covid-19.

We were able to redeploy some of my people to the busier parts of the business, but still ended up furloughing about 25% of them. The net loss is about 45% when you add up the people who were furloughed or redeployed.

Even though our workload is still reduced, and things should be balanced, my remaining people are telling me how overly busy they are. I am still trying to figure out why that is so. I am madly trying to balance workloads and hoping you have some thoughts.

Failing at Furlough

Dear Failing at Furlough,

This seems to be situation normal these days—but that doesn’t make it easier, does it? I can certainly relate. We are in the same boat and I’m getting a crash course in posting on our Instagram account—which is, frankly, hilarious. It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks, but it’s a little painful.

It’s hard to think straight with all the high emotion, so that’s probably affecting you and your people. I would advise, first, to be kind with yourself and everyone else. Take the time to listen to everyone—the folks who moved, the ones who’ve been furloughed, and the ones in your department who are left with the work. Just listen. Breathe and listen. Reflect back what you hear, empathize, or cry with your people if that’s what makes sense.

You might feel like a therapist, but listening skills and empathizing are simply refined human skills. Using them does not make you a mental health professional. It just makes you a better human. People are sad, people are mad, and everyone is exhausted. Max Dupree, in Leadership is An Art, said “Leaders don’t inflict pain, they bear pain.” Maybe if people are allowed to express themselves honestly they will be able to think (a little more) clearly.

Once you have listened and everyone is on a more even keel, your next job (also according to Dupree) is to “define reality.” Sit down with your team, probably on Zoom, and take stock. Identify every task that each individual employee owned before, as well as all of the outstanding orphan tasks.

Make a whole list or whiteboard a mind map. Get it all down. Then, as a group, prioritize: what is absolutely, positively mission critical?

Now begin the big discussion, which goes like this:

• What must we absolutely do now—or maybe even do more of?
• What can we do less of?
• What can we stop doing, at least for now?
• What can we stop doing that we should have stopped doing it before this crisis anyway, but were in the habit of doing—because it isn’t working any more, producing a result, or adding value?
• How can we change up the systems, processes, and workflows to simplify or streamline for the non-negotiables?

Duke it out. Argue. Hold on to your top priorities. But now is not the time to focus on B-list activities. Be prepared to go to your boss with a new list of what’s possible with your new team. Don’t be bullied into trying to deliver on goals you were once going after with your full team. That is simply unreasonable. It is fine to ask people to be heroic for a week, maybe two. But we are now 100 days in—with no end in sight—so come on.

You are the boss and your people are looking to you for direction. First, listen. A lot. Then, act. If you need to take the heat from above, so be it. That is why, Failing at Furlough, I say that being a manager is hard, and being a manager who cares is even harder. And you so clearly do care.

Love, Madeleine

About the Author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is the co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 16,000 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

“So many of us are dealing with changes to our work routines. It’s generating a mountain of new requests and tasks that require us to get things done using new guidelines, practices, and procedures,” says bestselling business author Dr. Vicki Halsey, VP of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies.

“Leaders need to: (1) be sure direct reports are clear on what they have to do; (2) work with each of them to diagnose where they are on each task; and (3) get them the resources they need to succeed,” explains Halsey. “Managers need to be as clear as possible about what a good job looks like.

This can be more difficult than it seems on the surface—for example, when there are conflicting priorities. Managers are often asked to hit output quotas at a high level of quality but under a certain budget. In a call center, this might translate to workers being urged to solve every customer’s problem the first time they call while also maintaining a call volume of more than 20 calls answered per hour. That’s a huge challenge. The best organizations get clear on what is most important and set specific, trackable, and attainable goals while striving to maintain motivation and avoid burnout.”

Once goals are set, leaders need to be attentive to each individual’s level of competence and commitment for the new task or new way of doing things. Diagnosing development level is key, says Halsey.

“Help people see where they are on a specific task in terms of ability and motivation, which we describe as competence and commitment. A person can be high or low on either scale. When these measurements are combined, the person will end up at one of four development levels such as Disillusioned Learner (low on commitment, low on competence) and Self-Reliant Achiever (high on commitment, high on competence).

“As a leader, you need to listen and observe very carefully. If the person is a learner, you help solve the problem for them. If they’ve had some demonstrable success but they’re a little hesitant, you flip the conversation and ask them how they think they should solve the problem.”

Halsey says in all cases, the leader must stay involved.

“If you leave people alone, that’s when they will move the task to the next day’s to-do list. If you want to keep accelerating their performance, you have to stay with them. Are they letting you know their status on a task, or have they gone silent? Go and check with them. If you notice you’re not seeing the person as much as you used to, you need to connect with them, figure out where they’re stuck, and get them back on track.

“Your goal as a leader is to keep the conversations flowing. That’s the secret to productivity—clear goals, people aligned on performance, and being able to diagnose and then give what is needed to ensure they get the job done. When you accomplish that, you are working in a highly productive, aligned manner,” says Halsey. “That’s good for you, your people, and your organization!”

Would you like to learn more about helping the leaders in your organization have effective conversations in a changing work environment? Join us for a free webinar!

3 Performance Conversation Skills All Leaders Need to Master
Wednesday, June 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Join Dr. Vicki Halsey for an in-depth look at the three skills today’s leaders need to master in our changing world—goal setting, diagnosing, and matching. Halsey will show you how to help your leaders diagnose people’s development levels on new tasks and goals and how to provide the proper amounts of direction and support to get people up to speed quickly. You’ll explore how leaders can:

• Structure new goals, tasks, and processes for team members
• Diagnose a direct report’s current development level for mastering a new skill
• Provide a matching leadership style with the right amount of direction and support

Don’t miss this opportunity to get people performing at a high level quickly in a changing world.

Register today!

Dear Madeleine,

I work as a marketing director at a medium-sized firm and I’m a longtime reader of your column. My company reacted quickly to the warnings about COVID-19 and sent all of us home last week. My spouse is a frontline manager for a larger firm across town that couldn’t send employees home because of the type of work they do (customer service center), so they are practicing social distancing.

Our daughter came home from college after her university shut its doors. Our parents are doing well—even though they aren’t being as good at social distancing as they should—and the pantry is in decent shape for the next few days. My question is “Now what?”

It looks as if we are going to be in this situation for at least a couple of weeks—possibly longer. What advice do you have for me as I make the transition from being super reactive to having a broader sense of what’s next? I know it’s going to be different for everyone based on the various situations people are facing. Some of us are bored and inconvenienced, like my daughter who is mad the retail stores are closed. Some of us are scared we might lose our jobs until customers come back. And others are working harder than ever trying to find short-term solutions to the sudden drop in business.

Any thoughts on smart next steps?

Now What

Dear Now What,

We are all facing the specter of a potential new normal. People are struggling with how to manage workers who have never had to work from home. Some are facing extreme isolation and loneliness with the loss of their regular workday structure and environment. And hourly workers in the hospitality and service industries are completely without income right now. I was my hairdresser’s very last client a few days ago and she hasn’t the vaguest idea how she is going to make her mortgage payments.

I was recently up in the middle of the night wringing my hands over the fact that three of my four adult children will not be generating much revenue in the next few months. I finally remembered one of my favorite coaching techniques: Worst Case Scenario Thinking. I realized quickly that, worst case, they could all move in with my husband and me. It would be tight, but worst case, we would ration food and repeatedly run out of hot water. And I would have to kick one kid out of what is now my office during the workday. If we were to lose our house, well, I guess we would go camp out at my in-laws.

I do think that the banks and landlords are going to have to forgive mortgage payments and rents for a while. We are, very literally, all in this together. Governments in every nation will have to step in to help those who are now unemployed.

For now, use other classic coaching techniques to get yourself grounded:

• Take a step back and try to see the big picture.
• Distinguish between what you can and cannot control.
• Tap into sources of strength and grace you didn’t know you had by accessing your vision of your best self and trying to rise to it.
• Brainstorm ways to take best care of yourself, your team if you are a leader, and your loved ones.
• Make choices about what you will and will not focus on.
• Create a new structure to manage your new normal.

We simply don’t know what’s going to happen next. All we can do is stay present to what is, and respond as best we can. Find someone who needs help and help them. I’ve found that reaching out to those who are in a bad way by lending an ear helps me to keep from obsessing about my own worries.

We can all still get outside. Go for a walk. Go for a long walk. Go for two walks. Wave to your neighbors. If you have an elderly neighbor, volunteer to take their dog with you on your long walks. Walking has been scientifically proven to make us better creative problem solvers. Being outdoors, especially in nature, has been shown to boost endorphins. My daughter in New York City is finding all kinds of hidden gems in her neighborhood—a beach on the East River! A sculpture garden! Who knew?

In terms of your wayward parents, it might help to remind them that if they end up very sick, it is going to be on you to navigate the ER with them and fight for the services they need.

In times of great crisis and uncertainty, each of us will toggle between rising to our own vision of our best selves and folding like a lawn chair. That’s OK. You can choose to be your own hero—and if you crumple to the floor in a heap of overwhelm and have to take to your bed, so be it. You’re allowed to pull the covers over your head or binge-watch the first five seasons of Friends for a while. You might find that breaking down causes a breakthrough that results in hidden reserves of grace, patience, generosity, and kindness.

Be prepared to settle into the long haul with this. It looks like it could be a marathon. Stay calm, stay grounded, and be kind to yourself first and then to others. I hope like crazy that the loss of retail therapy is the worst of it for your daughter. In the meantime, tell her to read a book!

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

A new year is upon us. For many people, this time of year represents “out with the old, in with the new”—a new start or a new opportunity. I believe right now is the best time for self-reflection toward creating goals and identifying behaviors you need to become the person you want to be in 2020!

Imagine your desired future self. Who is the person you want to be? Is it someone who exudes executive presence, communicates eloquently, is a subject matter expert, is outgoing, or has confidence? Think big! Don’t limit yourself!

Next, what are the qualities you need to become this person? For example, would you like to be seen as charismatic, direct, self-aware, self-assured, sociable, empathetic, sincere, determined? It may help to think of the behaviors and qualities of a person you admire. Identify one or two behaviors to focus on to move toward your authentic future self.

Being your authentic self means being genuine and real. The way someone chooses to express confidence may be interpreted by others as cocky, fake, or power hungry. Be sure you are authentic and that you exhibit behaviors that complement your style. Let me share a story to help illustrate this point.

As an introvert, my natural tendency is to be a quiet observer and very guarded with what I say during a conversation. My goal is to be more outspoken and social. I once received feedback from team members who felt I was disengaged at times and who wanted me to share my opinions more often. I realized I was slow to respond and sometimes missed the opportunity to respond, which led to their perception that I was not engaged. I decided to make a change—and, most important, to do it in a way that was consistent with who I am.

I made an agreement with myself that I would start sharing my thoughts early in discussions, even if I did not have all the details or the time to process input from others before I stated my opinion. I gave myself permission to be vulnerable and uncomfortable with being more outgoing and outspoken.

Since then, I have been intentional with initiating conversations in social settings and speaking up during meetings and in group settings. I share my thoughts when appropriate, but I still engage through listening and processing what others say before I give my opinion.

Fast forward to today. During a large gathering of family and friends over the holidays, I was part of a discussion about the differences between introverts and extroverts, and being reserved versus outgoing. I stated I am an introvert, reserved, an observer, and not very comfortable in large settings. I was surprised to hear many state they disagreed with me. They gave me examples of when I was outgoing, displaying behaviors of an extrovert and a “social butterfly.” Looking back, I was happy I had accomplished an authentic behavior change, becoming more outspoken and social in a way that was still me.

How about you? Are you ready for a genuine change? Here are four steps to authentically change a behavior:

• Identify a behavior you want to change, such as shifting from timid to confident.
• Link the behavior to your values to be authentic. For example, being confident helps build positive relationships.
• Visualize the effectiveness of the behavior—a situation where you are confident and receive positive feedback from others.
• Create a plan of action. For example, be prepared for meetings, practice positive self-talk, learn presentation skills, etc.

It takes time, focus, and determination to change a behavior. But through self-awareness and being intentional with your actions, it can be done!

About the Author

Terry Watkins is a coaching solutions partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

Many leaders I work with know they would benefit from developing new skills but aren’t sure how to fit learning into their already packed schedule. I encourage them to think of their workplace as an on-the-job learning lab or playground where they can experiment with a new skill or behavior. I use this language because I think it’s best not to think of skill development as a big, serious task. Learners can relax into the learning by playing with it from different angles.

How about you? Are you putting off learning new things until the time feels right? Here are five strategies to help you get started.

• Choose one skill or behavior you want to acquire or improve. Get clear on one tool you want to add to your repertoire. Developing a new skill or behavior takes your best effort, so focusing on just one development area at a time prevents you from getting overwhelmed or diluting your efforts.

• Check your motivation. Do you truly want to develop this skill, or is it something you’ve selected because you think it might look good on your resume? Skill development requires that you be intentional and roll up your sleeves to hone what you want to learn. Internal motivation makes it much easier to put in the time and do the work.

• Create an image of what good looks like. Let’s say you want to become a more effective presenter. Once you determine you want to add that skill, create an image for yourself of what being a more effective presenter would look like. You can start by noticing good and not-so-good presentation skills of others around you—including people you work with, friends, family, or even the person giving away samples at a grocery store. After observing for a while, you will have created your vision of an effective presenter.

• Put your development plan together. Once you have your image defined, what you will you actually do to gain this new skill? If you aren’t sure, watch other presenters in person or online to see what they do that feels authentic to you. Seek advice and support from people who have presentation experience. Read books or articles on the topic. Look for tips, tricks, and suggestions that motivate you and resonate with who you are as a person.

• Ready, set, go. On the job is the best place to practice a new behavior—but use care. If you want to add presentation skills to your tool kit, it’s probably not best to start by volunteering to present to your executive leadership team. Start small, then build up your opportunities for practice as your skill level increases.

You don’t have to wait until your calendar opens up to work on skill development. You can practice on the job in the learning lab that is your workplace. Put these five strategies to work and take the first step today!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

Dear Madeleine,

I missed a back to school event for my kids last night. My wife called to ask where I was, and I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to be there. I saw it on my calendar and then it was gone from my mind.

My wife is really mad because I have blown through several commitments in the last few months. She is convinced I have an adult attention deficit disorder, but I don’t think so. I am just behind at work and cracks are beginning to show. I feel like I am just going in circles playing whack-a-mole. I might as well just whack myself on the head for all the good I am doing.

I have been stressed at work before, but this is a whole new level of crazy. Help?

Dropping the Ball

Dear Dropping the Ball,

A medical condition is a possibility, but I wonder if it isn’t more that you are overwhelmed by your commitments, the errors you are making are throwing you more off balance, and you are caught in a downward spiral.

Certainly you should look into seeing if you need real professional help. But while you are doing that, you have to stop the downward spiral. Just stop. Stop the crazy, turn the volume down on the noise, take a big step back, take a breath. I am going to give you step-by-step directions because you can’t think straight.

1. Get the book The 10 Natural Laws of Time and Life Management: Proven Strategies for Increased Productivity and Inner Peace by Hyrum Smith. Read it. It is an oldie but goodie. I am a time management method junkie and I have followed all of the gurus—but in my opinion, no one has topped Hyrum Smith. I read his book when it first came out and it honestly changed my life. Why not go to the best source for getting your head on straight about the absolute reality of the space/time continuum? You clearly have been a time optimist. This, combined with your desire to please everyone in your life, has resulted in chaos. Mr. Smith will help you cut it out.
2. Once you have read the book and decided what is most important to you, make a plan. Tell your boss you’re going to take two days off, then turn off your phone and take a big step back so you can think. Go somewhere no one will bother you—your local library, perhaps—and bring markers and flip chart paper. Now make a mind map of all the critical areas of your life: your health, your relationship with your wife, your relationship with your kids, other important relationships with friends and family, your job, your career, your craft, your spiritual life, your finances, etc. As you do this, all of the tasks you have to do, commitments you have made, and things you really want to do will bubble up. Write those next to each area. Get everything out of your head onto the mind map. This will help you get some perspective and it will stop the static in your head. If you need to do two maps, one for your job and another for your personal life, so be it. Decide which items are most critical and put them on a timeline/calendar and a to-do list. Decide which items are not as critical, and decide which ones you can dump. Everything else is negotiable.
3. Once you have achieved a modicum of calm and clarity, go talk to your boss about your priorities and what they see as most important. Show them your mind map or to-do list so they can see that what is being asked of you is simply not reasonable.
4. Say no to any new request unless you can be absolutely certain that you can deliver. Adopt the mantra “I under-promise and over-deliver.”
5. Review the tools or habits you can test out and possibly adopt—for example, starting a mindfulness practice, blocking 15 minutes every morning to make your to-do list for the day, or setting reminder alarms on your phone. All of these are habits of people with high productivity.

If this is the first time you have been this far off your game, you are probably fine. But you do need to recalibrate for the fact that your life is bigger than it has ever been—and probably gearing up to get even bigger. So step back, get a grip, and reclaim your life.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Dear Madeleine,

I started a new job as a senior leader for a large manufacturing firm about four months ago—and I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of the disaster I’ve walked into. All I heard about when I first came on was how much everyone loved my predecessor, how smart he was, how much he got done, and how much fun he was. It seemed that he generated incredible results. He sounded like Superman.

The further I got into the details, the more clear it was to me that the results were, indeed, incredible—because they were faked! But get this: he wasn’t fired, he quit. So nobody, including senior leadership, knows about this.

To make matters worse, he was everybody’s best friend. He never set goals with his people, gave feedback, or did performance reviews. He somehow charmed HR into letting him off the hook, but now I am being held accountable and my people aren’t used to anyone actually acting like a boss.

I don’t want to trash this guy—it wouldn’t make me any friends and it just isn’t my thing. But how on earth am I supposed to get things back on track here without making people hate me?

New Guy

Dear New Guy,

The last time I worked with a client in this position, she thought she was alone—but it turned out that the wool hadn’t been pulled over everyone’s eyes. I’ll bet if you diplomatically poke around, you will find the same thing. When the emperor has no clothes, there are always a few people who can see it.

It’s imperative that you come clean with your boss and your HR business partner. You can’t fight this fight alone. You may find out that they know all about it—that your predecessor was, in fact, fired, and they are testing you. That would be messed up, but I’ve seen it happen. However, if the news is all a big surprise to them, you will want to be gentle and stick to the facts. No need to call anyone names or place blame. Just share what you have uncovered as dispassionately and objectively as possible. Either way, you’ll create a few allies and buy yourself a little time to become the model manager.

Then do what you can to figure out what the true past results should have been and share that information upward. Your team doesn’t really need to know, and you might be able to preserve their fond idea of him.

Once you get a sense of the actual results, you can set your goal numbers a little above those—at least for starters. Approach your team by talking about team goals at first. You don’t have to trash the big faker; just talk about yourself. Share that you are goal oriented and a fan of goals and goal setting. Heck, show them this video of Ken Blanchard talking about it. Teach your people how to set goals and make it clear that you expect everyone on the team to have their own. You can also share your experience with giving feedback to help people stay on track.

Make clear that you think it is your job to help the business succeed by helping your people to succeed, and you want nothing more than each person’s success. Be kind. Be fair. Be patient. Go slowly and carefully and you will be okay. Yes, people may still hate you at first, but once they see you truly mean them no harm, they will stop hating you. And just remember, none of it is personal.

Forge ahead, do as well as you can, and stay positive. Everything is going to be okay.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

During my time as a coach, I have often utilized SWOT analyses to help teams analyze their organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a simple, user-friendly method to help a team or a board focus on key issues affecting their business. This type of analysis often can be used as a precursor to a more comprehensive strategic planning session.

One benefit of the SWOT process is that it encourages teams to not only brainstorm ideas but also face untapped opportunities and potential threats. Consistent use of this framework can give an organization a competitive advantage through dialogue regarding brand, culture, new products or services, and capabilities.

What some people don’t realize, though, is that SWOT analysis can also be an effective personal strategic planning tool. Crafting your personal SWOT matrix is a powerful technique that can be used, for example, when you are seeking a career change or facing a major shift in your life.

Here are three steps to get started:

Step 1 – Identify what exists now. List all strengths that exist now. List all weaknesses that exist now. Be honest.

Step 2 – Look to the future. List all opportunities (potential strengths) that may exist in the future. List all threats (potential weaknesses) that may occur in the future.

Step 3 – Create a matrix/get a plan. Enter your ideas in the appropriate quadrant (see figure). Notice that strengths and weaknesses are internal forces; opportunities and threats are external. See how each quadrant has a relationship with another? What strengths exist that could overcome weaknesses? What weaknesses need to be overcome in order to embrace a new opportunity? Review your matrix and think about a plan.

Here are a few helpful questions to increase your awareness around internal and external factors:

• What skills and capabilities do you have?
• What qualities, values, or beliefs make you stand out from others?
• What are the skills you need to develop?
• What personal difficulties do you need to overcome to reach your goal?
• What external influences or opportunities can help you achieve success?
• Who could support you to help you achieve your objectives?
• What external influences may hinder your success?

A SWOT matrix can provide a foundation to help you create goals and action steps. You may consider addressing your weaknesses by building skills or self-leadership capabilities. Carefully review your opportunities, as they may be used to your advantage. And consider how threats could be minimized or eliminated by shifting personal priorities or gaining new knowledge.

It’s common for people to experience blind spots around their own strengths and weaknesses, so don’t hesitate to seek out opinions from friends, family members, and colleagues. Also, be willing to share your SWOT matrix with a partner who will hold you accountable for action steps and celebrate your progress.

Best of luck—and happy personal planning!

About the Author

Patricia Sauer is a coaching solutions partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world.

Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

Most people will tell you they are working as hard as they can, says bestselling business author Vicki Halsey. “The problem is, they still aren’t able to keep up with the workload. Today, people need to work smarter, not harder,” says Halsey.

“That means leaders need to (1) be sure direct reports are clear on what they have to do; (2) diagnose where they are on each task; and (3) get them the resources they need to succeed. People are doing activities—and lots of them. But the activity may not be targeted toward the critical goal, task, skill, or strategy that is actually needed for the organization to hit the target.”

According to Halsey, productivity improvement begins with observation. She likes to compare behaviors of the most productive people in organizations and the ones who struggle to keep up. One difference is that the former group has a laser focus on the work that needs to be done to achieve strategic goals.

“As Ken Blanchard says, all good performance begins with clear goals. So begin with clear expectations such as what someone needs to achieve, and by when. This is the essence of smart goal setting. Your goal is to create a crystal clear picture of what a good job looks like.”

It’s also important to check for understanding, says Halsey.

“As we think about setting clear expectations with people, it’s important to remember our differences in communication and learning styles. I teach a graduate class at the University of San Diego and also gave the same learning preference survey to my MBA students that measures if they are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile kinesthetic, or auditory verbal. Results from students representing 35 different cohorts showed only 5.4 percent in the category of strong auditory learners. Consider going beyond telling—to showing. For example, in addition to explaining what a good job looks like, provide a video so that learners can actually see the behavior in action.”

Once goals are set, next comes diagnosing competence and commitment, says Halsey.

“Help people see where they are on a specific task in terms of ability and motivation, which we at The Ken Blanchard Companies® describe as competence and commitment. A person can be high or low on either scale. When these measurements are combined, the person will end up in one of four different development levels including Disillusioned Learner (low on commitment, low on competence) and Self-Reliant Achiever (high on commitment, high on competence.)

With an accurate diagnosis, a leader can put together a clear plan to accelerate the person’s productivity, says Halsey. But it requires a rethinking of the SMART goal setting model.

“I love the SMART acronym—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable. But for it to be most effective, change the “M” in the model to motivating instead of measurable.

“People want to see the impact of their work and they want to know they are making a difference. The original version of SMART begins with Specific and Measurable, which works well for identifying what needs to occur by when. But it doesn’t take into account the very human need of doing work aligned with our purpose, values, and who we want to be in the world.

“Sometimes leaders wonder why they should care how committed a direct report is to a task. When I am training a group of leaders and I hear that, I ask, ‘How many of you have something on your to-do list that you’re not motivated to do?’ Everyone raises their hand! And what happens to those things on our to-do lists? They go to tomorrow’s to-do list. And the next day’s. And what does that do to productivity? It impacts the quality and quantity of work done. So it’s critical that a leader has a very finely tuned sense of observation. They are observing their direct reports either moving toward what needs to happen, or moving away from it.”

That’s the commitment part of the equation, says Halsey—but remember it is critical to also diagnose competence.

“In its simplest definition, competence answers the question Has a person done this before successfully? If a direct report is new to a task with very little experience, the leader will need to provide a lot of direction and access to resources. If the person has accomplished the task successfully with high levels of reliability, the leader can delegate the task to them confidently. If the person is somewhere in between, the leader needs to adjust the mix of direction and support to match the person’s development level.

“So as a leader, you listen and observe very carefully. If the person is a learner, you help solve the problem for them. If they’ve had some demonstrable success but they’re a little hesitant, you flip the conversation and ask them how they think they should solve the problem.”

Halsey says in all cases, the leader needs to stay involved.

“If you leave people alone, that’s when they will move the task to the next day’s to-do list. If you want to keep accelerating their performance, you have to stay with it. Are they letting you know their status on a task, or have they gone dark? Go and check with them. If you notice you’re not seeing the person as much as you used to, you need to connect with them, figure out where they’re stuck, and get them back on track.

“Your goal as a leader is to keep the conversations flowing. That’s the secret to productivity—clear goals, people aligned on performance, and being able to diagnose then give what is needed to ensure they get the job done. When you accomplish that, you begin to work in a highly productive, aligned manner,” says Halsey. “That’s good for you, your people, and your organization!”

Would you like to learn more about creating a culture of high productivity in your organization? Join us for a free webinar!

3 Keys to Creating a High Productivity Work Culture
Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Research shows that most organizations operate at only 65 percent of their potential productivity. In this webinar, bestselling business author Vicki Halsey shows leadership, learning, and talent development professionals how to reduce the productivity gap in their organizations by improving the performance management skills of their leaders. Halsey will share how to improve leadership skills in three key areas:

• Collaborative goal setting—how leaders create a partnership approach that improves accountability and gets results
• Diagnosing development level—how leaders identify the skills and motivation level of a person being asked to take on a new task
• Providing a matching leadership style—how leaders flex the amount of direction and support they provide to create the perfect environment for goal achievement

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to equip leaders with the skills they need to align and coach people to higher levels of performance and productivity. The event is free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Register today!

Want a more purposeful, aligned, and engaged organization? “Make sure managers and direct reports are taking a collaborative approach to performance,” says Susan Fowler, senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of the company’s Self Leadership training program.

“It starts with agreed-upon goals,” Fowler continues.

“In my early days as a consultant, I was asked by leaders of an organization to help improve telephone communication skills. I soon realized that the organization wasn’t actually interested in general telephone skills but only wanted to address the mistakes being made at their front desk—especially the negative feedback from employees and customers about one telephone operator in particular. I decided to work directly with the operator on goal setting.

“She had been in her role for a long time but her manager had never attempted to work with her on setting goals—he had only expressed frustration about the complaints. Her service position was primarily reactive and the manager had found it too challenging to set goals for a job where there was little control.

“She and I tackled the negative feedback regarding mistakes by setting a goal to reduce mistakes by 50 percent over the next two months. We identified actions she could take to improve accuracy and customer service. We also asked company employees to monitor their messages for mistakes and to report any customer complaints.

“After a couple of months, I checked in and was dismayed to learn that inaccuracies and complaints had actually increased! We attributed the bad news to the fact that we had brought attention to the problems and asked for feedback. We decided to consider the feedback a gift and began analyzing the data we’d received.

“Together, we discovered that most of the mistakes were occurring between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time. When the business day ended in the Eastern and Central Time zones, calls were routed to the California office. The extra volume was too much for one person to handle, putting an unreasonable expectation on the operator and her ability to deal with calls in a friendly and effective manner.

“The data gave us the evidence we needed to ask for help. We asked the operator’s manager to put a second person at the switchboard for those two hours. Two months later, the operator had not only achieved but exceeded her goal,” says Fowler. “It was a simple solution—but without a collaborative goal-setting approach, we never would have understood the underlying cause of her poor performance. She would have continued to get negative feedback—and maybe lost her job.”

That’s why Fowler is so adamant about approaching goal setting as a joint responsibility where managers and team members work together to clarify expectations, identify challenges, and develop a plan for accessing the resources each person needs to succeed.

“Managers and direct reports need to sit down and talk about what it would look like if each of them were doing the best possible job. It is a rich, deep conversation that clarifies expectations on both sides about what the job is and how they can work together to create alignment in a way that is effective, engaging, and worth pursuing.”

Rethinking SMART goals

Fowler says this type of approach requires tweaking the SMART goal criteria used in most organizations.

“Most people know SMART as specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable. At Blanchard, we recommend changing the M to motivating.”

Fowler explains that if managers don’t explore a team member’s motivation and create a way for each individual to connect their work to personally meaningful values, the manager ends up having to hold them accountable.

“Managers who focus on only being specific and measurable in goal setting end up spending their time holding people accountable. Why? Because the goals weren’t personally inspiring to the direct report. Help people be accountable so you don’t have to hold them accountable.”

Fowler teaches managers to make sure they have a conversation with each direct report where they explore the individual’s self motivation to achieve each goal. This ensures the person’s motivation isn’t dependent on external factors they can’t control.

“When someone can connect a goal to their personal values, the result will be a person who is accountable—because they have clarified, negotiated, or reframed the goal in a way that is personally meaningful and important. That’s a key learning objective in our Self Leadership program. We teach individual contributors that when they are given a goal, it is their responsibility to:

• Clarify the goal if it is unclear
• Negotiate if they don’t believe the goal is fair or relevant to their job
• Reframe a goal if it’s not personally compelling or in line with their values or sense of purpose

“Working collaboratively to clarify, negotiate, or reframe goals sets up a joint accountability between manager and direct report that leads to goal achievement.”

From goal setting to goal achievement

Clear goals set the stage and make it easier for the manager to provide the appropriate levels of direction and support a person needs to get the job done, says Fowler.

“The reality is that most managers have their own work goals at the same time they are managing the work of others. I’m always surprised when organizations expect managers to be aware of what is going on inside the heads of every one of their direct reports while they are each working on their different tasks.  We know from experience that even our loved ones—the people we are closest to—often don’t know what we are thinking. Why would we expect managers to know what each of their direct reports is thinking?

“At Blanchard, we teach managers and direct reports how to use a shared language to describe the four stages of development everyone goes through when presented with a new goal or task. This ranges from enthusiastic beginner when someone is just starting out, through the motivational dip we describe as disillusioned learner, to capable, but cautious contributor as they build competence and commitment, and finally, to self-reliant achiever when they’ve mastered the task.

“When managers and direct reports have a shared understanding of development levels, it provides them with a means to have effective conversations every step of the way. Now a person can go to their manager and say, ‘I’m at the D1 level of development (or the enthusiastic beginner stage) on this goal. I’m excited about the challenge but since I’ve never done it before, I need direction from you.’”

A shared language also makes it easier for the manager to respond appropriately and more effectively, says Fowler.

“If an individual needs direction, a manager can immediately provide it or find a resource that can. This same shared language can make it easier for a manager to say, ‘I don’t know how to do that either—let’s find a resource for you.’

“When goal achievement is pursued as a collaborative responsibility, it gives the manager permission to talk about other resources and ways of getting the team member what they need.”

An important twist when engaging in one-on-ones

One additional recommendation Fowler has for managers is to share ownership of one-on-one meetings.

“A lot of people think the one-on-one should be driven by the manager.  What we’re saying is that the agenda for the one-on-one should be directed by the direct report. If the manager is leading the one-on-one, it’s pretty hard to distinguish it from other kinds of performance management discussions, such as goal setting or feedback conversations. When the direct report sets the agenda, they are saying, ‘I understand this is my goal. Here is the progress I’m making and here is what I need, either from you or from another resource, to keep moving forward.”

A key skill for today’s successful organizations

Fowler encourages leadership, learning, and talent development professionals at companies of all sizes to consider how they can bring a more collaborative approach to leadership in their organizations.

“In the last 15 years I have seen a tremendous increase in research that identifies the importance of self leadership. In fact, increasing the proactive behavior of individual contributors has been identified as the single most important ingredient for the success of organizational initiatives.

“Teaching people how to use a shared language to self diagnose and partner with their managers is a great way to get started. It creates an engaging and motivating environment for the individual and helps the manager and the entire organization move forward more quickly to succeed.

“Don’t delay—start using a more collaborative approach today!”

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Would you like to learn more about taking a collaborative approach to performance management? Join Susan Fowler for a free webinar!

Partnering for Performance: 3 Ways to Help Your Managers and Direct Reports Collaborate to Achieve Goals

March 27, 2019 / 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern / 4:00 p.m. UK Time / 4:00 p.m. GMT

If you are a leadership, learning, or talent development professional, you know that it takes two to optimize performance—the manager and the direct report. As their leader, your dilemma is how to encourage and facilitate the crucial relationship between the two.

In this webinar, bestselling business author Susan Fowler shares how you can promote a collaborative approach to performance management that has been proven to get results with high levels of engagement. Fowler reveals the latest research-based strategies on self motivation and how to combine it with the time-tested principles of Situational Leadership® II (SLII®)—the most widely-taught leadership development model in the world.

Participants will learn how to position performance management as a joint responsibility—with managers and direct reports working together to make sure they set clear, motivating goals and effectively diagnose competence and commitment on key tasks so that everyone has what they need to succeed.

You will explore how to help managers and team members:

• Take a top-down, bottom-up approach to SMART goal setting with a focus on motivation and task competence
• Build mutual accountability for achieving agreed-upon goals
• Take a situational approach to performance management where direct reports self diagnose their development level and ask for the direction and support they need to succeed

Fowler will share how this joint approach achieves outcomes faster, more efficiently, and with a greater sense of engagement. It’s a 1+1 = 3 approach that yields much better results than when managers and direct reports work independently.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get your managers and direct reports collaborating for goal achievement!

Use this link to register today!

Best-selling business author Scott Blanchard says managers who are effective at goal setting with their people keep two things in mind:

1. The big picture—why we are doing it and what matters about it?
2. The short term—what do we need to do now to move forward toward the larger goal?

Blanchard gives an example of this process:

“I just finished some work with a fairly large organization that has sixteen general managers. I asked if I could interview two of the GMs who were achieving the best results. Even though I interviewed them independently, their approach to goal setting was remarkably similar.

“Both of these GMs set big goals and have clear expectations with their people that the goals will be met. They also stress the importance and discipline of a weekly Monday meeting to discuss with their team what’s in front of them this week, what they can handle, and what they need to do to accomplish the larger goal. They succeed in the long run by focusing on the short run and connecting the two.”

Blanchard says another important key for successful goal setting is resilience—the ability to adjust when things don’t progress as planned.

“Rarely do things go exactly as planned. But too often when things go awry, instead of talking about what can be done to get things back on track, people come to a full stop.

“My clients referred to what they call “mental toughness”: the ability to keep performing when things change, go sour, or take longer than planned. Early in the process, teams are primed with the mindset that things aren’t always going to go smoothly—and they are given ways to respond in the moment to achieve the best possible result. Goal setting is not meant to be static. If the team is stuck or heading in the wrong direction, the manager works with them to restate the goal and make adjustments.”

Blanchard also emphasizes that regular check-ins are especially important when the goal is new, difficult, or one the team has not achieved successfully in the past. “When a team is focusing on something new or challenging, frequent check-ins with the manager are essential. As the team gains confidence and demonstrates competence, these meetings can be scheduled further apart.

“In both our SLII® and our First-time Manager programs we teach that once goals are set, managers need to check in with team members on a regular basis to remind them what they are trying to accomplish and why it matters. Managers also need to take opportunities to have praising conversations when things are going well and redirection conversations when things deviate from the plan.  

“Over time, as people become more confident and trusted, the manager can delegate more and pull back on the frequency and intensity of these conversations. As people become self-reliant, the manager can turn over the responsibility for achieving the goals to the individual or the team.”

It’s all part of seeing the leader/direct report relationship as a partnership, explains Blanchard.

“It’s about working side by side with people—providing direction and support in a way that lets them grow into their autonomy. For example, when a salesperson is working for a sales manager, their goals are interdependent. As the salesperson demonstrates an increased capacity to achieve the goal, the manager can direct a little less and use more of a coaching style. Instead of telling, the manager is asking and listening.

“Setting goals is a foundation for success,” says Blanchard, “and having clear agreements about performance expectations, with regular check-ins, is the process for getting there. Obstacles that can undermine relationships and results are a lack of clarity and a lack of clear agreement.

“When things really matter, effective managers make the effort to ensure the team is crystal clear on goals and procedures. This takes extra time at the beginning of a project, but it will pay dividends in the long term. Plus, it sets a process in place that the team can use on future projects.

“That’s a win-win for everybody,” says Blanchard.

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Would you like to learn more about helping your managers develop their goal-setting, direction, and support skills? Then join Scott Blanchard for a free webinar!

3 Steps to Building a Purposeful, Aligned, and Engaged Workforce

February 20, 2019, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time

In this webinar, best-selling business author Scott Blanchard will share a 3-step process for creating a focused, purpose-driven, and engaged work environment. Blanchard will show participants how to

• Set clear goals at the individual, team, department, and organizational level
• Identify motivation and competency for identified tasks
• Ask for—or provide—the resources needed to get the job done

This webinar is designed for leadership, learning, and talent development professionals charged with improving leadership skills and overall organizational performance. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to create a focused, purposeful, and aligned work environment in your organization.

Use this link to register today!

Researchers from The Ken Blanchard Companies teamed up with Training magazine to poll 456 human resource and talent-management professionals. The purpose was to determine whether established best practices were being leveraged effectively.

The survey found gaps of 20-30 percent between what employees wanted from their leaders and what they were experiencing in four key areas: Performance Planning (setting clear goals), Day-to-Day Coaching (helping people reach their targets), Performance Evaluation (reviewing results), and Job and Career Development (learning and growing.)

Use this link to download a PDF version of a new infographic that shows the four key communication gaps broken down into ten specific conversations leaders should be having with their team members.

Are your leaders having the performance management conversations they should be? If you find similar gaps, address them for higher levels of employee work passion and performance.

You can read more about the survey (and see the Blanchard recommendations for closing communication gaps) by accessing the original article, 10 Performance Management Process Gaps, at the Training magazine website.

Would you like to learn more about improving the quality of management conversations in your organization? Join Ann Phillips for a complimentary webinar on Performance Management 101: 3 Conversations All Managers Need to Master. The event is free courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can learn more and register using this link.

One element within the feedback conversation—redirection—tends to be especially challenging for managers. It focuses on those times when a manager must provide feedback that a direct report’s current performance is off-track.

In their book The New One Minute Manager, coauthors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson lay out a time-tested approach to help managers deliver needed feedback. Here are 4 key takeaways you can use to improve your feedback skills.

1. Do your homework

Before you rush to deliver feedback, make sure clear agreements about goals, norms, roles, and expectations have been established. Often the root cause of poor performance is a lack of clarity around goals. Verify with your direct report that the two of you are operating from the same set of expectations. Many performance issues can be rectified at this stage.

2. Focus on behavior

If goals are clear but there is a gap between expectations and observed performance, talk about it with your direct report. Describe their behavior in specific, not general, terms. Use a neutral tone to ward off any sense of blame or judgment—remember, you are addressing the behavior, not criticizing the person. The goal is not to tear people down; it is to build them up. As Blanchard and Johnson explain, “When our self-concept is under attack, we feel a need to defend ourselves and our actions, even to the extent of distorting the facts. When people become defensive, they don’t learn.”

3. Let it sink in

After giving feedback, pause for a moment so you both can process the situation. Let your direct report feel your concern as well as their own.

4. Move on

When it’s over, it’s over. Don’t dwell on the experience. Be sure to reaffirm your belief, trust, and respect for your team member so that when your meeting is over they are thinking about how they can improve their performance, not about how you mistreated them. Expect that the feedback will be received and acted upon. And be ready to endorse and praise performance when you see improvement.

Giving performance feedback is a critical job responsibility of any manager, but it can be a daunting task for many people—especially when the feedback is less than positive. Managers don’t want to generate negative emotions, damage relationships, or make a bad situation worse. As a result, managers often delay or avoid giving necessary feedback, allowing poor performance to continue.

Don’t let that happen to you or to the people in your organization. With a little practice you can develop the skill of delivering feedback in a way that changes behavior while keeping the relationship intact. Feedback is an essential managerial skill. Take an extra minute to improve your skills in this important area!

Would you like to learn more about improving the quality of performance management conversations in your organization? Join Ann Phillips for a complimentary webinar on Performance Management 101: 3 Conversations All Managers Need to Master. The event is free courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can learn more and register using this link.

I hear that statement all the time from my coaching clients. I get it—no one wants to be known as a boss who hovers over people and tells them what to do all the time. However, what I’ve noticed with some clients who desperately do not want to micromanage is that they often go to the other extreme and completely abdicate their leadership responsibilities.

So how does abdicating—which we also label as under-supervising—frustrate? Let’s look at one common example.

Under-supervision is most damaging when a leader says to a direct report who is unfamiliar with a task, “I know you will be fine. Just let me know when you’re done.” The direct report very likely won’t be able to do a task they haven’t been trained to do. Then, when the task becomes difficult or the person experiences some natural early failure, it’s normal for them to think, “My boss thinks I can do this. There must be something wrong with me!”

This begins a stream of negative self-talk, which can kill creativity. People in this state rarely give themselves permission to be a learner, to take risks, or to experiment with possible solutions. Isolation can also set in. People are often hesitant to reveal that they don’t know something—and are even less likely to do so if they think their boss expects them to know it.

Finally, forward motion is thwarted. When someone doesn’t know how to do something and doesn’t have anyone to guide them, they will often work on the tasks they do know how to do and set the other task aside. It appears to be human nature. I’ve witnessed people who are otherwise brilliant do this many times.

I’m convinced that abdicating behavior from a manager can be just as frustrating to a direct report as the dreaded micromanaging. The ideal balance would be to provide the right kind of leadership style depending on direct report’s development level on whatever task or goal they are working on. As Ken Blanchard says, a leader needs to “Slow down to go faster.” Here’s how it works:

1. With your direct report, articulate the goal for any assigned work. Express what a good job would look like. And this is a vital step: have your direct report repeat back to you what they heard you say about the goal and the desired objective. This will ensure you are both on the same page.
2. Next, ask the person how they would go about achieving the goal. And then really listen.
3. If they list out what they would do and it sounds like a good plan, send them on their way with your blessing. Of course, always let them know you are there if they need anything along the way.
4. On the other hand, if you hear “I’m not sure,” “I haven’t done this before,” or other statements of self-doubt, take it as a sign the person needs more supervision. Partner with them to create a plan for getting the job done—and be sure to check in with them regularly.

I always think using this style is like offering a thirsty person trekking through the desert some water. It’s giving them something they desperately need.

The hope is that a direct report who isn’t yet self-reliant on a task will grow and develop autonomy as they go forward. As the direct report develops competence and confidence doing the task, you, as the leader, can pull back on supervision.

Matching your leadership style to the specific needs of your direct reports will allow you to always correctly supervise versus under- or over-supervising. In this way, your leadership actions will always be just right!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

“Part of effective communication between manager and direct report is a mindset and part is a skillset. Both are required,” says Phillips. “It’s easy for managers to convince themselves they don’t have time for quality conversations, especially when they aren’t particularly interested in having them and don’t really know how to do it.

“Every manager I’ve worked with has so much of their own work to do all day, every day, that some can’t see their way clear to spending time with the folks who work for them—other than performance reviews, rushed interactions, or crises,” explains Phillips. “Conversations between these managers and their people are mostly manager-led directives of ‘this is what I want you to do; here’s how to do it.’ The manager is focused on getting stuff done and on what needs to happen—not on their direct reports’ career growth or needs.

“Unfortunately, when individual contributors in this scenario become managers, they treat people exactly the way they were treated. Sub-quality conversations become a cultural norm.”

The good news, according to Phillips, is that managers can learn to be more effective in their work conversations.

“If a manager has the right mindset and training, it’ll drive the right behavior,” says Phillips. She recommends focusing on three specific conversations to get started.

The Goal-Setting Conversation

“All good performance begins with clear goals. Effective goal-setting conversations begin with clarity—what to do, by when, and what a good job looks like,” says Phillips. “Be specific—and don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s critically important to take the time to make sure both parties are interpreting the same words in the same way to avoid misunderstandings.

“Conversations and relationships can go sideways when people interpret things differently but don’t have a conversation about that interpretation. Never assume!”

This leads to the second important conversation at which managers need to excel—giving feedback.

The Feedback Conversation

“A friend of mine recently told me I tend to hijack conversations,” says Phillips. “The funny thing is, I was just about to tell her she does the same thing! We discovered that what I interpret as hijacking and what she interprets as hijacking are two different things.

“We talked about how, when she’s talking and pauses to think, I rush in to fill the empty space.  It goes back to my experience at home. In my family, you talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and there are no pauses. So when my friend goes silent, I fill in the gap and start talking about something.

“Then I explained to her that I feel she hijacks the conversation when I tell her about something happening in my life and she immediately turns it into a discussion about something that’s happening in her life. It’s related, but it still feels to me like she is making it about her.

“Because we are committed to our friendship, we’re willing to discuss things that are uncomfortable and to consider each other’s point of view. That’s important at work, too. Managers and direct reports need to have the type of relationship where they can talk honestly. When a manager cares about a direct report as a human being—and vice versa—they build up an emotional bank account they can draw from.  That allows them to have difficult conversations when they need to.”

Sadly, the word feedback has a negative connotation in business today, says Phillips.

“People seldom think of feedback as praise or recognition. When people hear that word, they think at best it’s going to be constructive criticism. But it rarely feels constructive—it just feels like criticism.

“It’s another area where most managers don’t have the skills they need—especially feedback around performance improvement and redirection. Managers are so concerned about how someone might respond to feedback, they tend to avoid it altogether.”

One way managers can be more successful when preparing to give feedback is to make sure they are coming at it from the right place.

“Your feedback can’t be based on your own personal agenda,” says Phillips. “It has to be about helping other people be successful or otherwise improving the team. If you come from a personal agenda, your feedback will come across poorly.

“In my conversation with my friend, she gave me the feedback about the way I hijack conversations because she wanted our conversations to be better.  I knew that, and it gave me a chance to think about my behavior and run it over in my mind. That was a good learning for me—to recognize that behavior I picked up from my family might be misinterpreted when I’m dealing with other people.”

The One-on-One Conversation

Listening and focusing on the other person’s agenda is especially important when managers conduct one-on-one conversations with their direct reports, says Phillips.

“It’s easy to fall into the manager’s agenda, where one-on-ones can turn into a review of how the direct report is doing on each of their goals. At The Ken Blanchard Companies, we teach managers to schedule semi-monthly one-on-ones, where the agenda is driven by the individual contributor and what they need.”

The manager’s primary role is to listen and provide support, says Phillips.  Senior leaders are generally better at this than are new managers.

“At the senior levels of an organization, a VP typically will have more experience asking a direct report how things are going and finding out what the direct report needs to succeed. As you move down to the frontlines of an organization, managers are less experienced at taking the lead in a conversation like that.”

Especially at the frontlines, Phillips observes, managers and supervisors need training in how to have effective one-on-one conversations. Otherwise, the direct report is likely to default to the manager and ask the manager what they want talk about.

“It’s important to teach managers to ask open-ended questions about what an individual contributor’s needs are. Suppose the direct report comes into the meeting with a blank piece of paper and says, ‘What do you want talk about?’ The manager should take that opening and say, ‘Let’s talk about some things you are working on. Let’s list the three or four tasks, discuss your development level, and talk about how I can help you.’ Eventually, that direct report will become more proactive and learn to take the lead in those conversations.”

It’s a process and a joint responsibility—one where everybody benefits, says Phillips.

“Leaders influence through the power of their conversations. Train your managers—and your individual contributors—in the skills they need for more effective conversations at work. It’s one of the best ways to improve performance and satisfaction.”

Would you like to learn more about improving the quality and frequency of conversations in your organization?  Then join us for a free webinar!

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT 101: 3 CONVERSATIONS ALL MANAGERS NEED TO MASTER

Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Managers influence and lead through the words they use and the communication skills they apply. In this webinar, Blanchard senior consulting partner Ann Phillips will share the three types of conversations managers must know how to conduct.

1. The Goal-Setting Conversation—how to set goals collaboratively with a focus on motivation.
2. The Feedback Conversation—how to praise performance when it is aligned and how to redirect performance when it is off track.
3. The One-on-One Conversation—how to set aside time to hear from direct reports using high levels of inquiry and listening.

Don’t miss this opportunity to evaluate how your organization is currently addressing performance management. Learn the elements of masterful performance management and how to apply these principles in your own organization. Ann will share tips and strategies you can put into practice immediately. The event is free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Register today!

Dear Madeleine,

I am an experienced manager but I am in a situation that is stumping me. I have a large team, and we have a reputation for getting a lot done, very efficiently. One team member—L— has been with the team since before I took it over. She is in her early 40s, a single mom, and very good at her job.

The problem is that she is too nice. People on the team who are behind on their tasks always go to her for help. She is a wiz at certain obscure programs that we must use from time to time, and people get her to help them instead of learning the programs themselves.

L is very active with our company foundation and is often involved in big events that take up her time. She participates in several other committees for the company as well. I can’t keep track of them all. She is always the one to show up with a home-baked cake when there is something to celebrate. She even made gluten-free cupcakes recently for my birthday! She has to leave at a set time to pick up her kids from daycare and I know she goes home and does volunteer work.

This would be all fine and well if L didn’t miss her deadlines on a regular basis. We recently met for her performance review and I was chagrined to see that she hadn’t hit any of her goals at 100%. I was forced to give her a lower rating than I would have liked. I feel like a jerk because she is such a strong addition to the team. I don’t want to demotivate her. How can I fix this?

Feel Like a Jerk

Dear Feel Like a Jerk,

You clearly value your “giving” employee, as well you should. Adam Grant, a highly regarded organizational psychologist, has researched the phenomena he calls givers, takers and matchers, and has established that givers make organizations better. According to Grant, it is not unusual for givers to do less well on their performance metrics than takers or matchers. The key here is to find a way for L to win at work doing what she does naturally and well.

What if you were to shape into goals the things L does naturally, so that she is measured on things she will definitely excel at? Make her Team Den Mother (or come up with a name that suits) so remembering and honoring notable events among the team is a task she is measured on and acknowledged for. Make being a high contributing organizational citizen a goal and map out a limited number of committees she will be on and what her goals will be. Again, she will no doubt knock that out of the park.

Finally, you can designate one of her key responsibility areas as being an expert on certain processes or programs that the team uses. This way, when she spends time helping others, it is actually part of her job. This means some of her other tasks or goals will have to shift to others on the team.

Discuss this idea with L. She will probably help you think it through so that you can arrive at a fair way to recognize her contribution.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

It is so rewarding to coach clients who want to be amazing and who dare to rise!  They are fully aware of their current reality of operating in the normal status quo and are now ready to shake it up.  Other clients gain the desire to rise during a few coaching sessions after self-reflecting and uncovering their goals and who they want to be.

Only YOU know what being amazing looks like for YOU!  It may involve taking baby steps in accomplishing smaller goals. Or it may be making a bigger leap to a larger goal. In both cases, stepping outside of the norm to “Rise to be Amazing” involves the following 4 elements:

1. Self-Reflection – Take the time to think about what you want to achieve and who you want to be in order to be amazing. Define what amazing means to you.

2. Self-Awareness – Recognize your normal mode of operation, behaviors, and thoughts.

3. Courage – Be willing to take a risk, to be uncomfortable, and to challenge yourself.

4. Believe in Yourself – This is huge: envision yourself being amazing! Personally, this helped me achieve completing my first marathon in 2016.  Wow—what a feeling!  After doubting myself and not taking control of my life/work circumstances for years, I chose to Rise to be Amazing!

Being amazing works in your personal life and also in your professional life.  For example, I have worked with many clients whose professional goal was to be an amazing leader.  For these clients, a focus on better goal setting, diagnosing a direct report’s development level, or becoming better at providing direction and support defined being a master at management.  Communication is another common topic where many clients want to become more effective.  This, too, involves self-awareness, self-discipline, and the willingness to adapt one’s communication style and approach.

Who knows what you might achieve if you rise beyond being normal. I challenge you to Rise to be Amazing!!

About the Author

Terry Watkins is a coaching solutions partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services.

In working with 149 adults from different business and networking groups, Matthews found that

• Those who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals. (+18 percentage points)
• Those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments or did not write their goals. (+21 percentage points)
• Those who sent weekly progress reports to their friend accomplished significantly more than those who had unwritten goals, wrote their goals, formulated action commitments or sent those action commitments to a friend. (+33 percentage points)

Importantly, Matthews found that the improvement held up on goals ranging from completing a project, increasing income, increasing productivity, getting organized, enhancing performance/achievement, enhancing life balance, reducing work anxiety or learning a new skill.

Ready to stack the deck in your favor with a key goal for this year?

1. Write it down.
2. Email it to a friend.
3. Set up a recurring meeting to send your friend a progress report.

Yes, you’ll be making yourself vulnerable and accountable—but you’ll also be setting yourself up for success.  Here’s to a successful and goal achieving 2018!

Learn more about Matthews study here.

Here are 10 potential things to stop doing in the next year, and what to start doing instead.

Stop taking the monkey. Volunteering to take on problems that are not yours to solve or projects that somebody else should be doing is thankless and diverts your attention from the work that you are accountable for. It is one thing to occasionally step in to help out in a pinch, but it is another to feel constantly overwhelmed because you are stepping in where you shouldn’t.  If you find yourself doing this, start putting your hand over your mouth next time a call for a volunteer goes out and let everyone be uncomfortable in the silence until somebody else pipes up.

Stop booking every minute of the day. Research shows that people who take a minimum of 15 minutes in the morning to plan their day and an hour at the end to tie up loose ends are much more productive than those who don’t. Start booking those times out before they get booked by other stuff that is less important.

Stop keeping your head down and not developing relationships. Getting your work done is important but creating relationships with people who can help you get work done is even more so. Leave time as you come and go to stop and chat with people, make lunch and coffee dates.  Start making a list of all the people in the company you like and are interested in and reach out with invites.

Stop complaining. Yes, there are serious problems in the world and you have more work than you can do, but chances are you actually have a completely decent job and are safe at this moment. Moaning “Ain’t it Awful” never helped anyone – stop focusing on stuff you can’t control and start paying attention to what is  If you must, stop listening to the news and listen to podcasts or books on tape instead.

Stop using email for a dopamine hit. Scanning your email, texts and Twitter feed is not actually the same as responding to them. It is a habitual way to create a dopamine hit in your brain and it is wildly unproductive.  Start making yourself take breaks from your electronics.  Schedule time to look at and respond to email and texts. Don’t look at any other social media during the work day unless it is part of your job.

Stop ignoring administrative tasks. Doing HR paperwork and submitting expenses is about as tedious as work gets but the only person who suffers when you procrastinate is you. Start saving rote admin work for late in the day when your brain is shot—or even better, don’t let yourself do anything high value until the boring stuff is done.

Stop being indirect. Yes, it is hard to tell it like it is, or to say no when you need to. It is so much easier to keep your head down and your trap shut. Going along to get along muddies the waters and is the path to mediocrity. Start having an opinion. Once you are clear about what you are willing to take a stand for and why, practice making your case and then speak up and don’t equivocate.

Stop being too busy to learn something new. “I don’t have time” is an old story and rarely true. We are all constantly barraged with new operating systems, software, and apps. Start taking twenty minutes to watch a YouTube video on something that will help make you more efficient and your work easier and will keep you humming and relevant.

Stop multi-tasking. Split focus means no focus. There are some rote things you can do and multi-task: like driving a regular route, cleaning, knitting, crocheting, doodling.  But the minute you drop a stitch, spill the Clorox, or have to hit the brakes unexpectedly it’s all over and you will absolutely miss whatever is being said. Start deciding what you are going to focus on and for how long.  Set your timer for seven minutes to do a work burst, and shut your laptop when in meetings that you need to pay attention to.

Stop putting off your time off. Burnout is real. And the more burnt out you are, the less likely you are to realize it. If you notice that you are cranky, apathetic, or unusually emotional, you are probably burnt out. Everybody knows this is true, and yet somehow they think it is true for everyone but themselves. Start stepping away from work. Take your paid time off, even if you must check in an hour a day to stay relaxed.

One little change can make all the difference.  Use this stop/start list to identify a new habit for the New Year. Choose one thing and stick with it.

About the Author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is the co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every other week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Here is what we’ve learned after coaching executives for more than 16 years.

Be specific—specificity is KEY.
In a recent analysis of 35 senior leaders, we found that less than 20 percent created SMART goals. When asked, most leaders could comment on what they wanted to achieve, but hedged their bets on outcomes and impact.

Link development to business strategy.
Blanchard Coaching Services ensures that at the end of every executive coaching engagement, the leader—with the support of the coach—takes time to reflect on what they have achieved during coaching; what they are most proud of; and how outcomes have influenced them, their people, and the business. Then we take it one step further by helping leaders craft a success story that can be shared with others in the company. The intent is to show that leader development has a positive impact on the organization.

Go back to the beginning: what is the purpose of coaching? What are the expected outcomes? How would those outcomes show up in terms of leader behavior? What will those behavior changes provide? To what extent will time be saved, cost be reduced, or quality be improved? What is the dollarized value of the changes? These are just some of the questions to be asked up front before coaching begins. The answers can inform what goes into the development plan.

A recent client example may help illustrate this concept. The executive’s intent was to improve relationships.  She had been unintentionally damaging relationships by not listening to what others had to say, and by seeming to make decisions in a silo.

Together we drafted a development plan. Item one: Improve relationships by listening more. Item two:  Improve relationships with three key colleagues.

Next, we mapped out some new behaviors we could measure.

• Listen 50 percent more in our weekly staff meeting. In each meeting, ask or say:
  • Say more about that…
  • What do you need from me?
  • What are the first, most important steps for us to take?
• Ask for feedback after each of the next four staff meetings:
  • What went well?
  • What should I have done differently?
  • What other recommendations do you have for me?
• Follow up on feedback by:
  • Thanking each person for feedback
  • Noting what actions I’ll be taking
  • Asking for support by saying “I value your input. Will you please let me know when I’ve hit the target or when I fall short?”

Finally, we identified the benefit of achieving the outcome:  Reduction in time to reach collaborative decisions by 25 percent and a time saving to the organization of 16 hours per month. Dollar value: $5000.00.

With this approach, my client could create a simple spreadsheet to tally each action. This also gave us a way to identify a hard evidence metric as a result of the development plan. Ultimately, the client will be able to determine the extent to which the time savings occurred and attach a dollar value to the outcome.

The benefits of doing this include:

• A way to quantify progress that the client was achieving desired outcomes
• A dollar value associated with outcomes that can be used to influence extension of coaching or even coaching others
• A measurement the client can use to determine if she needs to make additional changes

While measuring against a plan is essential for coaches working in a business setting, coaches in private practice may also want to consider how a well-documented development plan can increase the likelihood of the client achieving desired outcomes. That can lead to a stellar recommendation, which fills the business development pipeline.

Ultimately, a great development plan is a win for everyone. Take the time to develop a written plan for each of your clients.

About the Author

Patricia Overland is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Each of these one-word questions can push organizational leaders and their team members toward the clarity they need to achieve success. In this post I’d like to focus on who and what.

When leaders set clear expectations, outcomes are much more likely to hit the mark. And it’s just as important for leaders to set milestones en route to the outcome. Doing so keeps people on track by helping them get the support and redirection they need when they need it, which sets them up for success so that they do their best work and hit their deadlines.

At this point it is helpful for a coach to ask what questions, such as:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• What is the scope?
• What will it cover?
• What is left out?
• What are we not doing?

Stating clear expectations, however, is just the start. The next step is for leaders to create clear agreements with others about what is expected. This is where who questions come into play. Let me share a recent example.

I coached a leader who acknowledged that when setting expectations, her team often sees things differently than she does. So instead of just addressing what, she also expands her discussions with team members by including who questions. Some great who questions include:

• Who will be responsible for what?
• Who will talk to whom?
• Who will report to whom?
• Who will follow up with whom?
• Who will be left holding the bag?

By using both what and who questions, leaders can provide better clarity, accountability, and agreement—all of which provide the foundation for shared success!

Rather than be annoyed with team members, or just doing the work yourself, consider how a combination of what and who questions can help you fill the gap between your perspective and the perspective of others to provide clarity and shared agreement.

About the Author

Mary Ellen Sailer, Ed.D., is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 120 coaches have worked with over 15,000 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Dear Madeleine,

I am a manager of a large team. I like my work, the mission of the company is meaningful, and we make a difference in the world. I have a reputation for being a good manager and getting things done on time and under budget. My boss, who is fairly new—and, frankly, in over his head—is constantly coming to me with new projects and never seems interested in the projects we are already working on. He says he trusts me to get it all done.

My problem is that the strategic direction and priorities are constantly shifting and I can’t keep up. I can’t possibly get it all done, and my team is maxed out. I am becoming demoralized by not really understanding the point of what we are being asked to do. I know I need to talk to my manager, but I don’t want to come off as a whiner. How to proceed?

Shifting Winds

Dear Shifting Winds,

This must be so frustrating. It sounds like you do need to talk to your manager and get some clarity on what to focus on and the timelines for each item. You appear to have a low opinion of your new manager’s capabilities—and you may be right about him—but you also don’t know what he is up against. Until you actually know what is going on, I’d suggest to start off by assuming the best of intentions.

In any case, definitely get a meeting on the calendar and set the context carefully. Make it clear to your manager that you appreciate his trust; however, there is more work here than can be done and you need direction in prioritizing the projects. Tell him that to set priorities you normally use your knowledge of the strategic focus for the company—but lately you have been confused about what that is and you need his help.

To communicate with your boss as effectively as possible, first you need to assess his style. Which do you think would work best: Charts outlining all of the different projects on a big whiteboard? An excel spreadsheet with all of the project plans? A presentation with a little bit of story? Your manager needs a quick and easy way to grasp all of the assignments you are working on and how many hours are needed to complete each project. That will help him see how overworked your team is and will help you make the case for getting another person on board to ensure you can complete everything.

Having each project visually represented might also make it easier for you to see the point of each one—but even if it doesn’t, it will make it easier to talk to your boss. You can explain that your people get inspired when they understand the reason they are working away at something. Most people—especially millennials, research is showing—want to know the context and meaning for their tasks.

Next, rehearse, prepare, and be succinct. You won’t be perceived as a whiner unless you actually whine.

You are going to have to stand up for yourself and your people at some point. Many managers are so overwhelmed themselves that they will just keep throwing work at their people until someone cries uncle. He may be waiting for you to do just that.

Good luck.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Dear Madeleine,

I report to the general counsel of a large global organization and I have a team of seven attorneys. I routinely work at all hours of the night finishing projects my people committed to completing and then didn’t—and the deadline, of course, can’t slip.

My husband says I let my people walk all over me. I think we all have too much work so I try to protect them from burning out.

I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to wear my people out, but I also don’t want to be a doormat.

Am I a Wuss?

Dear Am I a Wuss,

You might be, but we don’t need to call anyone names, do we? It sounds like it all comes from the best of intentions. One of the hardest things about being a manager is keeping everyone’s energy and engagement high when the workload is crushing. Internal law groups are notorious for working their people to the bone, so if you don’t want to burn your people out—or worse, burn out yourself—you are going to have to be super strategic.

Here’s the thing. You have trained your people to think they can get away with making a commitment and not following through. The result is, when you give out work assignments, your team members know there isn’t much of a consequence for shoddy planning, so they plan shoddily. This needs to be corrected or you will just keep repeating the same pattern.

You need to start with naming and claiming the reality of the situation. Do your people have any idea how put upon you feel? You probably want to say “I am sick and tired of you leaving me holding the bag,” which is why you haven’t said anything – you know that isn’t going to be effective. So how might you express it? You want to craft a neutral statement with no blame or judgment. Practice with a friend to get the wording right—something like, “Lately, in order to meet deadlines, I find myself finishing work that you had committed to completing. This isn’t sustainable and it needs to change. Let’s talk about what we can do to prevent this situation in the future.”

Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

• Be clear that deadlines are non-negotiable. Perhaps your team members think the deadlines you give them are soft ones. If this is not the case, you need to tell them.
• When you give out work assignments, spend a moment with each person to talk through the steps involved. Scope out the time requirement for each step so that the work can be broken down into manageable pieces. You probably don’t think you should have to do this, but sometimes you need to go back to basics.
• Rotate the crazy deadlines so that you take some, but not all—and so does everyone else. Make sure your team knows that everyone is expected to step up and go the extra mile when things get tight.

If it is really true that there is too much work, it is up to you to make the case for a new hire. This means that everyone, including you, needs to track their time on work projects in fifteen-minute increments. You will need this data to be convincing when justifying another body.

Your team members are going to have some good ideas, too. Put the reality of the situation on the table, listen carefully, and engage them in crafting a solution for moving forward. You clearly have empathy for them, which is great. Now you have to advocate for yourself—and from that position you’ll be able to craft something that will work. And you won’t have to put up with your husband’s criticism on top of everything else.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

It’s a common experience, explains best-selling business author Ken Blanchard.

“Nearly all of us have made a New Year’s resolution and then not followed through. Why is it that most New Year’s resolutions don’t work? Two reasons—the first is that accomplishing the goal is tougher than we thought.”

The second reason? “We rarely get help from the people around us,” says Blanchard. “People smile and say ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ and then walk away to let us tackle the resolution on our own.”

If you’re already thinking of giving up on your fitness goal, Blanchard urges you to first ask for help from a coach or a friend—someone who will help you maintain your commitment to your commitment.  Then apply this 3-step process to give yourself the best chance of succeeding:

Set clear goals. All good performance starts with clear goals. Blanchard recommends the SMART approach, along with a compelling reason that motivates you to achieve the goal. “I had set a goal to become fit many times,” Blanchard explains. “But this time, I found a compelling reason to get healthy: my puppy, Joy. I was just turning 70 when I got her. Knowing dogs can live 15 years or more, I decided I needed to stay healthy through my mid-80s, so not only would I be around for my family, but also for Joy. Most people worry about outliving their dog; I worried about my dog outliving me!”

Diagnose your current status. Once goals are set, the next step is to diagnose your development level on each of the tasks related to your goal. Blanchard explains that your development level is a function of competence (your skills and experience) and commitment (your motivation and confidence.)

“For example, let’s say you’re excited about learning to lift weights but don’t know anything about it. That makes you an Enthusiastic Beginner—you have no competence but high commitment. You’ll need a lot of direction. But when it comes to eating healthy, maybe you’re a Disillusioned Learner—you lack competence and you’ve also lost your commitment. You’ll need both direction and support in this area.”

Get the help you need.  The fact that you have different development levels on different tasks or goals means you need to find someone who can provide you with the directive behavior or supportive behavior you need for each task or goal.

Drawing on his previous example, Blanchard explains, “As an Enthusiastic Beginner on weight training, you need specific direction—someone to tell you exactly how to lift weights. As a Disillusioned Learner on diet and nutrition, you need both direction and support—someone who not only will help you learn how to eat right, but also will listen to you and praise you as you change the way you eat. Enlisting a partner who will give you the proper amounts of direction and support will keep you accountable and reap great benefits. If your partner also has a goal similar to yours, that’s the perfect match—you can keep each other on track!

Don’t Go It Alone

Few people can accomplish a major life change by themselves. Ken Blanchard finally succeeded when he asked for help to achieve his fitness goals. He turned to a friend, fitness expert Tim Kearin, for direction and support.

Kearin helped Blanchard establish goals and diagnose his current state in six key areas:

1. Aerobics
2. Strength training
3. Balance
4. Flexibility
5. Weight control/Nutrition
6. Sleep/rest

“The only aspect of fitness where I was an expert was rest and sleep,” laughs Blanchard. “I can sleep anywhere! So that wasn’t an issue for me.”

But when it came to both strength training and balance, Kearin identified Blanchard as an Enthusiastic Beginner—excited about the idea of getting stronger, but needing a directing leadership style.

“In terms of aerobics, flexibility, and nutrition/weight control, Tim and I determined I was a Disillusioned Learner. I had started programs in these areas at various times over the previous 30 years but hadn’t kept up with them, so I was frustrated. In these areas I needed a coaching leadership style—which means I needed direction and also caring support.”

With Kearin’s help, Blanchard was able to finally make progress in all six areas.  And at the conclusion of the journey they wrote a book together about the experience—Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and for All.

How about you?  Struggling with fitness goals?  It’s not unusual.  Consider Blanchard’s approach.  You don’t need a personal trainer—just someone who is willing to work with you to help you set goals, identify your development level and what kind of help you need on each goal, and then take the steps to achieve those goals.

It’s all about managing your journey to health and fitness—and committing to your commitment—with a little help from your friends.

PS: You can learn more about Blanchard’s journey here: Fit At Last book page.

However, encouragement and recognition shouldn’t be a once-a-year event—it ought to be a leader’s constant mindset, according to Ken Blanchard, management expert and coauthor of The New One Minute Manager® and Leading at a Higher Level. In Blanchard’s opinion, the most effective leaders focus on serving the needs of their people all year long.

Blanchard’s belief is that organizations run best when leaders at all levels see themselves as servant leaders. As he explains, “The best leaders turn the organizational pyramid upside down so that they are at the bottom of the structure, serving their people who are at the top. The leaders provide support, remove obstacles, and act as cheerleaders. They are there to serve their people—so that their people can better serve their customers.”

The good news is that leaders at all levels can serve their direct reports at an individual, team, or department level. Blanchard explains a step-by step process.

Get clear on goals. “All good performance begins with clear goals. Make sure that individual, team, department, and organizational goals are clear and written down so that they can be seen, communicated, and referred to frequently. Goals are too often unclear, poorly communicated, not written down, or never referred to until performance review. “

Discuss competence and commitment. “Managers must sit down with their teams to discuss what’s required to achieve each goal. In Situational Leadership® II we teach that people approach each new task or goal from one of four development levels: the Enthusiastic Beginner, where an individual is excited but inexperienced at the task; the Disillusioned Learner, where an individual becomes discouraged; the Capable but Cautious Performer, where an individual has some experience but still needs occasional support; or the Self-Reliant Achiever, where an individual has a track record of success. It takes time to make this diagnosis at the beginning of a task or when setting a goal, but it will save time in the long run by avoiding misunderstandings, motivation issues, and rework.”

Match your leadership style. “Depending on a person’s development level on a specific task or goal, the leader provides a matching leadership style—either by Directing, Coaching, Supporting, or Delegating. The objective is to provide the direct report with the correct amount of direction and support to get the job done while avoiding over-supervision or under-supervision. This is the essence of servant leadership. The focus is on helping direct reports achieve their goals.”

Blanchard encourages leaders to practice a servant leadership mindset with direct reports every day, not just at year end. “Your job as a leader is to help your people succeed. Set clear goals with them, diagnose their development level on each goal, and then provide them with the direction and support they need to achieve those goals. It’s the best way to serve your people—not just now, but throughout the year.”

You can read more about Blanchard’s approach in the December issue of Ignite!  Also check out stories on two companies putting these concepts into practice with great results—CHG Healthcare Services and WD-40 Company.

The same can be said about professional growth and development. If you want to master new information or develop a new skill, simply knowing that something is important won’t result in growth or change. You have to define a developmental plan and then take action.

Whether personal or professional, setting a goal for growth and then taking action on your own is easier said than done. Most people benefit from the support of others when they decide to make a change.

Managers are in a great position to offer this much needed support to their direct reports—many of whom already have either a formal or informal development plan for themselves.

If you are a manager, here are a few suggestions you can make to your direct reports to help them progress toward their goals.

1. “Link your development to your job.” Suggest they thoughtfully consider how their learning and development goals will specifically make them more effective at work.
2. “Practice what you learn.” Have them identify one or two behaviors they want to hone and think of where they can practice those behaviors on the job. For instance, they could practice during one-on-one meetings with you or in weekly team meetings with their peers.
3. “Keep your development top of mind.” To stress the importance of their growth, regularly touch base with direct reports around their progress. Ask them to set a specific date by which they will share a success story with you on how they successfully implemented their learning.

Being someone’s support system doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort—after all, the person you are helping is doing all the heavy lifting! That said, letting a direct report know you care about their growth and development and cheering them on can make a huge difference in their success.

Are there opportunities where you can help someone grow? If so, try the ideas above and let us know what impact they made!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Dear Madeleine,

I am the manager of a large group of service professionals. Earlier this year, I was inspired by a management book to set goals with my people and then give them the autonomy to decide how to achieve them.

It sounded good on paper, but here we are at the end of the year and not a single one of them has done well on their goals. As a result, I have given them all less than stellar ratings on their performance reviews. They are all surprised and upset with me.  —Confused

Dear Confused,

Managing people is complex, and managing high level professionals is maybe even more so.  So I checked out the book you shared and I think I know what went wrong.  You gave people goals and the autonomy to figure out how to achieve them—but you seem to have missed the rest of the steps outlined in the book, which go something like this:

• Work with each employee to identify actions that will be most likely to move them toward achieving their goal.
• Create a visible scorecard that shows both you and the employee how they are tracking to their goal.
• Meet weekly to review progress, brainstorm obstacles, and inspire the employee to stick with the plan.

In other words, you should give people enough autonomy that they feel like they own the goal—but not so much that the goal falls off the to-do list without anyone noticing.

There a lot of reasons people don’t achieve their goals. The most common ones are shockingly simple:

• They didn’t really know what to do or how to do it
• They didn’t really want to do it
• They didn’t think it was a good goal
• They didn’t think it was that important and prioritized other things above it
• They had too many other things to do
• They simply forgot

That last one is my personal favorite because it has happened to me.  I sat down with my manager to review the year and he asked how things went with a project we had discussed some months back.  I was appalled to realize that I had forgotten all about it and had done absolutely nothing.  I was lucky to have an understanding manager who also took some responsibility for the fact that we hadn’t talked about it since that first discussion.

Just think, for a moment, about what competes for our brain space on any given day.  Anything that actually gets done only does so because of relentless attention and focus to ensure that it does.  Otherwise, the goal might as well not exist.

I am sorry you are now in the position of feeling like the bad guy.  I recommend that you not give your people a bad rating on this part of their review—and that you take responsibility for essentially setting them up to fail.  Try the same approach this year, but include the part about working with each person to identify action steps, build the scorecard, and have regular reviews to check progress and offer support.

I’m certain that when you incorporate the additional steps, your people will come through with flying colors.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

“We’ve worked with more than 15,000 leaders since we opened the Coaching Services division back in 2000. Much of our work deals with helping people first understand the impact of their natural tendencies and habits and then sharpen their communication skills.”

In a recent interview for the November issue of Ignite, Blanchard recommends three basics as a starting point for leaders looking to improve—goal setting, listening, and feedback.

“Most leaders aren’t as good at setting goals as they think they are. It seems so obvious and simple, but it actually takes a lot of imagination and creative brain power. Leaders often think direct reports should already know what they need to do and should be able to set their own goals, but unless people are taught how to do it and given some solid support, it just doesn’t happen. Very few people have their goals written down and chunked into deliverables, with specific timelines.”

Listening is another area where leaders fall short, in Blanchard’s experience.

“Many leaders think that the most senior person should do most of the talking, when it really is the other way around. When employees are free to express themselves they ultimately learn more, become more innovative, and get better at problem solving. I have a big red stop sign in my office with the word WAIT printed on it in big letters—it stands for Why Am I Talking?” Because when I am talking, I am not listening—and as a coach and a leader, listening is what I need to be doing.

Feedback is a continual trouble spot for leaders.  Blanchard recommends that leaders ask themselves a key question before deciding to address the issue.

“Try this. Before providing feedback on performance, ask yourself this question: Am I delivering this feedback because it is something my direct report needs to hear—or is this just something I feel I need to say? If it is something you feel you need to say because you have a strong opinion or because you just want to vent, do it—but not with your direct report. Share it with your own boss or with your coach, spouse, or therapist. It’s your issue—not your employee’s.”

Blanchard cautions that this doesn’t mean leaders should be talking about an employee’s issue with others. She makes it clear that feedback on performance needs to be delivered directly to the person involved.

“I am very upfront with my people. I promise that any feedback I have for them will be shared only with them. That’s a fundamental coaching ethic. I’m also clear that I expect the same in return. If they have an issue with me, I insist they discuss it directly with me. If either of us is discussing feedback issues with others, we are gossiping—and that is damaging to our relationship and to the organization.”

You can read more of Blanchard’s recommendations for leaders—including a final area that needs to be addressed—by accessing the complete November issue of Ignite.

PS: Also check out the complimentary webinar Blanchard is conducting to help leaders become more coach-like in their conversations with their people.  The event is free, courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

This post is by Paul Murphy, Director of Channel Sales, Asia-Pacific.

It is commonly assumed that leadership behaviors are driven by the cultural norms of a given country or region. But research shows that organizational culture is actually a much stronger driver of leadership behaviors than is country or regional culture.

For example, an employee at a large US multinational in China is far more likely to use the behavioral norms of that organization than those of her home country. Similarly, an English manager working for a local Japanese firm is much more likely to embrace the behaviors of that firm than those of his home country.

What does differ dramatically inside multicultural organizations is the way people communicate. A US manager wanting to take a directive approach with an employee will likely use very clear and concise language, whereas a Chinese manager in the same location may use a more subtle and circular message to direct an employee. Both managers are being directive, but their communication styles are very different.

It is easy to confuse leadership style with communication style. In Situational Leadership® II, we learn that leaders must apply differing degrees of directive or supportive behavior depending on the development level of the direct report.  The challenge is not to look at which style of leadership (directive vs. supportive) is most appropriate in a certain culture, but to take a closer look at how we communicate that style with each other.

Here are a few things to remember:

• All cultures have both supportive and directive leadership. However, the way these styles are perceived may differ. Just because an employee perceives that their manager isn’t being clear doesn’t mean the manager isn’t being directive.
• Pay attention to leadership style and communication style. It is possible to act in a supportive manner while communicating in a way that may be perceived as directive.
• Position your organizational culture as the key driver of behaviors. Make allowances for communication styles, but still identify desired directive and supportive behaviors for leaders.

Leaders from any background, though they inevitably have a preferred leadership style, should be able to learn to flex their style with a bit of training. However, their communication style may still be misunderstood by colleagues from different backgrounds if their communication styles are misaligned.

Use these tips to keep your focus on communicating the right leadership style appropriately!

About the Author

Paul Murphy is the Director of Channel Sales, Asia-Pacific, responsible for all aspects of the indirect channel business within APAC for The Ken Blanchard Companies. Paul is based in Hong Kong and can be reached at paul.murphy@kenblanchard.com

IMPROVING LEADERSHIP ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME

Executive coach Madeleine Blanchard held the phone to her ear, listening attentively as her newest client explained the problem she was having communicating with her direct reports. “They say that I’m not a good listener. I’m trying to connect, but it just doesn’t seem to be working. Any suggestions?”

Blanchard thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I can hear you typing right now, so I suspect you are actually answering emails while we talk. Do you do that when you are with your people? What would it be like if you actually gave each person your undivided attention?” READ MORE 

MANAGING IN A BUSY WORLD

Managers are struggling to find the time to have needed conversations with colleagues and direct reports. Ann Phillips, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies, knows this firsthand.   “I always ask leaders ‘How many of you have enough of your own work to do each day?’

The leaders in class typically tell me that every day they have 8 to 12 hours of their own work that doesn’t include addressing the needs of their direct reports.  Lack of time kills many good intentions.” People want to be better leaders, says Phillips, but they don’t have the open space in their schedules. READ MORE 

CREATING A DEEPER CONNECTION AT WORK

You have to put yourself out there if you want to create an authentic connection with people. Sharing your Leadership Point of View is one of the most powerful ways to accomplish that, according to coaching expert Joni Wickline.

“Your Leadership Point of View is about the people and events that have shaped who you are. It also speaks to your values, your beliefs, and what drives you as a leader.” Wickline says creating a Leadership Point of View is an emotional journey and a lot of leaders play it safe when first given the chance to share. READ MORE

MID-LEVEL MANAGERS: TAKING CARE OF THE HEART OF THE HOUSE

Scott Blanchard, principal and EVP at The Ken Blanchard Companies, likes to use the phrase heart of the house to describe the important role middle managers play in an organization. In Blanchard’s experience, if mid-level management is neglected, the result is a slow-moving organization that doesn’t respond well to feedback.

Blanchard says that to be successful, middle managers must be skilled in communicating what is expected and how it is to be achieved.  That means connecting the dots from the boardroom to the frontlines. If middle management is ineffective, the staff both above and below this level suffers. READ MORE

ALL GOOD PERFORMANCE STARTS WITH CLEAR GOALS

The ability to set goals effectively is a key managerial skill. It’s also the key to being a successful individual contributor, according to leadership expert and best-selling author Ken Blanchard.

“All good performance starts with clear goals. If people don’t know what you want them to accomplish, what are the chances they will be successful? Not very good. “Peter Drucker used to say, ‘If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.’ Measurements are important to give both managers and direct reports more clarity when assessing performance.” READ MORE

What do you need to say and do differently for your team to believe change is real? How do you demonstrate your commitment to achieving the change target? How do you personally demonstrate initiative to gain support for the resources needed?

Here are a few other coaching concepts to consider if you are a leader managing change.

1. Identify challenges. What needs to be solved? When we ask clients what problem needs solving they will usually identify what they see only through their lens. Who else and what stakeholder groups should also be consulted? Make sure you have clearly articulated the problem before you begin to focus on the change needed.
2. Listen. Listen and listen some more. In addition to asking questions, enter each conversation with the intention of learning something new and being influenced. Consider writing out your list of questions to help identify what you want to learn from the conversation.
3. Identify top areas for change. Narrowing a long list of potential change areas down to an important few is hard. When you look across the stakeholders your team serves, what change will have the greatest return? As an example, one leader I coached saw a need for information sharing that spanned across sales, project management, and professional services. This leader knew if she could create a system for information sharing across those groups, it would be a significant win. She focused on the problem and need for each group and worked with Information Services to create a system that gave everyone access to the information they needed, which saved time and reduced frustration.
4. Create goals that align with the new direction. It may go without saying that in order to have everyone aiming for the same bull’s eye, each person needs to understand their own role and responsibility for achieving the goal. Goal setting is often suggested; yet, in our research, alignment is rarely better than 80 percent. Spend the time to identify what each person on the team needs to do—their key responsibilities and goals—in order for the team to be successful.
5. Create a metric dashboard and manage to it. What do you need to measure to ensure you are succeeding in the change effort? What are the leading and lagging metrics that paint the picture of success? In team and one on one meetings, put up the top areas for change and discuss the metrics.

What I’ve focused on here are some tools a leader can use when managing a team through change. Note that all of these concepts require effective and productive relationships—because change happens through people. Take a coach approach to increase your success with your next change effort. It works well for individual change as well as organizational change.

About the Author

Joni Wickline is Vice President, International Growth with The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can read Wickline’s posts as a part of Coaching Tuesday here at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

These gaps are found in performance planning and performance review discussions as well as day-to-day coaching. According to a supporting white paper, this disparity translates into lowered employee intention to perform at a high level, apply discretionary effort, or even stay with the organization.

It’s a problem that needs to be addressed immediately, says Scott Blanchard, principal and EVP with The Ken Blanchard Companies. From Blanchard’s perspective, managers should meet with their direct reports weekly or at least biweekly to review progress, give feedback, and provide additional direction and support as needed.

“All good performance begins with clear goals. It’s about getting people focused and setting their priorities so that they know where they are going,” says Blanchard.

“Next, it’s about identifying the skills and motivation a direct report brings to a particular goal or task. Is it something brand new to the person that will require a lot of direction, or is it something they have experience doing? The manager needs to provide the right combination of direction and support to match the employee’s level of competence and commitment on the goal or task.”

In a recent article for his company’s Ignite! newsletter, Blanchard explains that the challenge for a manager is to be able to provide all four of the different styles of leadership people need based on their ability to accomplish a task. He points to research that shows most managers are adept at delivering only one style of leadership out of the four—for example, only directing or only supporting.

“Only 1 percent of managers we’ve worked with were already able to adjust the levels of direction and support they provided their direct reports based on specific needs. The good news is this is a skill that can be learned.”

Blanchard believes job one for a manager is to create commitment and clarity with people about where they’re going and what they’re doing. After that, the manager must make time to check in and evaluate progress on a regular—think weekly—basis.

“The best managers conduct these check-ins frequently by way of structured conversations with each direct report. This is more difficult than it sounds. Consider all of the projects being worked on by all of a manager’s direct reports. The manager needs to make sure they know which project is being reviewed. They may need four or five different conversations with a given employee depending on how many projects need to be discussed.”

Blanchard explains that the smart manager takes a situational approach to communication: they look at competence, confidence, and motivation to decide which management approach works best.

“It’s about flexing your leadership style based on what the direct report needs in a specific role. More than ever in today’s world, managers need to stop for a moment and think about the individual they are speaking with, the type of conversation they are having, how productive the conversation is, and how the direct report feels—and then decide on the best words to say.”

Getting Started

Blanchard encourages leaders to take the time to develop additional management skills.

“It can be a challenge at first, but it can be learned. We believe the success or failure of a manager hinges on the quality of the conversations they have with their people. Great managers know how to have useful conversations—how to talk things through, resolve issues, create clarity, and keep things moving forward. The capacity to learn how to have successful performance management conversations creates the foundational skill all managers need to succeed.”

Interested in learning more? 

Learning and talent development executives are invited to join Blanchard for a free special online event October 26.

Leadership 201: Developing a Leadership Curriculum for Midlevel Managers

October 26, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time

In this webinar, Scott Blanchard will share the advanced skills needed in any leadership development program aimed at midlevel managers. Drawing on the key principles from Situational Leadership® II, Blanchard will share the recommended components learning and talent development professionals should focus on when they create a midlevel manager curriculum, including:

• The Five Elements of Advanced Goal Setting: A new take on the popular SMART Goal model that puts a special emphasis on motivation. Managers draw people into aligned goals instead of constantly having to hold them accountable to overall organization objectives.
• The Four Stages of Development: How to identify the starting mindset of direct reports on new tasks; also, the four stages of development all people pass through when taking on a new goal or project.
• How to Flex Your Leadership Style: The steps required for a leader to develop beyond a comfortable, default leadership style in order to provide appropriate direction and support for every direct report.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the essential skill components midlevel managers need to succeed in today’s diverse and fast-paced work environment. Discover the components you should be considering as a part of your leadership development offerings.

To assess whether the coach has the level of competence we need, we always have them coach one of our senior staff members. Rookie coaches who really don’t know what they are doing stand out like a sore thumb during this exercise even though most are very well meaning. Their lack of experience usually shows up in one of nine ways.

You can tell someone is a rookie coach when they:

1. Worry too much about creating relationship. Clients tend to give a new coach the benefit of the doubt as long as they perceive the coach to be competent and caring. Coaches don’t need to spend hours getting every detail of a client’s life history.
2. Ask too many questions to satisfy their own curiosity rather than getting to the heart of the matter. Good coaches sift quickly for what is relevant and ignore the noise.
3. Let the client go on too long about their story. The narrative is important insofar as the coach or client needs it to write the ending—but detailed plot twists just waste time.
4. Ask a bunch of why questions to assess motive and purpose. Many people being coached don’t know the why of anything and will go in circles trying to figure it out. Why is to be used on very rare occasions to help the client get through layers to reach what’s real and true.
5. Get too hung up on accountability. Holding people accountable is taught aggressively in many coaching schools. To be fair, some clients really want and need it—but many don’t. So it’s wise to check instead of insisting on an annoying practice that can come off as parental.
6. Step over opportunities to challenge the client about attitudes, beliefs, or potentially unproductive behavior. It takes some courage but it is part of the job. I have worked with clients who said they had worked with other coaches they characterized as being “too nice.”
7. Ignore inklings that the client is not getting value from a coaching session or engagement.
8. Take the client to task if they haven’t done their homework. Coaches aren’t schoolteachers grading people on compliance. If a client doesn’t do what they say they will do, it is a useful sign that they tend to overpromise and underdeliver, aren’t working on the right goals, or aren’t as committed to the goal as they thought. All of these are potential data points the coach can use to move the person forward.
9. Fall for it when a client asks “What do you think I should do? or “What would you do?” Coaches can and should definitely share useful proven models, concepts, and general rules of thumb to help a client think through and make sound decisions—but a coach’s actual opinion is rarely germane. If a coach does share an opinion, they should name and claim it as their opinion, and be ready to explain what the opinion is based on, whether it is experience or research.

Everybody has to start somewhere, but the challenge we face in providing coaches to executives in organizations is the need to put our most experienced and effective coaches in front of clients. For us, learning on the job is something we can’t afford. The good news is that new coaches can move ahead much more quickly by identifying any of these possible errors in their own approach and practicing alternative approaches that are more beneficial to clients.

With practice, new coaches will soon find themselves having the productive engagements that we—and all coaching organizations—look for.

About the Author

Madeleine Blanchard is the co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 150 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Hi Madeleine,

I work in the health profession and I’ve just accepted a position in management at a new facility. I don’t know the staff at all. All I know is that the senior leadership wants a change in the management at the facility.

What advice would you have on how to tackle a new job at a new place with a heavy agenda? What should I do first???

 New Healthcare Leader

Dear New Healthcare Leader,

Well, congratulations! Isn’t this exciting? It sounds like you have a great opportunity here! I can’t tell from your letter if the facility is new overall, or if it is just new to you. If it is actually new, this could be good because you won’t have the burden of history—it can be hard to make changes when it’s “always been done that way.”

If it is just new to you, you will need to spend some time asking questions and listening to understand the culture of the organization. Working with people to change things begins with understanding and meeting them where they are.

In terms of change, you will want to press senior leadership to understand what exactly the prior management did wrong, so you don’t repeat those mistakes. If they won’t tell you, it was probably something illegal, immoral, or both. I imagine this won’t be a problem for you.

What they must tell you though is what a good job looks like. This answers the question, “How will you know you are successful?” You say “heavy agenda” but you have to make sure you know what it really is. Ask them for crystal-clear goals, and if they don’t provide them, come up with your own and present them for approval. Some senior leaders simply don’t have the skills or the patience to articulate the vision or the goals of the organization, so if they won’t do it, do it for yourself.

Once you have your goals set, work with your people to get their goals super clear. Also, spend as much time as you can getting to know your people and assessing their strengths. Work with each of them to ensure that their goals leverage their skills, interests, and talents.

Once everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing, make sure they are getting the proper direction and support they need to do it. Make sure everyone, including you, has a short-term goal that they can achieve so that you all have the experience of early success together. Share stories of any and all wins. People will remember stories and it will feel good.

Finally, we have a lot of books here at The Ken Blanchard Companies, but the definitive one on this topic is not by Ken or any of us. It is The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins and I have worked through the book with many clients. Google it, read summaries, and be sure to look at the templates of what to do in your first 30, 60, and 90 days. I highly recommend it.

Best of luck in your new role!

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Most organisations have mission statements—a clearly defined and articulated purpose to focus energy and help leaders make decisions.

But what about a clearly defined and articulated personal purpose? While most of us have some idea about what we want to do with our lives, many of us don’t have a personal mission statement.

This is an important concept. A personal mission statement harnesses energy and enables us to have a greater sense of well-being—especially if we can connect our personal purpose with our department’s purpose as well as our organisation’s purpose.

Let me give you a personal example. In the mid-nineties while I was in the Royal New Zealand Navy, I attended a Situational Self Leadership training session. As part of the workshop, I spent some time developing and refining my life purpose statement. It required reflection and effort, and eventually I came up with a statement that felt right:

“My life purpose is to use my knowledge, skills, and abilities to work with others in order to create an environment in which people feel valued, content, and fulfilled as they contribute to society.”

Creating my purpose statement was just the first step. In order to leverage and maximise my personal and professional alignment, I printed out the statement, put it into a picture frame, and placed it on my desk. This was a very important second step for me. When it came time to make significant career decisions, I would look at my purpose statement and ask myself What course of action will best help me fulfil my life purpose? 

The framed statement was a great reminder—and it helped immensely when I had difficult decisions to make, such as changing roles and up-skilling in support of training and development. It was an area that fulfilled my purpose more than the operational role for which I was initially selected.

How about you? Have you identified a clear sense of where you want to be, or is it more of a general idea? Why not challenge yourself? Develop a purpose statement for your life. Then align your role with that of your organisation, reflect, and make adjustments as necessary.

I’ve long since left the Navy and am currently a director and consulting partner with Blanchard International New Zealand. In part, I can trace my journey here to the decision I made years ago to identify, write down, and reflect daily on my life purpose statement.

Your future is waiting for you. Don’t wait. Take the first step by writing down your personal mission statement. You never know where it will lead!

About the Author

David Cordery is a Company Director and accredited Consulting Partner with Blanchard International in New Zealand.

“Once managers realize they’re supposed to maintain their own workload, coaching and support quickly gives way to ‘Here’s the assignment. Do your best. You’ll be fine. I figured it out when I was in your position—I’m sure you will, too.’”

But when managers don’t take time to connect with direct reports other than issuing orders, the result is work that proceeds slowly and often needs to be redone. By the time its gets to that point, the relationship is already strained. The manager is annoyed at the lack of progress; the direct report asks “Why you didn’t you tell me this in the first place?’ and the manager reacts defensively, saying ‘I thought you knew.”

Phillips’s advice is to not let the situation go that far. Spend a little time up front discussing the person’s skills and their development level on the task you’re asking them to do.

“If they are a beginner, prepare to provide a lot of direction. If they are more experienced, it can be a combination of direction and support. And if they are very well versed in the task, a delegating style is completely appropriate.”

For time-starved managers , Phillips recommends short, regular meetings that are well organized and focused.

“Always start your conversations within the context of what the goals are. Are they clear? What are the shared expectations around those goals? Next, identify the direct report’s capability and commitment to the task. Identify where the person is in terms of development level. What is their ability to do the task? Have they ever done it before? What is your confidence level with them succeeding at the task? This where you begin to surface their feelings around confidence and competence.

“Leaders can build on that when they discuss what they need to provide to make sure the direct report has the direction and resources to move forward.”

One caveat to leaders—be on guard. Phillips says direct reports tend to overcommit or overestimate their ability to get things done.

“People want to project that they are confident and competent and can get things done. They sometimes don’t think things through in a logical way, which can lead to them agreeing to do something when, in fact, they have no experience.

“People also want to be perceived as highly skilled. It’s rare that someone will say, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ or ‘I’m going to need extra time to learn how to do that.’ As leaders, we need to make it safe for our direct reports to tell us when they don’t know how to do something.”

Phillips reminds us that surfacing concerns and determining skill levels ahead of time can save a lot of trouble and heartache down the road. “If you don’t take the time now, you’ll be taking the time later, and under more difficult emotional circumstances.”

Make the best use of that time. It may take some effort, but in the long run time saved is something we could all use.

Interested in learning more? Join Phillips for a complimentary webinar, Finding the Time to Manage: 3 Key Skills, on July 27. The event is free, courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Dear Madeleine,

I’m a general manager at a big consulting firm. I’m doing well and I’ve been working with a coach for about four months. My biggest issue is although I’m on track, I don’t yet have a win under my belt.

I’m involved in some big deals and my peers would say I’m adding value. My concern is that my boss—and his boss—may not see the direct link between the work I’m doing and how it puts our firm in a position to win more business.

I’m afraid my time might be running out. My coach suggested I sit down with my boss and renegotiate agreements about what I’m doing and timelines to success. I’ve tried to do that, but am not getting any clear specifics from him. Any suggestions?

My Time is Running Out

Dear Time Running Out,

You seem a little paranoid.  Big wins at consulting firms take a long time to build to. I can’t believe your boss wouldn’t be aware of that.  Have you seen other people let go because they didn’t have enough wins? What evidence do you have that makes you feel so on edge? If you don’t have any and are just feeling insecure, I would say you need to stop obsessing about this and focus on the work.

If you do have legitimate reason to worry, though, I have an idea for you.  If your boss isn’t giving you specifics it may be because he hasn’t articulated what a good job looks like—or he just figures he’ll know it when he sees it.

The big consulting firms tend to be driven by metrics, so find a way to communicate what you are doing in terms of a scorecard. Build a report so that you can share with your boss on a regular basis—weekly or biweekly—all the different things you are doing, but in context of the potential deals you are working on.

Anyone with experience appreciates the amount of time and hard work that goes into landing deals. You might organize your report into activity by potential client. You could even build a little gauge that shows how much closer you are to closing business because of your activities.  If your firm used some kind of CRM system, your boss probably would be using that to track your activity.

The best you can do without an actual contract to show for your hard work is to make a consistent case for the value of your activities.  This way, your boss will have a clear view of your progress and you won’t have to worry about him wondering what the heck you are up to all day.

Good luck,

Love Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

The time has now come. The infamous London to Brighton ride is upon us this Sunday, the 19^th of June. The bike is ready to be transported to London. The padded shorts are laid out on my bedroom floor. I have a race number and a start time. It’s all become very real.

I’m part excited and part nervous. I know I must be prepared to go though four inevitable development levels on Sunday:

Stage 1: Enthusiasm

I’ll have my brand new padded shorts on, along with my bright pink cycling t-shirt. The bike will have pumped up tyres. The crowds will be gathering at the start line bright and early. And I’ll be ready to go! How hard can this be, right? This is the first stage of my journey. I’m convinced I can do it and the crowds around me will be fuelling that self-belief. Loads of people do this ride every year. I’m sure I’ll whizz along the course and be in Brighton by lunch time! Lots of enthusiastic newbie cyclists like me will be there, starting the day determined and confident.

Until we cross that start line.

Stage 2: Disillusionment

With my legs pushing hard on the pedals, I’ll be out of breath and sweaty while battling against the swarms of other cyclists on the road out of London. Seeing the mile markers count down the route will be off-putting. I know my thoughts, even now: Forty-four miles to go? Still? How have I only done 10 miles? The signs must be wrong. It’s a trap! I’ll be tired and miserable. I also love food, so without a doubt by this point I’m bound to be hungry too (or even hangry—a word that is now officially in the dictionary). Despite my positive start, I’ll begin realising that I’m probably not going to do as well as I thought I would. Everything in my being will be telling me to give up—but something inside me will recognize the need to keep pushing for success. It will probably be the knowledge that I’ve raised money for charity—The British Heart Foundation—and the thought of how many lives this challenge might save. However, a little support from the seasoned cyclists I’m riding alongside wouldn’t hurt. This is the stage when I’ll really need their encouragement to keep me going.

Stage 3: Improving

At this point, I’ll start accepting how I’m getting on. Sure, my seat will be starting to hurt a little, my legs may burn, and I’ll be running out of bananas, but it’s okay because the mile markers will be counting down. I won’t give up. I’ll settle into the ride and find my own rhythm. I’ll look back at what I’ve achieved so far, and I’ll know that I can finish the last little piece. I’m getting the hang of this! Maybe I’ll do London to Paris next! Okay, maybe that’s taking things too far—but it will be clear to me that my confidence and ability are growing stronger with each circle of the wheels. I know there are some large hills on the route, though, and this makes me nervous. I’m going to keep relying on the support of my team to help me get through those hills—but by now I’ll be feeling a lot better about things.

Stage 4: Confident and Competent

This is the stage where euphoria really starts to build. The last few miles are all downhill, so it’s bound to be an easy ride from this point. Having made it this far, I will be confident in my ability to go the distance. I will mentally review what I’ve achieved and feel assured of my competence at cycling. I won’t need anyone to tell me to push the pedals anymore, or to tell me I’m doing great—because by now I’ll feel great about my progress. (An occasional cheer from someone in the crowd might still be nice, though!) I think this must be where they put all the photographers en route—because capturing the grins on cyclists’ faces as they head toward the finish line is the best photo opportunity!

Recognising these stages is the key to my success. The people on my team are all far better at cycling than I am. I’ll need their help to guide me through each of the development levels. I can’t do it alone. I’ll be looking to them for the right amounts of direction and support as I pedal along the route.

Knowing about these four development levels is applicable in far more areas of life than just a race. Whether it’s learning to drive a car, starting a new health and fitness program, or leading a project team at work for the first time, anyone can identify these four stages in any task or goal they seek to accomplish. With the right leadership and self-leadership, you, too, can progress through these stages toward the achievement of your goals.

Editor’s Note:  Jemma will be riding the 54-mile London to Brighton Bike Ride 2016 this Sunday together with six Blanchard colleagues to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.  Want to help the cause? Click here to contribute

People need a big container—a mind that is open—to grow. A small container—limited thinking—inhibits the ability to receive and learn new information. In order to succeed, you must develop the right mindset to enlarge your container so that you can fill it with new information, skills, and possibilities.

For example, I recently worked with a coaching client who was trying to figure out if she had what it took to go after a VP position. During our coaching sessions, she expressed a lack of self-confidence along with other assumed constraints. The client doubted herself—and her negative thoughts were limiting her possibilities.

I coached my client to take a second look at her beliefs. Were they accurate? I also asked her to identify supportive beliefs that could lead her toward her goal.

Thinking it through, she realized she did have the experience and the transferable skills to step into a VP role. As far as steps she could take to address specific areas where she needed work, my client identified two executives she would ask to be her mentors.

During our coaching journey, I observed a shift in my client’s mindset. She went from a negative feeling about herself to a positive, confident attitude regarding her capabilities to move into a VP role. She could see a personal vision for herself and the steps required to become a VP. The size of my client’s internal container was expanding as she considered ways to absorb new knowledge, skills, and behaviors. She was on her way to pursuing her goal!

How about you? Do you need a little extra room to grow? Here are three tips for changing your mindset and enlarging your container:

1. Question your assumed constraints. What are you assuming is true about your current capabilities or about the situation? Re-examine your reality, experiences, and capabilities. Reflect on what is causing you to hesitate.
2. Examine your mindset. Which of your beliefs is causing self-imposed limits and an unsupportive attitude? Change your internal talk from negative and cynical to positive and encouraging. Recognize you have a choice!
3. Reshape your outlook with a specific vision. Where are you headed? Identify a clear and precise goal. Create an action plan. Commit to the challenge of accomplishing the goal.

Don’t let a limited internal container stifle your possibilities. Remember, your thoughts drive your behavior. Open your mind and create a bigger container—one with room for new information and skills—and a positive mindset to succeed!

About the Author

Terry Watkins is a coaching solutions partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

But when they became a manager, their role shifted.  They now needed to focus on what needed to get done and leave the how to the individual contributors they managed.  As a manager, they needed to be more strategic and less tactical.

Many managers struggle with this change.  They had established numerous great methods, processes, and ideas for how to accomplish work. What are they supposed to do with these concepts now?

For a fair share of managers, the natural answer is to pass on their ways to their direct reports by staying hands-on.  It doesn’t occur to them that as a manager their role is to figure out and communicate what needs to get done, leaving the how to their direct reports as their capabilities allow and giving direction and support only as needed. Unfortunately, some managers never make this shift.

If this sounds like you, there are numerous benefits when you shift from how to what.  Leaving the how to your direct reports:

… gives them the chance to develop their skill set.

… is motivating.  Research conducted by Blanchard for our Optimal Motivation training program uncovered that employees feel motivated when they perceive that what they are doing is of their own volition and that they are the source of their own actions.

… gives you more time and space to work on the what.

What can you do to make the shift?  Lots!  Here are a few suggestions:

• Acknowledge to yourself that the change won’t be easy. It helps if you recognize that the benefits far outweigh the uncomfortable process of change.
• Do a little soul searching. Why do you want to keep your fingers in the pie?  Is it a lack of trust, a need to control, or a wish to add value?
• Learn the art of partnering with direct reports to facilitate their independent problem solving. Ask your capable people a question such as “What do you need to do to get the work done?”  Then figuratively sit on your hands and listen as they figure it out.  You might need to ask a few more open-ended questions—but resist offering solutions.
• Practice, practice, practice. This will not happen overnight.  Two steps forward, one step back—but stick to it and you will be able to make the change.

I love the quote “Mediocre coaches are those who remain attached to their own opinions and feel the need to be right or even useful.”  To me this applies not only to coaches but to managers, colleagues, parents, spouses, friends, etc.  Are you unnecessarily keeping your hands on the work your direct reports should be doing themselves?  If so, what are you going to do about it?  Let me know!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

The company will be sharing the results of the research as a part of the rollout of its new First-time Manager program, but some of the initial top level statistics are ready for sharing now (see infographic).

These experiences, reported by the managers, paint a picture of the challenges new leaders face and help explain why 60 percent of new managers underperform—or even fail—in their first two years.

With over two million people stepping into leadership roles for the first time, it is essential for organizations to put together a structured program that prepares these new managers for the challenges they will face when they become responsible for the work of others in addition to their own.

Blanchard recommends that new managers focus on four performance-related conversations—Goal Setting, Praising, Redirecting, and Wrapping Up, as well as four essential communication skills—Listening, Inquiring, Telling Your Truth, and Expressing Confidence.

Three of the four conversations are drawn from the three key principles in Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson’s best-selling book The New One Minute Manager®—and they are joined by a new, fourth conversation, Wrapping Up, which is about bringing closure to goals and tasks. The four communication skills come from Blanchard’s coaching services practice and represent the listening skills most needed by managers.

In a recent webinar, Master Certified Coach Linda Miller, who serves as Blanchard’s global liaison for coaching, asked participants which of the four conversations and which of the four skills they thought were most difficult for new managers.  The number one most difficult conversation identified was Redirecting—getting somebody back on track when performance wasn’t where it should be.  The second conversation identified as difficult was Goal Setting. Among communication skills, Listening and Telling Your Truth ended up in a tie as most difficult.

How does the information in the infographic match up with your experience?  Does your organization have a structured program in place to get new managers off to a good start?  Don’t let your new people sink.  Provide them with the support they need to succeed.

Researchers from The Ken Blanchard Companies teamed up with Training magazine to poll 456 human resource and talent-management professionals. The purpose was to determine whether established best practices were being leveraged effectively.

The survey found gaps of 20-30 percent between what employees wanted from their leaders and what they were experiencing in four key areas: Performance Planning (setting clear goals), Day-to-Day Coaching (helping people reach their targets), Performance Evaluation (reviewing results), and Job and Career Development (learning and growing.)

Use these links to download a PDF or PNG version of a new infographic that shows the four key communication gaps broken down into ten specific conversations leaders should be having with their team members.

Are your leaders having the performance management conversations they should be? If you find similar gaps, address them for higher levels of employee work passion and performance.

You can read more about the survey (and see the Blanchard recommendations for closing communication gaps) by accessing the original article, 10 Performance Management Process Gaps, at the Training magazine website.

When these same respondents were asked to look at a list of common mistakes and choose the five biggest missteps by leaders, two responses stood out.

Not providing appropriate feedback was chosen by 82 percent of respondents. Failing to listen or involve others came in a close second, cited by 81 percent. (Failing to use an appropriate leadership style, failing to set clear goals and objectives, and failing to develop their people rounded out the respondents’ top five of things leaders most often fail to do when working with others.)

A 700-person follow-up study conducted by Blanchard in 2013 with readers of Training magazine found similar results. In that survey:

• 28 percent of respondents said they rarely or never discussed future goals and tasks with their boss—even though 70 percent wished they did.
• 36 percent said they never or rarely received performance feedback—even though 67 percent wished they did.

Why are communication and feedback such a challenge in today’s workplaces? The fast pace of work and increased workloads are certainly part of the equation—but another possibility is that new managers are not trained in either of these essential skills. Research conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that 47 percent of organizations do not have a formal training program in place for new managers. Research by leadership development consultancy Zenger Folkman has found that most managers don’t receive training until they are ten years into their managerial careers.

That’s too late. Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill has found that most managers who survive their first year develop habits—good or bad—that they carry with them for the rest of their careers.

The Ken Blanchard Companies believes it is essential for new managers to develop good communication skills as they step into their first leadership roles. In a new first-time manager curriculum, Blanchard identifies four communication skills new managers need to develop as well as four conversations new managers need to master.

Four Essential Communication Skills

• Listen to Learn—a deeper type of listening where the goal for the manager is to hear something that might change their mind, not just prompt a response.
• Inquire for Insight—when the manager uses questions to draw people out and probe for understanding that might not be shared at first.
• Tell Your Truth—being direct in communication in a way that promotes honest observation without assigning blame.
• Express Confidence—conveying a positive attitude toward the other person and toward future conversations, regardless of the subject.

Four Performance Management Conversations to Master

• The Goal Setting Conversation—setting clear objectives: all good performance begins with clear goals.
• The Praising Conversation—noticing and recognizing progress and good performance: catch people doing things right.
• The Redirecting Conversation—providing feedback and direction when performance is off-track: seize the opportunity before the problem escalates.
• The Wrapping Up Conversation—conducting a short, informal review after a task or goal is finished: savor accomplishments and acknowledge learnings

Becoming skilled in each of these areas not only helps new managers get off to a great start but also can help them succeed for years to come. How are your managers doing in these critical areas? You can read more about the Blanchard approach to first-time manager development in the white paper Essential Skills Every First-Time Manager Should Master.

I’ll summarize the major buckets as I saw them, but I encourage you (after you read this, of course!) to click on the graphic and read what people said in their own words.  This exercise paints a very human picture of the challenges new managers face when they first make the jump from individual contributor to supervising the work of others.

Here’s how I categorized things:

The vast majority of challenges dealt with people issues—things like managing former peers (about 20% of responses), managing conflict, improving morale, building trust, earning respect (about 15%), or working with older or more experienced team members (about 13%.)

The second biggest bucket contained performance management issues. This included setting goals, providing day-to-day feedback, coaching, redirection, and year-end performance review (about 13%.)

The topic of the third big bucket was personal concerns about the new role and included time management, prioritization, and finding balance along with trying to do it all and live up to expectations (about 15%.)

These findings are similar to what we have been seeing in an ongoing survey we’ve been conducting to inform the development of The Ken Blanchard Companies new First-time Manager program.

That research, combined with extensive interviews of managers and client organizations, helped us develop a curriculum for first-time managers that focuses on four essential communication skills—Listening, Inquiring, Telling Your Truth, and Expressing Confidence—together with four performance related conversations all new managers needs to master.

The four conversations were drawn from the three key principles in Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson’s best-selling book The New One Minute Manager®— Goal setting, Praising, and Redirecting—and joined by a new, fourth conversation, Wrapping Up, which is about bringing closure to goals and tasks.

What categories do you see when you look at the responses?  How do they match up with your experience as a first-time manager?  If you would like to participate in our ongoing research, please use this link to take a short five-minute survey, or just use the comments section below to share a thought or two.  What was your biggest challenge as a first-time manager?

Dear Madeleine,

I am afraid I am a jerk.

I currently have twelve direct reports and I swear, every single one of them is deficient. My wife is so sick of my complaining about what numbskulls they all are, she actually said “Have you ever considered that the problem might be you?”

And honestly, I never have, until now.

I am constantly disappointed in my people’s work. Some of them have worked for me a long time—I don’t know what their excuse is. Five of them are newbies who are flailing around, turning work in with spelling errors, failing to go the extra mile. I am wondering if these people even went to college. I am ready to scrap the whole team and start over, which of course is wildly unrealistic. But I have to do something because this group is out of control. Is it me? How can I fix this?

Afraid of Being a Jerk

Dear Afraid,

Well, you may be a jerk. I would need more detail to know for sure, because I don’t know what you actually say to your people or how you set them up for their projects. But let’s look at what you might do to turn the tide and increase the standards for your work team, and we’ll see if it makes a difference.

I think your team might be suffering from a lack of clarity around your expectations. Perhaps you have been doing your job for so long that you forget there was a time when you didn’t know what you know.

At Blanchard, we have a story we tell around setting goals. The boss asks the employee to bring him a rock. Back comes the worker with a nice big rock, the size of grapefruit, kind of rough on the outside. “No,” says the boss, “I want a smaller, smoother rock.” And now here comes our worker with a smaller, smoother rock. The boss throws up his hands and says, “No, no, no, it needs to be black! And smoother than this.” The frustrated employee goes looking for something that fits the bill and comes back with a lovely, smooth, black, small rock. The boss loses his temper and raises his voice, saying, “Well, now that’s too small!”

The question is, how clear are you when you set expectations, especially with the newbies? They really may have no idea what you want, even if you think it is obvious. You need to paint a detailed picture of what a good job looks like, and maybe even provide an example. Then—and this is the step most people skip—you need to ask them to repeat the instructions back to you, to make sure you expressed what you wanted in a way they understood. It can be surprising to compare what you think you said with what someone actually heard. If the instructions are complex, write them down—or even better, ask the employee to do it and then review the written instructions together. This is one way to avoid confusion from the beginning. You’ll want to ask to review drafts of work along the way before the deadline so you can provide course correction. If you want them to go the extra mile, explain in no uncertain terms what an example of that might be.

You can also be super clear from the start that you expect everyone to review their work and correct typos before putting anything in front of you. A lot of people don’t know the technique of reading through work out loud to catch errors that spell check doesn’t always catch. Or putting a slideshow presentation into Presentation mode for review—it’s somehow easier to catch mistakes in Presentation mode. Teach these techniques to your people and impress upon them how important it is to you.

What other expectations do you have? Think them through carefully, articulate them accurately, put them in writing, and share them with your people. They really won’t know unless you tell them. You have to accept that just because you think people should know about something before they get to you, they may not. So teach them. And make it crystal clear.

With your longtime employees, I think the only way you can find out what is going on is to sit down with each one of them in private and ask. You can tell them you are confused by the drop in performance and express concern. Ask them what you might do differently to support them in getting their standards back up to par. Be prepared to hear some feedback about yourself as a boss, and also some things that might surprise you. For the longer term folks who have been great performers in the past, you owe them that.

The longer you manage people, the easier it is to forget that people can’t read your mind. Make the implicit explicit. Be clear, consistent, and generous with feedback. And if you do it all kindly, you won’t be a jerk.

Love Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

“As a first-time manager, you want to make a good first impression by demonstrating confidence and capability in managing the work of others. But new managers sometimes get over-invested in people and projects. As a result, they can overreact—getting too excited or upset when things don’t go exactly as planned.”

In the February issue of Ignite, Blanchard shares a story about his own experience.

“I remember being a new parent—you worry about every little thing. Every sniffle is a trip to the emergency room. You find yourself freaking out all the time. But by the time you get to the second kid, you have a whole new perspective. And if you get to a third or fourth, the kids practically raise themselves because you’ve gained experience—you don’t overreact to things like you did before. New managers are sometimes like new parents in that regard.

“As you become experienced as a manager, you are able to respond on a scale that is appropriate. Your energy, tone, and actions are more nuanced. Managers who have been around for a while draw from a larger barrel of knowledge and experience than new managers. They tend to be more patient and calm when things don’t go as planned because they’ve seen it many times before.”

According to Blanchard, experience also teaches managers how to set things up with team members in the beginning so that performance management doesn’t become an emergency issue later on.

Blanchard believes first-time managers need to be prepared for four types of conversations: Goal Setting—to establish performance expectations; Praising—when things are going well; Redirecting—when a mid-course correction is necessary; and Wrapping Up—bringing closure to a task or project. Each of these conversations can pose challenges for new managers.

With skill training and practice, Blanchard believes new managers can get off to a much faster start than they would by using a typical trial and error approach. This can prevent overreactions that can damage a new manager’s reputation and effectiveness.

You can read more of Blanchard’s advice in the February issue of Ignite.  Also be sure to check out the complimentary webinar Blanchard is conducting on February 24—First Time Manager: Performance Management Essentials.  It’s free, courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Blanchard Companies.

In conducting classes with organizations eager to develop their own one minute managers (and, more recently, situational leaders), Blanchard and his work colleagues have often used an exercise that brings the distressing state of goal setting into sharp focus.

In this exercise, class instructors work separately with groups of managers and their direct reports. First they ask the direct reports to identify and rank order their top ten priorities at work. Separately, they ask managers of those individuals to identify their direct reports’ top ten priorities. The instructors then compare the priorities identified by team members with those identified by their leaders. As Ken Blanchard tells it, “Any similarity between the lists is purely coincidental.” In most cases, priorities are rank ordered quite differently by manager and direct report, with some important goals missing.

Digging into causes, Ken and his colleagues have found that day-to-day emphasis by managers on tasks that are urgent, but not necessarily important, are often to blame. Managers tend to focus on short term issues when delivering feedback, which causes important long term goals to fade into the background. Only when performance review comes around are the long term goals re-identified. Of course, by then it’s often too late to make any real progress. This results in missed targets and, often, hard feelings.

Don’t let this happen with your team. Take some time between now and the end of the month to make sure you and your team members are focused on the same priorities. Using the same exercise Blanchard instructors employ, ask your people each to identify their top five priorities for the coming year. At the same time team members are working on their lists, take a minute to identify what you believe their top five priorities are, given department and organizational goals.

Then, in your next one-on-one conversation with each team member, compare your list with that individual’s list. Identify and discuss differences. Gain agreement on the team member’s top five priorities and set goals around each priority that are SMART: specific, motivational, attainable, relevant, and trackable. Getting clear now will set up follow-up conversations during the first quarter where you can work together to review progress and make adjustments as necessary. The goal is to partner with your people to keep priorities top of mind so that important goals are achieved.

Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important in your organization. Re-examine priorities today—it will make all the difference down the road!

PS: Interested in a deeper dive on goal setting? Join Ken Blanchard for a free goal setting session on January 27. Ken will be helping hundreds of managers and individual contributors from around the world effectively set work and personal goals for the coming year. The event is free, courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

“I’ve always talked about helping people get As. Early in my career as a university professor, I was often in trouble because I would give my students the final exam on the first day of class. Then I would spend the semester teaching them the answers so that they could pass the exam. I didn’t see why I should spend time trying to sort people out. It makes even less sense in a business organization where leaders should want everyone to succeed.

“For example, a manager who wants a direct report to get an A wouldn’t say to the person, ‘One of your goals is to set up a major client conference by the end of the year’ and then just wait around to see if it happens. Instead, the manager would say, ‘This is January and the client conference needs to occur in October. So within the next month, I’d like you to identify clients we should invite and maybe get a start on organizing the publicity.’ The manager would work with the direct report to identify all the different pieces that need to come together for a successful conference.

“There’s no value in seeing where everybody falls on a standard distribution curve. Organizations focused on that usually don’t have their eyes on the goals they are trying to achieve. Why would you want a certain percentage of your people to accomplish their goals and not the rest? Why wouldn’t you want everybody to get an A?”

Helping people get an A begins by setting clear goals for them at the beginning.  In the latest issue of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Ignite newsletter, Blanchard explains that, “The best organizations hire high potential people, set clear goals with them, and help them achieve success. All good performance starts with clear goals. If people don’t know what you want them to accomplish, what are the chances they will be successful? Not very good.

“It’s very important to have work goals that are observable and measurable,” explains Blanchard. “Peter Drucker used to say, ‘If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.’ Measurements are important to give both managers and direct reports more clarity when assessing performance.”

The difficult part of goal setting is that it takes real focus and time, says Blanchard. “You have to think it through. You can’t do it by yourself.  It works best when it is a continuing dialogue with your boss and coworkers.”

Blanchard points to leaders like Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company, who coauthored the book Helping People Win at Work. “At WD-40, everyone sees the organizational goals, which are observable and measurable. Then the managers and direct reports work together to examine the individual’s job responsibilities and identify three to five observable and measurable individual goals that will contribute to the organizational goals.

“We want individuals to focus on the 20 percent that will give them the 80 percent. That doesn’t mean they don’t do some activities that aren’t on the goals, but you want to make sure goals are set on the key activities that will help the person become a high performer.”

Blanchard encourages all organizations to take the time to make goal setting a priority.

“Whatever you do with people, it has to start with clear goals. Identify what are you working on and what good behavior looks like. If you take the time up front to do it right, it really makes all the difference down the road.”

You can read the complete article with Ken Blanchard in the January issue of Ignite.  Also, be sure to check out the free goal-setting webinar Ken Blanchard is conducting on January 27.  Blanchard will be personally helping over 500 individuals and teams from around the world complete their 2016 goal setting during the online session.  The event is free courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

Dear Madeleine,

I’m not sure what my exact problem is, except that I am in a constant state of overwhelm.  I have a wonderful job that I love, with a great boss who gives me plenty of challenging opportunities and always has my back.  My employees are all excellent and hardworking.  I have a lovely home—which usually looks like a toy and laundry bomb went off in it—with a spouse who works as hard as I do.  We run from day care drop-off to work, race back for kid pick-up and then home to fall into bed only to get up at dawn and start all over again.

My head is spinning.  I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until this holiday season when I took a few days off and could barely get off the couch. 

I feel like my life is whizzing by and I am missing it.  My kids aren’t even in school yet and I have serious career ambitions, but I don’t see how I am going to keep up this pace.   —Can’t Keep Up

Whoa there, Can’t Keep Up!

Boy, do I sympathize with your situation—and I am sure most of my readers do, too.  My kids are all young adults now and I look back on those early years and wonder how I did it.  You are absolutely right in thinking you aren’t going to be able to keep up the pace. You are behaving as if you signed up for a sprint when, in fact, you are in the first stretch of an endurance marathon.  And what that means, my friend, is that you must pace yourself.  Here a few keys for doing just that:

Put yourself first. This is counterintuitive, I know. But seriously—our culture is so child-centered these days, it can be really hard to focus on yourself and your own needs.  The way you are feeling makes me think there may be some fundamental needs you are not getting met.  Maybe it is time to exercise; maybe it is simply quiet time to think.  Whatever it is, the operative word is going to be time. So whether you carve it out of your workday or your family time, I guarantee that you can find two hours a week where you can do something you need to do to take care of yourself.  And while we’re on the topic of needs—your family will only make it through these years in one piece if you and your spouse pay some attention to each other.  Date nights might be corny and it might be hard to get a sitter, but you simply have to spend some time together when you’re not both comatose.

Let something go. You can have everything, just not all at the same time.  So for any given interval of time—say any week, month, or quarter—decide what is going to get the largest percentage of mindshare.  Sometimes it will be a big project at work; sometimes it will be prepping for the holidays. Decide and prioritize and stick to your guns.  Look at everything you are spending time on—and if it isn’t that important, dump it.  I skipped sending Christmas cards this year—even though I really enjoy it—because guess what? There is no big rule book in the sky that says I have to do it every year.

Get help.  A rule of thumb I learned from entrepreneur guru Michael Gerber is that if somebody else can do something, delegate it—and stay focused on the things only you can do.   If both you and your spouse are working full-time, chances are you can afford a laundry service.  And if I could go back in time and do one thing differently with my kids, I would have been better at making them clean up their toys before bed every night.

Practice mindfulness.  Mindfulness can be defined as the self-regulation of attention or awareness to internal or external events with an orientation of curiosity, openness, and acceptance.  There is a lot of noise on this topic, but the research shows that people who regularly practice mindfulness experience less stress and more joy than those who don’t.  You don’t need to go take a class or become an expert. All you need to do is breathe deeply and notice. Pay attention to what is going on—both within you and around you.  That’s it.  It will lower your stress level and blood pressure; it will be make you feel like a sane person instead of a lunatic.

Practice gratitude. Instead of scanning your phone while waiting in line at the grocery store or rehashing your to-do list while driving around, come up with a mental list of all the things in your life you are grateful for.  It will change your brain chemistry and improve your quality of life in measurable ways.

Take a snapshot. I learned this from my mother-in-law, Margie Blanchard, who has taught me a treasure trove of cool things. This is just a goofy little technique that will help you put some shape to the blur your life has become.  Every night, just as you are getting settled in bed, ask yourself What is the snapshot from today?  It could be a triumphant moment in a meeting; it could be one of your kids saying something hilarious.  It can be sublime or ridiculous, but it is one thing that happened today that is a hallmark of this small regular day that will never happen again.  Some days you might get two snapshots.  And some days your one snapshot will be absolutely prosaic.

The fact is, your life is whizzing by—and it will go even faster as it goes along.  Try some of these small easy habits, one at a time. I think they will help you slow down and enjoy each moment in 2016 just a little more!

Love Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Blanchard recommends that goal setters increase their chances of success with New Year’s resolutions by applying three of the principles of Situational Leadership^® II (SLII^®) to the process—goal setting, diagnosis, and matching. Using his own experience in setting goals for managing his physical health, Blanchard shares how we can all apply a situational approach to our planning.

Goal Setting

All good performance starts with clear goals. Blanchard recommends the SMART approach along with a compelling reason that motivates you to achieve the goal. “I had set the goal to become fit many times,” Blanchard explains. “But this time, I found a compelling reason to get healthy: my new dog, Joy. I was just turning 70 when I got her. Knowing dogs can live 15 years or more, I decided I needed to stay healthy through my mid-80s, so not only would I be around for my family, but also for Joy. Most people worry about outliving their dog; I worried about my dog outliving me!”

When it came to making sure his goals were SMART—specific, motivating, attainable, relevant, and trackable, it was very helpful for Ken to have the direction of his trainer and Fit at Last coauthor, Tim Kearin. By taking Ken’s measurements and monitoring his progress bit by bit, Tim saw to it that Ken’s goals were achievable.

Diagnosis

Once goals are set, the next step is to diagnose your development level on each of the tasks related to your goal. Blanchard explains that development level is a function of competence (your skills and experience) and commitment (your motivation and confidence).

“It was important for me—and it will be important for you—to realize that you’ll need different leadership styles, or help, depending on your development level on each task.

“For example, suppose your New Year’s resolution is to become physically fit: strong, lean, aerobically conditioned, and flexible/balanced. Let’s say you’re excited about learning to lift weights. That makes you an enthusiastic beginner in strength training—you have no competence but high commitment. When it comes to weight control, you may be a disillusioned learner—you not only lack competence but you’ve also lost your commitment. In the area of aerobics you could be a capable but cautious performer—you know how to use a treadmill but your commitment fluctuates with your mood. And if you’ve taken yoga for years, in the area of flexibility and balance you would be a self-reliant achiever—both competent and committed.”

Matching

The third step Blanchard explores is matching. When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, matching means finding someone who can provide you with the directive behavior or supportive behavior you need, given your development level on various tasks.

Drawing on his previous example, Blanchard explains, “When you’re an enthusiastic beginner in weight training, you need direction—someone to tell you what, when, where, and how to lift weights. As a disillusioned learner about diet and nutrition, you would need both direction and support—someone to listen to you and also praise you as you change the way you eat. As a capable but cautious performer in aerobics, you don’t need much direction but you do need support—an accountability partner—to get on the treadmill or jogging path. Your passion for yoga makes you a self-reliant achiever in the area of flexibility and balance, so just keep hitting the yoga mat!”

Enlisting a partner who will give you the proper amounts of direction and support, and help keep you accountable, can reap great benefits. And finding someone who has a similar goal to yours is ideal—you can keep each other on track!

Don’t Go It Alone

Few people can accomplish a major life change by themselves. Ken Blanchard finally succeeded when he accepted more direction and support to achieve his fitness goals.

How about you? How much direction and support do you need to succeed? Don’t go it alone—find someone who can help you push through the giddy enthusiastic beginner, paralyzing disillusioned learner, and apprehensive capable but cautious performer stages so that you can reap the rewards of becoming an autonomous self-reliant achiever!

You can read Ken Blanchard’s column, Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work, in the January issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.

In these conversations, I’ve learned that a leader believes she’s been clear about what needs to be done, or a direct report thinks he knows what is being asked of him. But then the deadline comes and goes without delivery. Or the project is presented, but only in the most rudimentary manner.

What happened?

In reviewing these situations with clients, regardless of whether the client was in the role of leader or direct report, the expected steps emerged: goals were set and deadlines were mentioned—but what didn’t happen also surfaced. Missing in these conversations was the opportunity to review and confirm what was discussed. The leader stated the deadline, but did the other person hear it? Did the leader mention the milestone delivery dates? Did they define the elements of the presentation? Did the direct report know how to deliver on what was expected, who to consult with, and what was not to be done? Did they know what a good job should look like?

To support someone in achieving a goal, it is essential to move from the implied to the specific. Almost everyone has the best of intentions. But to achieve success, people need more than good intentions—they need clarity.

Leaders need to make time in work conversations to add the essential step of reviewing what is expected. For best results, the person who received the assignment should do most of the talking during the review— this will clarify what they see as their responsibilities while illuminating any missing steps or misunderstandings. Remember, the person who does the talking learns the most. Finally, this kind of review will allow the leader to listen and endorse the direct report.

Taking the extra step to review and gain clarity before work starts will position both leader and direct report on the side of success. There is a huge difference between almost complete and complete. Leaders who take the time to review will enjoy the satisfaction of hitting the target every time.

About the Author

Mary Ellen Sailer, Ed.D., is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

“Leadership is about going somewhere. Being successful at that requires a combination of clear goal setting, providing positive reinforcement or redirection as needed, and finally closure at the end of a project or assignment. While leaders in the past may have been accustomed to telling others what to do, we are finding that today’s managers are not as comfortable with an authoritative, directing style of leadership.”

Blanchard explains that although a supporting leadership style is suitable when working with direct reports who are skilled and confident in their ability to accomplish a task, it is not appropriate when managing someone who is new to a task and has little experience to draw from. In this case, even if it is out of the manager’s comfort zone, they need to be very directive—setting milestones and timelines for the direct report.

In co-developing the curriculum for the First-Time Manager program, Blanchard looked at four key conversations every new manager needs to master—Goal Setting, Praising, Redirecting, and Wrapping Up.

“We help new leaders examine and remove their assumed constraints about stepping into a position of leadership and directing others at work,” says Blanchard. “By default, when you make the shift from individual contributor to leader you are now responsible for everyone’s performance, not just your own. This means dealing with an entire bell curve of performance—the people who are doing really well, the ones who are struggling, and the ones whose performance is somewhere in the middle.

“In designing the four key conversations for the First-Time Manager training program, we were inspired by the concepts of One Minute Management. We started with the Three Secrets: setting clear goals, praising when things go well, and redirecting when things don’t go well. We added the necessary component of an honorable closure when a goal is accomplished. And we combined these elements into a valuable communication competency every leader must have: well developed conversational skills.”

Being a manager is about empowering and encouraging others. Conversation is the lifeblood of that process. Blanchard encourages HR and OD professionals to help new managers begin learning the skills necessary to have effective conversations with their people today.

You can read more of Blanchard’s thinking in the December issue of Ignite. You can also view an on-demand recording of Blanchard’s recent webinar on Four Conversations All New Managers Need to Master. It’s free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies monthly webinar series with Cisco WebEx.

During our coaching, my client and I spent much of our time uncovering what was going on and what he might be able to do differently. He narrowed in on some actions he could take and he set to work. Here’s what he did:

• Identified top priorities. My client made a commitment to himself that every morning he would schedule an hour alone to identify his top five priorities. He thought clarifying his priorities each day might stop the constant feeling of being pushed and pulled by whatever was shouting the loudest.

• Stopped saying yes to everything. As a smart, hardworking, and knowledgeable manager, he often was the person others came to when they needed something done. He initially appreciated being the go-to guy, but eventually realized he always had more work than time to do it. Through our coaching, he acknowledged to himself that he was a very hardworking and capable person. This helped him see that the reason he couldn’t get all his work done was because he was taking on too much. He realized he didn’t have to try to be all things to all people. Using his newly established priority list helped him determine when to say yes and when to say no.

• Guarded his calendar. Setting priorities and being willing to say no created another new awareness for my client—that he was getting sucked into multiple meetings every day. No wonder he was always on the run! He determined that he didn’t have an active role in many of those meetings, nor was he gaining mission critical information. So he slowed down and considered what meetings he could drop off his calendar. In their place, he worked on his priorities.

I want to point out that these action steps were not easy for my client—because he wanted to be known by his colleagues as a team player. He wanted to be readily available to his direct reports. He wanted others to recognize his can-do attitude. But, more than all of these things, he wanted to stop working twelve-hour days.

I spoke to my client a few months after he began implementing this action plan. There was a lightness in his voice. He told me he felt his efforts were truly paying off. He was finding himself working more on tasks that were really important, which was resulting in better quality work. He was now able to give higher quality attention to his staff and co-workers. All of this had produced a greater sense of accomplishment—and, most days, he was able to leave the office on time.

If you can relate to the feeling of not enough hours in the day, maybe you’d benefit from affirming your priorities, learning to say no, and controlling your calendar. Implement these three changes and let me know how it goes!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Want to get the most out of your leadership training investment? Here is a three-step process using coaching to support learning that helps leaders  master new skills after they complete a training program.

1. Start with valid feedback. Use a validated assessment to identify the leader’s strengths as well as areas that need improvement. Be sure the information you are starting with is credible in the eyes of the leader.  It can be difficult for someone to make behavioral changes if they have any doubt about the accuracy of the information.
2. Focus. Review the training materials and the assessment data and identify a few carefully chosen areas to work on in coaching. Customized attention to a relevant business need creates direct application of learning.  Focused sessions with a coach provide the opportunity to practice new responses, which helps a leader build skills and confidence.
3. Use a coach as an accountability partner. To support the learner’s practice and mastery, plan on at least two or three phone coaching sessions within eight weeks of the leader’s training sessions. Doing this allows the learner to not only get the dedicated focus of how to apply new concepts but also use their coach as their accountability partner. The leader/learner can sharpen their skills between coaching sessions.

Make sure your organization is getting the most out of its training dollars. Using a coach provides an opportunity for the leader to master newly learned skills while it gives the organization a way to improve communication, relationships, morale, and the retention of good people.

About the Author

Mary Ellen Sailer, Ed.D., is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Dear Madeleine,

I am a relatively new manager at a not-for-profit organization. During my first two years working here, my boss told me exactly what to do all the time. A classic micromanager, he constantly breathed down my neck.

He left the organization and I now I report to the woman who was his boss. She is the polar opposite of my old boss and gives me zero direction.

This, it turns out, is even worse.

All she does is pile on more work, saying things like, “Oh, could you just take care of this? You are so smart and you always get things done.” Nice to hear, but how can I do it all?

To make matters worse, because of her constant piling on of work, I have no real idea what I am supposed to be focused on at any given time. She keeps claiming an open door policy, but in real life her door is never open—and I can’t get on her calendar to get the clarification I need. I feel lost. This situation is affecting both my own work and my ability to set goals for my new hire. Help! —Overburdened and Feeling Lost

Dear Lost,

Don’t you just hate that—one manager drives you crazy breathing down your neck and the next one drives you crazier by paying no attention to you at all. If nothing else, you have two excellent models for how not to manage your own direct report.

I am thrilled to hear that you are working on goals with your new hire—this is an excellent first step. Ken Blanchard, in his book The New One Minute Manager, says the first step to success is to write down crystal clear goals and post them someplace extremely visible. Ask your new person to double check all of their activities against those goals on a regular basis to make sure everything they are doing is moving them toward accomplishing the right things. If you are familiar with Situational Leadership® II, be very clear about what leadership style your employee needs for each task and goal. This is so that you can provide extra direction when needed, but you also can leave them alone when appropriate. When used correctly, extra direction when your employee is new to a task won’t be perceived as micromanagement—and extra autonomy when they are competent at a task won’t be perceived as abandonment, which is how it probably felt when each of your bosses used only one style with you in all instances.

Now this is specifically for you: Anyone who has a clueless boss must take the reins and bring the boss up to speed by any means possible. This will mean you, alone, need to clarify the goals and tasks you are currently working on. Take your best guess to start. Write them in the briefest, simplest way possible and put them in front of your boss. Get creative and use several types of communication to find one that gets her attention—a hard copy left on her desk, an email, or even a text if that makes sense. If she listens to voice mail, leave your goals and tasks in a message. Then write them big and bold and put them over your desk so your boss sees them when she passes by. If you are on the wrong track, she will notice and tell you.

Once you’ve clarified your goals, communicate with your boss often and without fail. I recommend weekly, but bi-weekly will do—or, worst case, monthly. This communication should list your goals and all actions taken in relation to those goals. As a side note, list in a Miscellaneous bucket any tasks you are working on at your boss’s request that aren’t connected to your goals. That should be instructive.

If your boss won’t provide clear goals, direction, and support in the proper amounts, you’ll have to take the bull by the horns and provide them for yourself. Hopefully, your boss will get the message—and in the meantime, this exercise will remind you of how important it is to provide the same for your direct report. Let me know how it goes.

Love, Madeleine

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Instead, I recently have been working with clients to approach performance management as a way to leverage an employee’s contributions toward organization goals.

The subtle but important distinction between performance management and contribution management can turn a once-negative process into a positive “How can I help you succeed?” approach.

For this kind of partnering to work, managers need to have a few prerequisites in place.  Without them, you will continue to find yourself assessing and evaluating performance instead of working in tandem with direct reports to help them succeed. Think you are ready for this more positive approach?  See how you would score yourself in each of these key areas.

Well defined goals with a clear line of sight. Employees need to own their contribution. This occurs when they can clearly map their work to overall department and organization goals and are empowered to take action.

Surprisingly, though, survey results of over 500 managers in our leadership development classes show only 20 percent of managers reporting alignment between themselves and their direct reports.  Without defined goals and a clear line of sight, people are left in the dark. Work becomes a guessing game where workers are on a need-to-know basis. This creates a dependency, not a partnership.

Identification of current development level. For contribution management to truly work, a manager has to be able to accurately assess the employee’s development level on a given task, identify what the person needs to succeed, and then partner with them on the proper amounts of direction and support.

Assessing these needs accurately requires identifying an employee’s current competence at a task and commitment to achieving it. Competence is the knowledge and skills an individual brings to a goal or task and is best determined by demonstrated performance. Commitment is a combination of an individual’s motivation and confidence on a goal or task.

Ongoing coaching. Once clear performance objectives have been set, the next step is to set up recurring one-on-one meetings to regularly monitor progress against goals. This time also can be used to problem solve roadblocks, change goals as business direction changes, and re-evaluate training and resource needs.

The one-on-one conversation is critical and allows leaders to leverage the competence and commitment of their people in an efficient way. A coach-style approach allows managers to connect with each employee, focus the conversation, develop an action plan, and review next steps and resources needed to succeed. 

More Than a Name Change

It’s time to think differently about the relationship of the individual to the organization. Instead of assessment and evaluation, focus on alignment of goals, identification of development level, and providing day-to-day support.

When it is done right, contribution management is much more than a name change. It is a complete rethinking of the performance appraisal process that offers managers and direct reports the opportunity to build their relationship as they work together on objectives and create a road map for success.

About the Author

John Slater is a Senior Director, Client Solutions for The Ken Blanchard Companies working out of Blanchard’s Toronto, Ontario regional headquarters in Canada.

The reality is that most of us in our too busy, too full lives, don’t take the time to consciously think about our own growth and development. However, if you’d like to not only be a learner, but also grow and develop, you can do so in small, manageable steps. Here are my suggestions for your development journey.

Find ONE positive, meaningful “stretch” development area. Identify a single positive trait or habit you’d like to develop that would get you some bang for your buck. Notice I said single—that’s because you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. And, I said a positive trait. That’s because positive change versus problem solving is much more motivating. The good news is that any problem can be turned into a positive. For instance, instead of saying you want to stop telling people what they should do, say I want to better facilitate others finding their own answers. Instead of saying I want to lose 10 pounds declare you want to eat healthier or exercise more.

Define Desired Change. Take time to define what you will do to make this change happen—and be specific. I heard someone once say – you can’t hit a target if you don’t know what the target is. Vividly define for yourself what you will be doing differently?  Using the examples above, maybe you’d see yourself listening to people more and asking more questions versus immediately jumping in with a solution. Or, to support your healthier life style, say you’ll start drinking water with lunch instead of a soda, and you’ll walk for 30 minutes three times a week.

Keep Your Desired Outcome Top of Mind. I am a firm believer that charge starts by simply becoming aware of the desire to change. Finding ways to keep your desired change top-of-mind allows you to notice times when you’ve successfully changed your behavior and times when you’ve fallen back to your old ways. Make a list of your outcomes. Use pen and paper, your phone, tablet, or computer—just record what you want to do and put it somewhere that will be easy for you to read every day as a reminder of your desired goals.

Give Yourself Permission To Be A Learner. Just because you declare you want to grow and develop doesn’t mean it will happen. You have to practice and be willing to step out of your comfort zone to try something new. Think of it as creating a learning lab for your development. Usually you don’t have to go far to find real world opportunities for practice. Just remember when you practice that the old two steps forward, one step back dynamic might come into play. Most importantly, celebrate any and all progress and don’t beat yourself up when you falter. Dust yourself off and try again. If you persist you will prevail.

The human brain is an amazing machine. Declaring a desired growth area and defining what that looks like sets your brain to work toward your goal. When you also keep it top of mind and commit to practice you become unstoppable. Give it a try. If you do, you will be one who “inherits the earth.”

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

A leader’s responsibility is to achieve desired results through people.  It works best with the collective efforts of the team and with everyone rowing in the same direction.

But many times managers and their people are not aligned on goals.  For example, we conducted a survey in a leadership class, asking leaders “How well does your organization perform alignment conversations?”  Out of 450 responses, 59 percent selected “Needs improvement” and 20 percent selected “What alignment conversations?”  For these leaders, there was a lot of rowing upstream.

When you have a rowing upstream moment as a leader, what can you do? There are many possibilities. Unfortunately, none of them involves throwing a mild tantrum—even though that would probably feel good in the short term!

No, the proper response is to take a deep breath (trust me, it helps) and examine your alignment behavior.  Here are three specific areas to focus on:

• Review the goals you have set with each of your direct reports. Are these goals aligned with the bigger goals of your group?  Are they prioritized? What needs to be adjusted?
• Meet with your direct reports to discuss and reset where needed. It could be as simple as a thirty minute check-in with the focus on aligning direct reports’ daily priorities with the priorities of the department.  I have experienced that many people tend to focus on unimportant, simple tasks vs. important, more complex tasks.  What is needed to connect to department priorities?  What direction and support is needed to get the important tasks completed?
• Recognize and praise progress. When guiding a direct report, leaders can be quick to point out what needs to change—but finding and pointing out what is positive and working builds confidence and commitment. Praise says, “I’m noticing the good work you’re doing and it’s important to our operation.”

A Common Direction

Checking for alignment and resetting goals where necessary may seem like common sense, but experience tells us it is not common practice. Take a minute to check in with your team and get everyone in the boat. Now everyone will be rowing in unison instead of watching from the banks.

And when other people see your team glide by, if you listen closely, chances are you’ll hear them saying, “Wow, you’re getting things done!  You’re making changes around here!  Thank you for leading!”

About the Author

Joni Wickline is Vice President, Professional Services with The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can read Wickline’s posts as a part of Coaching Tuesday here at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

We have been building on the idea I have always used as a coach, which is that an interaction is either useful or it’s not.

A useful conversation leaves you clear and ready to take action. A conversation that is not useful leaves you muddled and feeling a little paralyzed. A useful dialogue results in your feeling confident and good about yourself. A dialogue that is not useful leaves you with a lingering sense of self doubt.

As a coach, I strive to engage in useful conversations where my clients can say “yes” to three questions.

1. Did I feel heard and understood—does my coach really understand who I am and what I am up to?
2. Did I learn something—either from the coach or from my own thought process?
3. Did I leave the coaching session feeling ready, willing, and able to take the action I committed to?

As a manager, you may want to use this same measure for the conversations you have with your direct reports. How can you be a better listener? How can you promote more self-discovery? How can you provide the direction and support that sets people up to take self-directed action?

Could your conversations be more useful? Challenge your people, hold them to high standards—but never in a way that makes them feel undermined. Try the coach approach.

About the Author

Madeleine Blanchard is the co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

I recently coached an ambitious sales person with ten direct reports after he attended a three-day Managing People workshop customized for his employer by The Ken Blanchard Companies.

This leader was very busy, working an average of twelve hours a day. Due to scheduling conflicts, we set his first coaching session three weeks after the workshop took place. Research indicates that you lose 70 percent of what you learn within one week if you don’t use it, so we started the session by clarifying his top two challenges.

The first challenge was that he wanted to contribute more to his company and achieve a higher leadership position. The second was his desire to have his direct reports take over more of the routine problem solving so he could better balance both his managing up and managing down duties.

I asked him, “From what you learned in the workshop, what do you think would help you with your priorities?”

After a little time with him not really answering the question, I gently asked again, “So in your opinion, which of the workshop concepts would help most with your priorities?”

It took a few more seconds of thought, but then the answer came to him: “I feel that I need to strengthen my relationships with both my boss and my direct reports.”

“How do you see this happening?” I asked.

“I think I can achieve it through the one-on-one meetings they talked about in the workshop,” he replied.

From there, he swiftly identified how implementing one-on-one meetings could help him both upstream and downstream:

1. Strengthening relationships through more communication: One-on-ones would allow him to spend more time with his boss learning about corporate projects and identifying opportunities where he could contribute more to the organization. The one-on-ones with his direct reports would help strengthen relationships by allowing a time to discuss their needs in a more scheduled way than through quick hallway consultations.

2. Improving competence all around: He could learn from his boss how to manage big picture items and projects, and his direct reports could gain competence through his increased direction, coaching and support to help them solve problems that arise from day-to-day operations.

3. Increasing delegation: As his direct reports’ competence improved, he could delegate more to them—and thereby open up time for him to be involved in big picture projects. Also, with the one-on-one meetings’ recommended best practice of the manager setting the time and the direct report setting the agenda, direct reports would become more empowered and would take more charge of the items under their responsibility.

4. Clarifying expectations: One-on-one meetings would also provide the occasion for him to clarify his direct reports’ goals as well as to provide feedback on desirable behaviors within the organization. Additionally, these meetings would present a great opportunity for him to catch his people doing things right!

One-on-meetings become time savers with the mentioned relevant benefits for all parties involved when used on a recurring basis. Follow these five tips for getting started:

1. Make one-on-one meetings short: 15 to 30 minutes in length.
2. The leader sets the meeting date and time and the direct report provides the agenda.
3. Meet at least once every two weeks.
4. Focus on what the direct report wants to talk about; i.e., progress reports, obstacles, concerns.
5. Show direct reports that meetings are valued and important by treating them as a priority. If a meeting has to be postponed, reschedule promptly.

It was fascinating how this leader—by identifying the need for one-on-one meetings with his supervisor—also recognized how this could help his direct reports. Need more time in your work life? Make sure one-on-one meetings are a managerial resource in your toolkit.

About the Author

Antonio Estrada, MBA, Certified Professional Coach is a member of Blanchard Coaching Services network of executive and leadership coaches.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Yes, you already knew all of this. But I learned something new last week and I want to pass along the knowledge in the hope it will benefit you, too.

Everyone has little tricks they use to finish a project. My kids will tell you I like to make a list when I have many steps to complete, and I place a check next to each task when it’s accomplished. I’ve endeavored to get them to consider this process (especially when completing homework). Our phrase for it is “get a satisfying check.”

When reviewing my work list last week, I saw I had a deadline today. I had already completed tasks that had deadlines last week, so I had discretion in where to apply my time and effort. I thought of the “satisfying check” and decided it would be especially satisfying to get this particular project done sooner rather than later. It required having multiple programs open as well as logging into a secure site. I opened all the spreadsheets and programs and was about to begin when, as sometimes happens, I was called to join other meetings. Since I have a home office, I decided to leave all the resources open overnight and start my project first thing the next morning.

You can guess the rest. The spreadsheets were tabbed and ready. My check list was ready. Even my coffee cup was filled! The secure site took my credentials, but wouldn’t open the resource I needed. I tried, and tried, and tried again. I called a colleague to see if he was having troubles with the site. He said he had had a problem but eventually was able to get on.

He then suggested, “Why not reboot your computer?”

WOW! So obvious, yet not on my radar. And that’s my point: sometimes the desire to beat a deadline can beat out common sense.

I knew enough not to work all night on the project, but my tools—in this case, the laptop—needed to be refreshed, too. Turning things off allows for a fresh start. It’s wry to note that I even was ahead of schedule, yet still overlooked the obvious solution. I had to close the spreadsheets and other documents only to open them again—big deal! The computer needed a fresh start to be of service to me in completing my task. And yes, after I rebooted, I got right into the resource and finished the task five days ahead of schedule.

You need to keep yourself in good order to produce good results. Assessing whether you need a break for a fresh start is part of planning for good results. But remember to assess the functionality of your professional work tools as well. Don’t sacrifice common sense in pursuit of a satisfying check!

About the Author

Mary Ellen Sailer, Ed.D., is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team. Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

One client I worked with came to his first coaching session upset about being passed over for a promotion.  During the first ten minutes of our session, I noticed the language my client chose as he talked about his feelings. The words and phrases he used suggested that he actually hadn’t wanted the promotion. His speech was peppered with weak and ineffectual words and phrases such as try and sort of. The message was subtle yet undeniable.

When my client paused at minute eleven I took advantage of the moment and asked, “What’s next?”

My client began to talk about future plans—and as he did, I noticed something interesting. The same semi-committed language he had used earlier about wanting the promotion popped up again regarding the future he wanted to create for himself. He sort of wanted to taper back to part time. He might want to try to get off the merry-go-round of a seventy-hour work week. He was thinking about, maybe, hopefully, getting back into music.

I asked my client to consider shifting from try to will. From thinking about to doing. From weak to strong.  He agreed—and in three short coaching sessions he was able to transform the language he was using from ineffectual to powerful with positive results.

Wondering if your leadership language—both internally and externally—could use a cleanup?  Here are three places to start.

1. Give credit and accept responsibility. In his book Good to Great, author Jim Collins shares an important distinction between serving and self-serving leaders. Collins says that self-serving leaders look in the mirror and take credit for successes, but when things go wrong they look out the window and assign blame to others. Great leaders do just the opposite—they use “we” statements as they look out the window to attribute success to factors outside themselves, but when things go poorly, they look in the mirror and use “I” statements as they take full responsibility.
2. When setting goals, eliminate the word try. As Jedi master Yoda reprimanded Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Consider the negative impact of the word try in this goal statement: “We will try to provide the best customer service.”  Leave it at will.
3. Don’t mix positive and negative feedback. When giving feedback, keep praising separate from redirection. Leaders sometimes attempt to soften negative feedback by beginning with a praising.  Direct reports can see it coming from a mile away. For example: “You really hit that presentation out of the park—but next time try to look your audience in the eyes more often.”  When you want to praise good performance, be specific, focused, and timely.  Do the same with redirection. Ken Blanchard and his coauthor Spencer Johnson have a lot more to say on this topic in their book The New One Minute Manager.

As a leader it’s important to be precise with the meaning of your words. Take a second look at your language.  Is it clearly conveying what you want to say to yourself and others?  If not, consider these three ways to sharpen your language and your thinking.

About the Author

Patricia Overland is a Coaching Solutions Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

In The New One Minute Manager, just released this week, authors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson lay out a time-tested approach to help managers deliver needed feedback. Here are some key takeaways you can use to improve your feedback skills.

Do Your Homework

Before you rush to deliver feedback, make sure clear agreements about goals, norms, roles, and expectations have been established. Often the root cause of poor performance is a lack of clarity around goals. Verify with your direct report that the two of you are operating from the same set of expectations. Many performance issues can be rectified at this stage.

Focus on Behavior

If goals were clear and there is a gap between expectations and observed performance, talk about it. Describe the behavior in specific, not general, terms. Use a neutral tone to ward off any sense of blame or judgment—remember that you are addressing the behavior, not attacking the person. The goal is not to tear people down, but to build them up. As Blanchard and Johnson explain, “When our self-concept is under attack, we feel a need to defend ourselves and our actions, even to the extent of distorting the facts. When people become defensive, they don’t learn.”

Let it Sink In

After giving feedback, pause for a moment so you both can process the situation. Let your direct report feel your concern as well as their own.

Move On

When it’s over, it’s over. Don’t dwell on the experience. Be sure to reaffirm your belief, trust, and respect for your team member so that when your meeting is over they are thinking about how they can improve their performance, not about how you mistreated them. Expect that the feedback will be received and acted upon. Be ready to endorse and praise performance when you see improvement.

Take an Extra Minute with Your People

Blanchard and Johnson like to say, “The best minute I spend is the one I invest in my people.” Feedback is an essential managerial skill. Take an extra minute to improve your skills in this important area.

To learn more about the authors’ approach to performance feedback, check out The New One Minute Manager book page. You’ll learn more about the book and see what others are saying. You can even download a free chapter!

In short order, the client mentioned five large development goals—and my sense was that he could have easily doubled that list if I had given him an extra minute or two.

This didn’t surprise me—my experience has been that if asked, most leaders can identify a laundry list of development goals for themselves.

What I’ve learned, though, is that for leadership development to be most effective it’s better to focus on only one or two objectives at a time—to gather, versus scatter, our forces when establishing a learning focus.

Biting Off the Right Amount

Developing a new behavior takes time, energy, and practice—and it’s often a trial and error process. If your scope is too big and you try to tackle too many changes at once, it can become overwhelming. When this happens, frustration can set in—which can lead to throwing up your hands in defeat.

Setting a reasonable goal is more likely to lead to success. But reasonable doesn’t mean something already in your comfort zone. The change you seek should stretch and challenge you—maybe even scare you a little.

3 Questions That Can Help

When defining the right level of challenge, ask yourself:

1. With my limited time and energy, what are the one or two most impactful areas I should focus on?
2. What would achieving this goal look like? What would be different? What is the target I’m striving to hit?
3. Who can I enlist (a coach, friend or mentor) to help me along the way?

Focus Leads to Mastery

Gather your forces by picking one or two behaviors you want to acquire or change—and then practice, practice, practice. Try to think of the time you spend in development as a learning lab as you test and refine the new behaviors you want to add to your tool kit. Take time periodically to evaluate what is working and what isn’t. Give yourself permission to fumble along the way.

Keep in mind that learning happens over time, with practice. If you stay focused, before you know it you will master and own that new attitude, habit, or skill.

And after you celebrate, you can pick a new area to focus on!

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have worked with over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every week at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

Dear Madeleine:

I have recently been transferred to be the principal of a college. I am tasked with lecturing as well as ensuring that the curriculum is quality assured and that financial management and procurement systems are in place.  

My challenge is that I can’t find time enough to lead. When I came, I found nothing in place. I spend my days literally fighting fires ‎and troubleshooting.

I need some structure so that I can have meaningful time to get to know my colleagues as well as the students. Please advise how to deal with the madness that is my work. Once I get a grip on things, this is going to be the most rewarding job for me.  —New at the Helm

Dear New,

There is so much good advice for folks just getting started that it fills a section at the bookstore. But I am going to do us both a favor and start with some small, doable steps that will help you manage how overwhelmed you feel.

Get the Noise Out of Your Head

This first step is to create a mind map of everything you think you should be doing and all the people who need your attention.

Start by placing yourself in the center of the map and then create a bucket for each area that needs your attention.

Make sure to include each important person who reports to you. Each bucket will have actions attached to them. Jot down all of the actions around each bucket until everything you should be doing is somewhere on your map.

Your map will look messy and disorganized. This is expected. The point is to get the noise out of your head and onto a piece of paper.

Do, Delegate, Defer, or Dump

Once you have everything on your map, it’s time to prioritize. Start with items that are most critical and apply the Do, Delegate, Defer, or Dump approach. Resolve that for each item you will either:

• Do it—put it on the calendar for you to do
• Delegate it—decide who you can delegate the task to and either write a note with the request and clear direction or put a meeting on the calendar to discuss it with them
• Defer it—decide the task is not a priority at this time and leave it on the mind map to revisit next month, next quarter, or next year
• Dump it—determine the item is simply not important enough and that it is coming off your list 

Plan and Review Each Day

Schedule surviving tasks on a calendar as if your life depended on it—certainly your sanity does. Make sure you schedule one to-do item and one 15-minute meeting with a teacher or a student into each day. Also be sure to take 15 minutes every morning to review your day. Taking 15 minutes will calm your brain and keep you focused. It will also help you make better decisions about when to switch your focus to something pressing, or finish what you are doing and then attend to what’s needed. 

If you start feeling overwhelmed again, make another mind map and begin the whole process over. I have found that some clients need to go through this process twice a year or more, while others only need it during big transitions.

The key to getting a grip on things is to first make a plan. Keep telling yourself “First things first,” and keep breathing deeply. Then break down the steps and do one or two small things a day (in between firefighting and teaching) until things begin to feel more even-keeled.

Good luck with the new job and keep me posted on how things are going.

About the author

Madeleine Homan-Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response here next week!

Grit

The other reminder came this week from my daughter’s fourth grade teacher, Mr. Cameron, who talked about having grit in his Tip of the Week.

Both shared how grit helps us push through challenges. They believe grit means hard work, not giving up, and always trying your best. Linda Kaplan Thaler shared the latest research on success and the strategies that helped her succeed at the highest levels in both her career and her personal life. Mr. Cameron was preparing the students for state testing. When I asked him about grit, he said, “There will be times when a question or task is going to be very challenging, and it’s important for our students to have a strong sense of what grit can do to help. Having grit means you’re not going to just guess and move on—it means you dig down, try your hardest, and work your way through the problem.”

Action Steps for Leaders

As leaders, we need to develop grit in ourselves as well as our people. In addition to digging down and trying hard, I’d like to suggest a third strategy—finding meaning. Here are a few ways to get started:

• Identify true passion. We inspire grit when we help our direct reports identify their true passion—something they love to do so much, they lose track of time. Think about the activities you love to do. When you are doing them, do you find yourself working harder to break through the barriers?
• Shift the motivational outlook. In our newly released Optimal Motivation learning program, we assist people in shifting their motivational outlook—finding a higher purpose for engaging in a goal or task. Susan Fowler, one of the authors of the program, talks about the importance of helping people discover how their jobs can meet deeper psychological needs. She shares scientific evidence that proves people find sustainable motivation when this discovery happens.
• Push the boundaries. Some of my best coaching experiences have been when a coach has said things such as “why not you?” and “write your ideal job and then go after it” and “manage your career to leverage your strengths and your passions.” More often than not, our self-talk limits our ability to push the boundaries. It’s that inner voice that says “I can’t” or “I’ll never be able to.” Help your people to push their perceived boundaries and set stretch goals. Be the positive voice and accountability coach they need.

Inspire your people

As Linda Kaplan Thayer shared, grit is showcased by people who have a deep motivation to do what they do. As managers, we can help our people tap into that motivation.

What do you believe inspires people to have grit? In my experience, it is a combination of a meaningful purpose and a will to succeed. Leaders have a role to play here. At the end of the day, leadership equates to influence and influence can inspire and generate motivation. Your leadership could be just what your people need to be able to push through challenges and showcase their grit.

About the Author

Joni Wickline is Vice President, Professional Services with The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can read Wickline’s posts as a part of Coaching Tuesday here at Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

As co-author Ken Blanchard explains in an article for Ignite!, “When The One Minute Manager came out, the early 1980s leadership was really command-and-control. The One Minute Manager was in charge. He set the goals. He decided who to praise. He decided who to reprimand. Today, leadership is much more side-by-side. In The New One Minute Manager, leadership is much more of a partnership.”

Created as a fun, easy-to-read parable, the heart and soul of the new book are three One Minute Secrets that make a big difference in helping people succeed.

The First Secret: One Minute Goals

“There are three parts to managing people’s performance,” says Blanchard, “planning, coaching, and evaluation. In so many organizations, managers spend all of their time in evaluation. If people do have goals, they are usually set at the beginning of the year and then filed away.

“In The New One Minute Manager we say that no, you need to keep goals front and center so you can look at them continually to see if your behavior is matching your goal. And if it isn’t, then you change it.”

The Second Secret: One Minute Praisings

As Spencer Johnson explains, “The power behind The One Minute Praising is caring. When you care about another person’s well-being, then take the time to notice when they’re doing something right and comment on it, people appreciate it. The key is to be honest. Don’t praise to flatter. Just take a moment to comment on something they have done that you value.”

The Third Secret: One Minute Re-Directs

One of the most dramatic changes in the new book is that the One Minute Reprimand is now the One Minute Re-Direct. As Ken Blanchard shares, “The difference between a reprimand and redirection is whether a person is a learner or not. A Reprimand is for when a person knows better than what they are doing. A Re-Direct is for a person who is a learner. Today, with the constant need for skill development, everyone is learner.”

Got a Minute?

The book’s practical, action-oriented model has been designed to inspire a new generation. You can read more in the feature article, A Minute Can Change Everything.  To learn more about The New One Minute Manager and download the first chapter, visit the book’s special pre-release website.

Is the solution to abandon the process? Quite the contrary. A recent survey by The Ken Blanchard Companies found a 20 to 30 percent gap between what employees desired from their leaders during performance management conversations and what they were receiving. Simply put, employees want much more from their leaders than they’re getting!

So what do direct reports want more of?

• More specificity: Be clear on expectations. People want to know what their key responsibility areas are, how they are going to be measured, and what a good job looks like.

• More coaching: People are looking for regular ongoing coaching aimed at helping them to be successful in their job. This includes timely, constructive feedback, regular one-on-ones, and specific, meaningful praise.

• More frequent evaluation: People want to know how they’re doing and what they can do to get better. Don’t wait until the end of the year—make evaluation at least a quarterly conversation. Do your homework and take the time to give meaningful feedback.

• More time spent on career development: Show an interest in your direct reports’ career aspirations. Provide development opportunities. When they participate in a learning event, follow up to see what they learned and have them share their action plan. Chat regularly to check their progress and offer assistance.

No matter what your organization’s performance management process, remember that employees want more and better quality conversations. Take the time to meet with people on a regular basis to discuss performance and help them be successful.

What other ideas do you have to improve the quality of your performance management conversations?

About the author

John Hester is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies who specializes in productivity and performance management.

I asked the leader if she had clarified for her direct report at the start what the task was and exactly what a good job would look like.

There was a long pause; then my client said, “No, looking back, we never clearly discussed the desired outcomes. Now that you say it, I can see how that would have been helpful.”

Of course my client was bothered that she hadn’t thought about clarifying her expectations. Yet the reality is, when leaders are constantly being pulled in different directions, this often happens.

Slow Down To Go Faster

Sometimes leaders need to slow down to ultimately go faster. They need to take the time initially to clarify for themselves what successful accomplishment of an objective would look like. Then they need to communicate that expectation clearly to those who are tasked with achieving the objective.

When partnering with others to get something done—not only direct reports but kids, spouses, peers, even your manager—would you benefit by slowing down to ensure everyone is on the same page? You can do so by:

• Clarifying the exact goal or task at hand
• Defining and sharing a vision of what a good job looks like
• Making sure all those involved are in agreement about the expected outcome.

Team members can’t hit a target if they don’t know where it is or what it looks like. Taking the time to clarify expectations and agree on outcomes greatly enhances the chance that your people will hit a bull’s eye.

About the Author

Joanne Maynard is a senior coach with The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Coaching Services team.  Since 2000, Blanchard’s 130 coaches have coached over 14,500 individuals in more than 250 companies throughout the world. Learn more at Blanchard Coaching Services. And check out Coaching Tuesday every weekat Blanchard LeaderChat for ideas, research, and inspirations from the world of executive coaching.

It’s a common pattern anytime people take on new tasks that require time, persistence, and effort.  Initial enthusiasm turns into disillusionment as beginners realize the task is more difficult than they anticipated, progress is slower, and the time required to accomplish the goal looks like it will be greater. Leaders and coaches need to be aware of this natural dip in motivation and take steps to make sure that this little dip doesn’t turn into a big fail with people quitting the task before accomplishing the goal.

In the health club industry, the best gyms keep a close eye on new members, noting attendance patterns and making sure to call, encourage, and check on progress that new members are making.  They know that without this type of support they can lose 30-50 percent of their people.

Managers need to do the same thing when their team members are starting projects that may be new to them or a stretch of existing knowledge and skills.   And while leaders don’t usually have to worry about someone physically quitting a task or goal, there is a very real possibility of a team member quitting it mentally, putting it on the back-burner, and moving on to other things that are easier to accomplish.  This “quit and stay” mentality is well known in business and difficult to root out once it settles in.

Leaders can head off this common occurrence by recognizing that this motivational dip is normal and by taking steps to provide direction and support to help people continue moving forward toward their goals.  For example, in The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Situational Leadership II training program, managers are taught to help Disillusioned Learners by:

1. Listening and acknowledging concerns
2. Brainstorming possible solutions
3. Identifying action steps
4. Reminding learners of the importance of the task
5. Providing support, reassurance, praise, and encouragement

Leader as a coach?  By providing direction and support when people need it most, managers can help their people move along a steady path toward progress.

I don’t remember how it came up, but one day my husband remarked on how good I had become at bossing people around. I was floored and asked him to clarify. He pointed out how comfortable I seemed to be telling my assistant what to do. I countered and asked him how my assistant was to know what I wanted her to do if I didn’t tell her. Looking back, it was the first time I had made the distinction in my own mind between providing an employee with clear direction and simply bossing someone around.

And even with that understanding, when I overheard that same assistant on the phone referring to me as her “boss,” I was still somewhat uncomfortable.  When she got off the phone I said, “I’m not so much your boss as I am your employer.” She laughed and said, “Oh cut it out, Mad, you are too my boss–and if I didn’t want to have a boss I would start my own business like you, so just relax.”

The Benefits of Clear Direction

It took me a long time to get comfortable with being a boss. And as much as no one wants to be bossed around all the time—especially if they really know what they’re doing—likewise, no one wants to do a bad job because they don’t know what a good job actually looks like.

The In-Director (the first character we looked at in our series on seven ways good managers sometimes get it wrong ) shies from being straightforward about what the job is, the expected result when the job is done, the exact steps that will create the result, and even how long it should take. Having a boss who is an In-Director is a little like following an unclear recipe: you have to figure it out using trial and error. This is a waste in every way—not to mention totally annoying.

Nobody wants to be bossed around all the time. And nobody wants to be thought of as bossy. But when you are, in fact, the boss, you must gather your courage and practice giving clear direction. Maybe you could write out the instructions at first. Use a neutral tone. Smile. You won’t seem bossy; you’ll seem as if you know exactly what is needed—and your employees will thank you for it.

Giving clear direction helps your employees be successful at work. And who doesn’t want that?

About this column

Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard, and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Previous posts in this series:

Setting Boundaries: 7 Ways Good Managers Get It Wrong

The Well-Intentioned Manager’s New Year’s Resolution: Have More Fun

The Top Three Mistakes Good Managers Make

Managing Polarities: A Key Skill for the Well-Intentioned Manager

The article summarizes some of the key takeaways from the book, and shares important concepts for individuals and leaders to consider when evaluating their own motivation—or when they are trying to help others with theirs.

1. Recognize that each of us is already motivated—it just the quality of our motivation that might be a problem. Some forms of motivation are sustainable, satisfying, and promote well-being while others don’t.  Fowler explains that leaders need to ask why people are motivated to do what’s been asked of them.  Otherwise we end up with well known examples such as the young student who hates law school because of the pressure his parents put on him to succeed.
2. Encourage autonomy. Give people options.  Even when you are discussing deadlines, frame them as useful information for achieving important goals rather than hammers for applying pressure.
3. Deepen relatedness. Appreciate the vital role emotions and feelings play in creating connection.
4. Develop people’s competence. At the end of the day, it’s not just about what a person accomplishes; it’s also about how they are growing.
5. Promote mindfulness. Prompt awareness of options a person may not have considered. Ask open ended questions to help individuals rise above old, unhelpful patterns of behavior.
6. Align with values. Help others align their work to meaningful values that generate positive energy, vitality, and sense of well-being.
7. Connect to purpose. Few things in life are more powerful than acting from a noble purpose.

You can read the entire Costco Connection article here.  For more information on Fowler’s new book—including a free chapter download—visit the Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work … And What Does book page.

The takeaways from Ken Blanchard’s soon-to-be released new book, Refire! Don’t Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life, apply to work and life, and they can supercharge your new year and the rest of your life.

Ken Blanchard and his coauthor Morton Shaevitz, a psychologist and expert on aging, worked to identify the factors that cause some people to become old before their time. They found four characteristics that distinguish people who feel innovative and vibrant from those who feel as if they are in a rut intellectually, emotionally, physically, or spiritually.

Refiring Intellectually and Emotionally 

For Ken Blanchard, refiring intellectually is a habit he developed early in his life through his process of coauthoring business books. Going all the way back to his first business bestseller The One Minute Manager, which he coauthored with Spencer Johnson, Blanchard has worked collaboratively with coauthors on more than 60 books that have sold in excess of 20 million copies. Blanchard’s philosophy is simple: “I already know what I know—what interests me is what I can learn from others.”

Are you doing the same things, with the same people, in the same way, over and over again? The key for refiring intellectually and emotionally is to build relationships with people who have different ideas and can suggest new ways of looking at and doing things.

People often get locked into patterns of behavior that keep them from exploring and having new experiences. You can start with small things, explains Blanchard. For example, creating what Blanchard and Shaevitz call a Last Minute Gang. The idea here is to default to saying yes to invitations and opportunities—even those presented at the last minute—unless you have a compelling reason to say no. They also write about the Nothing Ordinary rule, which sets a standard of seeking out unique activities and purchasing items that inspire you—rather than doing and buying the same old ordinary things—whenever possible.

Refiring Physically and Spiritually 

A key element to refiring is to stay in good physical shape. Drawing from concepts learned from Tim Kearin, his personal coach and coauthor of the book Fit At Last, Blanchard recommends staying fit through strength, endurance, and flexibility training. In his own fitness regimen, Blanchard puts special emphasis on balance training and aerobic fitness together with diet, nutrition, and rest.

“It’s a process,” explains Blanchard. “When I first began looking at my own physical assessment, the only area in which I was highly advanced was rest. The other skills I had to develop!”

When Blanchard and Shaevitz use the word spiritually, they are not talking about religion per se; it’s more about getting out of your own way and considering that maybe there is a higher power—something bigger than you—at work in the world. For example, Blanchard’s personal spiritual focus is on inner peace.

As Blanchard speaks about refiring, he finds the message resonating not only with older audiences but also with people in their 30s and 40s who may be feeling bored with the status quo and looking to refire aspects of their own lives.

Getting Started 

Are you in a rut? Have you lost the spark? If so, Blanchard and Shaevitz suggest you consider what you can do to break out intellectually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And the beginning of a new year is a great time to get started.

“Take a look at these four areas,” suggests Blanchard, “and you’ll probably find one or two that stick out as the most important areas for you to refire. Then you can put together a plan.”

With a little bit of work and an open mind, it is possible to rekindle the spark that will make every day an exciting adventure instead of something to endure. “Life is a very special occasion,” Blanchard reminds us all. “Be sure to make the most of it!”

You can learn more about Blanchard and Shaevitz’s new book—and download a free chapter at the Refire! Don’t Retire book page.  Also check out a free webinar that Blanchard is conducting on January 29 courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.  Learn more about this free event at Refiring In All Areas of Your Life—Four Essential Strategies

Some research conducted by Gail Matthews, a professor of Psychology at Dominican University in California can help those of us who might be concerned (and could use a little boost) to set the odds in our favor.

Dr. Matthews found that people who do three things when they set goals can increase their chances of goal success from 43% to 76%.  Here’s what she found out in conducting a research project with 149 adults from various businesses, organizations, and business networking groups on completing a project, increasing income, increasing productivity, getting organized, enhancing performance/achievement, enhancing life balance, reducing work anxiety or learning a new skill.

• Those who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals. (+18 percentage points)
• Those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments or did not write their goals. (+21 percentage points)
• Those who sent weekly progress reports to their friend accomplished significantly more than those who had unwritten goals, wrote their goals, formulated action commitments or sent those action commitments to a friend. (+33 percentage points)

Wouldn’t it be great to achieve 76% of the goals we set for ourselves in 2015?  Write down your goals, send them to a friend, and then set a time for weekly progress reports.  It’s work, it’ll take some time, and you’ll be making yourself vulnerable and accountable—but you’ll also be setting yourself up for success!

Because our topic is the well intentioned manager and the mistakes they make, what you aren’t going to hear from me is a lot of ideas on what you could do better. In fact, you are going to hear the exact opposite. Our last post received a very relevant comment:

“I see good managers who are so dedicated they fall out of balance—working too many hours vs. focusing on value. This is damaging to their health, ends up not being sustainable for the business, and sets a poor example to their teams that you have to martyr yourself to be successful in management.”

It’s true. Good managers who care about their people often put themselves last. They work like crazy, take care of people at home, and then the New Year comes along with the pressure to quit sugar, smoking, carbs, TV—or do something else that feels equally impossible. Not this year.

What I am going to suggest is this:

Think of something you have been wanting to do for a while—maybe all year, maybe longer. Then take a PTO day to do something fun: Take a walk on the beach with an old friend. Stay in bed and watch six movies. Cook a fabulous meal for favorite folks. Book a massage and have a full-on spa day.

What do all of these activities have in common? They’re not being done in service to others. They will not improve your vocabulary, lower your cholesterol, or make you smarter or thinner. What they will improve is your quality of life.

I was Skyping with my college student son the other day and he said, “Gotta go, we’re all going ice skating!” We hung up and it took me a minute to recognize what I was feeling. It was envy. I love ice skating and I haven’t touched my skates in—who knows—probably ten years?

And here is the really crazy part: I pass an actual ice skating rink on my way to work every day. But has it occurred to me even once to grab my skates and take a couple of turns? In the noise and mayhem of the next client, the pending deal, the meetings, the kid who needs picking up and, of course, the endless “What’s for dinner?” the answer is no. But now I’m giving it serious thought.

So for 2015, make a resolution to plan, and do, three things that are just for fun—possibly silly, certainly indulgent.

Me? I’m going ice skating. Happy New Year, everyone!

About this new column

Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned is a new Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard, and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here next week to look at another challenge (and possible solution) for this unique group.

Previous posts in this series:

The Top Three Mistakes Good Managers Make

Managing Polarities: A Key Skill for the Well-Intentioned Manager

Hosting a big holiday meal is one of the examples we use to explain that people can be Enthusiastic Beginners, Disillusioned Learners, Capable But Cautious Performers, or Self-Reliant Achievers depending on their past experience.

Let’s have some fun with this example to see if we can deepen our own understanding on this popular leadership model by looking at tasks millions of family members will be facing as they work to create the best holiday meal ever.

Identifying the task or goal: There are so many tasks involved with hosting a holiday get-together. Planning the menu. Cooking the turkey. Buying the wine. Seating arrangement? Games? Activities? Cleanup? Your first step is to clearly identify the task and who it will be assigned to. That will help you determine how much direction and support you will have to provide based on their competence and commitment.

Diagnosing Development Level

For this example, let’s assume that a significant other has announced he would like to be in charge of cooking the turkey this year—and he thinks deep frying is the way to go. He’s excited about buying a propane tank, deep fryer, and five gallons of peanut oil.

Since he’s energized about the possibility but has little experience, he would be an Enthusiastic Beginner on this task. What does he need from a leader? The Situational Leadership^® II model prescribes a High Direction—Low Support approach. Your goal as a leader or project manager would be to offer a lot of direction to avoid a deep fried turkey fail. You won’t have to supply much in the way of motivation, though—he is bringing plenty of that to the equation.

What if you have another person who you’d like to bring a side dish, but they don’t have much experience cooking and they don’t feel confident in their skills? Maybe they had a bad experience in the past—a dish that didn’t turn out or one that people didn’t seem to enjoy. This person would qualify as a Disillusioned Learner on this task using the Situational Leadership^® II model. What does this person need? A combination of High Direction and High Support. Share with them your idea for a popular side dish, along with tips on how to make it, and encourage them to try again.

Someone who has the skills and knowledge for the task, but sometimes lacks confidence, is identified as being at the Capable, but Cautious Performer level. This might be a person who has a great knowledge for choosing the perfect wines with certain holiday entrees but is sometimes unsure or has questions about what to recommend this time. What does this person need? A Low Direction—High Support style. Give them a chance to ask questions and share concerns. They know what they are doing. Your job is to draw out and encourage what they already know.

Finally, a person with great cooking skills and a lot of experience preparing holiday meals would be identified as a Self-Reliant Achiever. This person has demonstrated repeatedly that they are an expert at creating a holiday meal. What does this person need? Not too much—they are relatively self sufficient. You can use a Low Direction—Low Support approach with this person and delegate tasks to them with good results. The big challenge for you as a leader with someone at this level? Keeping things fresh and providing opportunities for them to grow. Maybe they can help you brainstorm some backup strategies in case that deep-fried turkey doesn’t work out!

Practice Leadership in All Areas of Your Life

A situational approach to the holidays? No matter what kind of team or project you manage—including a holiday meal—setting clear goals, identifying development level, and providing the right amount of direction and support will always generate the best results.

For many managers and their staff, the term fills them with dread. A major reason for the negative reaction comes from the typical way performance management is implemented.

Traditional performance management systems focus on evaluation. Managers set goals for direct reports at the beginning of the year, meet with them at midyear to see how they are doing and provide feedback, and meet with them again at the end of the year to assign them a grade. That grade is used to calculate pay increases and bonuses, and often to determine who to let go if there are layoffs. This process treats employees like cogs in a machine to be tweaked, oiled, and fixed if needed.

A different approach to performance management requires a different mindset—for organizations, managers, and employees. Ken Blanchard and WD-40 Company CEO Garry Ridge discuss this mindset in their book Helping People Win at Work. They suggest a new approach to performance management that’s based on a concept they call “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A.”

This new approach to performance management creates a real partnership between managers and direct reports. With this process, the manager and the direct report work together at the beginning of the year to set meaningful goals. Then, at least every two weeks they meet one on one, which provides an opportunity for the employee to let the manager know how things are going and to ask for what they need in the way of direction and support to achieve their goals.

Throughout the year the manager provides specific, meaningful praise and encouragement, as well as redirection if needed. When this process is followed, the end of year meeting becomes a time to review and celebrate the employee’s accomplishments.

Many organizations have adopted this new approach. For example, Adobe has dumped its old performance management system with its formal review forms, rankings, and calibration systems. The new approach encourages people to collaboratively set expectations for the year, get feedback on a regular basis, and create a plan for growth and development. The process is referred to as “the check-in.” A year after instituting this new approach, voluntary attrition has dropped and the organization is seeing an upward trend in both employee sentiment and organizational performance.

Another example comes from Australian enterprise software company Atlassian. Leaders found that their old performance management system did exactly the opposite of what they wanted to accomplish. Instead of inspiring discussions about enhancing people’s performance, the old system not only caused disruptions and anxiety but also demotivated both team members and managers.

To solve the problem, the company replaced its old system with a model that emphasizes regular weekly coaching conversations. In these meetings the manager and employee discuss what the employee can do to enhance their own performance and play to their strengths. The company also removed its traditional performance incentives and moved to a motivational model that encourages performance through coaching. Atlassian is now recognized as an employer of choice.

If you are a manager whose organization still participates in the old performance management model, adopt this new coaching model for yourself. Create a partnership with each of your direct reports—and help them get an A.

About the author

John Hester is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies who specializes in productivity and performance management.

“But I already know each person’s goals,” he said. “We all always have goals. In fact, we just did a midyear review to make sure all the goals are still on target. How on earth would people know how they are supposed to be spending their time if they didn’t have their goals?”

I had to laugh and answered, “You’d be surprised how many managers out there are not at all clear about their own goals, let alone their peoples’ goals.”

He was absolutely appalled at the idea that anyone would try to achieve anything in an organization without clear goals. Goals aren’t important only for helping people prioritize their time; having goals and becoming more successful at reaching them are key motivators for learning new skills and trying on new behaviors.

There is so much excitement about elearning—but engagement and completion are a real issue. MOOCs (massive open online courses) may have record attendance, but no one is really talking about the fact that completion rates are somewhere around 3 percent. Online learning is proving to be extremely successful in the university setting, and I would submit that’s because attendance and online module completion is mandatory for a degree. In organizations, however, learning competes for precious resources: time and bandwidth. The only way to win with learning in an organizational setting is to somehow hook into each individual learner’s inherent motivation to make the effort by making the learning experience immediately, bracingly relevant to success on the job. How to do this? We’ve had good results with Impact Mapping.

The Impact Map, widely used in Blanchard programs, is a highly useful management tool developed by Robert O. Brinkerhoff. It provides a big picture view, or “line of sight,” of what an individual’s department and company are trying to achieve and connects what a person is learning to the behaviors needed to be successful in the job role. It also allows the tracking of learning alongside the job by adding action items that are meant to put learning to use at work immediately.

It isn’t hard to create an Impact Map, but it does take some thought and a little footwork. Allow me to detail the components of an effective Impact Map.

• Organizational Goals are the most important goals everyone in the organization is working to accomplish within a certain time frame. They provide the big picture direction of where the organization is headed.
• Departmental Goals are the key goals the department is trying to achieve so that it can best contribute to the overall goals of the organization.
• Key Results are those items that are the mission critical focus for any specific job role.
• Critical Actions and Observable Behaviors are what the exemplars or most successful people in the specific responsibility area use to achieve the Key Results. They also paint a clear picture of what a good job looks like for people in that role.
• Individual Goals are generated for each learning experience. Individuals can map their learnings and new behaviors to everything else on the map, creating a compelling alignment.

You may find in your organization that organizational or departmental goals aren’t as clear as they could be. Possibly, individuals aren’t at all sure about expected outcomes. Just answering the questions that arise during the creation of an Impact Map will result in a healthier organization.

Blanchard Online Learning offers dozens of lessons and tools that are focused on development. Adding the Impact Map to the mix is a differentiator for us because it aligns the learning journey with what is relevant to everyday work. It is much more compelling for workers to spend time in the lessons, learning and practicing new skills, when they know it will make them more successful on the job.

Now if I could only find a tool like this to help my high-schooler find the motivation to learn algebra!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Editor’s Note:  This is the third in a 3-part series by Madeleine Blanchard, co-founder of Blanchard Online Learning.  Madeleine’s first two posts looked at eLearning – 8 Ways to Set the Expectation for Involvement and eLearning: Make It Social For Best Results—5 Ways to Support Change. To learn more about the Blanchard approach to designing high impact online training, join us for a free webinar on September 10. That’s when Scott Blanchard will be presenting on Building Effective and Engaging Online Learning Solutions.

Performance management is a key leadership responsibility. This survey suggests that significant gaps exist between employee expectations and what they are experiencing at work. Left unaddressed, these gaps represent a drain on overall organizational vitality through lowered employee intentions to stay, endorse, and apply discretionary effort as needed.

For leadership development professionals, these study results provide an opportunity to take a more targeted approach to improving perceptions in each of these areas. Here are four ways to get started.

1. Take a look at the overall design of your performance management process. Are managers following best practices in setting goals that are specific, motivating, attainable, relevant, and trackable? What percentage of employees have current goals listed? Have leaders conducted an internal assessment to measure the degree to which employees feel that their goals are effective in directing and motivating their performance?
2. Take a second look at the amount of time your managers are spending with their people. The Ken Blanchard Companies advocates that leaders meet with their direct reports a minimum of twice a month to discuss progress toward goals and address employee needs for direction and support. Monitoring progress and providing feedback are two of the key ways for a manager to stay involved and partner with an employee to achieve goals. Both activities directly influence improved performance.
3. Review your performance review process. In many organizations, goals are set at the beginning of the year and not seen again until the review process at the end of the year. Blanchard has identified that a best practice is to conduct a series of mini-reviews throughout the year—every 90 days is the recommended standard. This allows leaders to make midcourse corrections, eliminates any surprises for individual employees, and keeps the partnership between manager and direct report strong and vibrant.
4. Don’t forget job and career development. Growth opportunities at the job and overall career level are important drivers of employee work passion and one of the better ways that leaders can show team members that they care and are invested in them. Be sure that all performance review conversations include time for a discussion on ways that employees can improve their skills in their current role and also what the steps are that they can take to continue to advance in their careers.

A renewed focus on performance management can have significant results on the performance of an organization. Give your performance management system a review—and if you find similar gaps, address them for higher levels of employee work passion and performance.

To learn more about the research, read the complete article, 10 Performance Management Process Gaps (and How They Negatively Impact Employee Intentions) in the July/August issue of Training magazine.

Celebrating his 75th birthday this month—and the 35th anniversary of the founding of his leadership development company later this year, Ken Blanchard hopes a couple of simple truths he has championed will prove enduring:

—All good performance begins with clear goals.

—Catch people doings things right.

—Help people get an A.

In the May edition of Ignite, Blanchard tells a story of his early days as a college professor, when he often found himself in trouble with faculty members while trying to put these principles to work.

“I was questioned by some of the finest faculty boards in the country,” Blanchard recounts, “and it was always because of my decision to give students the answers to the final exam on the first day of class.”

Ken believed his main job was to teach students the content they needed to learn, as opposed to worrying about evaluating them and sorting them along a normal distribution curve.

The faculty boards never shared his thinking. As soon as they found out what he was doing, they would call Ken in to explain himself. The exchange usually went something like this:

Ken: “I’m confused.”

The Board: “You act like it.”

Ken: “I thought we were supposed to teach these kids.”

The Board: “You are, but don’t give them the exam ahead of time.”

But Blanchard was determined and would spend the entire semester teaching the students the answers to the final exam questions. He has championed this concept—called “Helping People Get an A”—ever since. Applying the concept to work, Blanchard recommends that leaders use the same basic approach. “Give team members the answers ahead of time by setting clear goals. Then provide direction and support, as needed, to help people achieve those goals,” he says.

Catch People Doing Things Right

Once goals are set, Blanchard recommends that managers stay in constant communication with their people so that both parties know how things are going and can stay on top of what’s required to get an A. He points out that by staying in close contact with their direct reports, managers get the added benefit of being able to catch them doing things right.

As Blanchard explains, “I am a big fan of accentuating the positive. That’s the basis for One Minute Praisings, the second secret of Spencer Johnson’s and my book, The One Minute Manager. Once goals are clear, managers should not disappear until an annual performance review. Instead, they should constantly wander around physically or virtually to see if they can catch their people doing something right and praise them for their efforts.”

In drawing on the experience he and his colleagues have had in training hundreds of thousands of managers over the past 35 years, Blanchard also encourages managers to adapt their style according to the development level of the people they are managing.

As Blanchard explains, “This is the core philosophy of the SLII® model. If you’re anything like me, there are parts of your job and life you’re good at, but there are also areas where you’re still learning and need leadership. This is especially true in today’s constantly changing environment. For example, we all know what it’s like to be a beginner at new tasks.”

Understanding a person’s development level and providing the appropriate leadership style can help them reach goals they’ve never achieved before. Blanchard’s advice? “Take an extra minute with your people to diagnose their development level on each of their goal-related tasks and give them the leadership style they need.”

No One Best Leadership Style

There are still people out there who think there is only one best way of leading people. Experienced managers know this is not the case. Take a look in your own organization. Notice what the best managers in your company are doing. Chances are you will see them adjusting their management style to meet the needs of the people they are working with.

In Blanchard’s experience, “The most effective leaders realize that leadership is not about them and that they are only as good as the people they lead. These kinds of leaders seek to be servant leaders. That begins with a philosophy of meeting people where they’re at and providing them with the direction and support they’re not able to provide for themselves.”

Looking ahead, Blanchard is optimistic that the movement toward others-focused partnerships will continue.

“The new generation of workers demands a partnership model where leadership is more about influence, dialogue, and collaboration. Leaders will be challenged with creating engaging work environments where they inspire people to bring their best creativity to work.

“It’s really a side-by-side approach. Leaders will learn how to partner for performance by improving their relationships with the people they work with. It’s about teaching leaders how to value the relationships they have while simultaneously channeling people’s energy in the right direction.”

]]> https://leaderchat.org/2014/05/05/ken-blanchard-3-enduring-truths-about-leading-others/feed/ 2 4963 https://leaderchat.org/2014/02/13/3-steps-to-becoming-the-person-you-desire-to-be/ https://leaderchat.org/2014/02/13/3-steps-to-becoming-the-person-you-desire-to-be/#comments Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:31:03 +0000 http://leaderchat.org/?p=4828 “Growth is not steady, forward, upward progression. It is instead a switchback trail; three steps forward, two back, one around the bushes, and a few simply standing, before another forward leap.”

–Dorothy Corkville Briggs

Becoming the person we want to be is a gradual process. We learn and grow line upon line. Here is a three-step process that can help you on your journey to become the person you desire to be.

Step 1: Have a clear vision of who you want to become

The process starts by having a clear picture of who we want to be. Each of us has been given a script to play based on a combination of our genetics (what we inherited) the way we were raised, and our current environment. We can either live out those scripts, or we can choose to write and act out our own new script. (See last month’s post for a process on writing out a new script for your life.) Whose script are you acting out?

Step 2: Start each week with reflection and planning

Before the week begins, sit down and review each role in your life. For each and every role, reread your aspirational statement. (See last month’s post for more on this.)  Now ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you closer to becoming the person you want to become in that role?
• What went well last week?
• What would you like to do better this week?
• What is the most important thing you can do this week to become the person you desire to be?

The answer to the last question can be a specific action such as taking a loved one to dinner, or it might be an area to focus on such as, “listen better.”

Step 3: Forgive ourselves when we are not perfect

I love the wisdom of Mr. Rogers. He once said:

“Some days, dong the ‘best we can’ may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect – on any front – and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.”

~Fred Rogers

Remember that this is a journey. There will be moments when you fall short of your goal. When you do, remember to forgive yourself and recognize the progress you have made over time. Are you closer today than you were last year to being the father or mother, husband or wife, manager or employee, you want to become? If you can answer, “YES” to that question, you are on the right path.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and/or questions.

About the author

John Hester is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies who specializes in performance, productivity, and self-leadership.

It may feel counterintuitive, but the key to taking action is to shift your focus from the actions on your list to the values linked to those actions.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

If you were a poor listener, most people would immediately recommend you take a class on developing listening skills. In that class you would learn the behaviors that go into being a better listener. At the end of the day, you would have a much better knowledge of the skills involved in listening—but do you really think you would have addressed the underlying causes of poor listening in the first place? Probably not. The same set of attitudes and behaviors that kept you from listening in the past would still be present.

Ironically, the best way for you to become a better listener is not to focus on listening so much as on a developed value linked to listening. Find a value in your life that listening supports, and then make the link between that value and the skill of listening.

If you have a developed value for learning, make the link between learning and listening. If you have a developed value for demonstrating you care about people, the link between caring about people and listening becomes the catalyst for listening to people.

You don’t have to change your natural disposition for listening, but because you are able to link your developed values for learning and caring, your listening behavior will change. Rather than focusing on the behavior you want to change—being a better listener—focus on linking the behavior to your developed values.

What are the new behaviors you want your people to develop? Here’s a three-step plan that will help you take authentic action.

1. Help people identify and develop their work-related values and purpose— these are the mechanisms for taking action and making good decisions.
2. Set SMART goals, then have people shift their focus to linking their developed values to the action plan.
3. Keep values top of mind as you help people achieve their goals. Remind people of the link between action and stated values.

Help your people link their values to their goals and action plans. Then they can take authentic action by linking those values to the actions they hope to take.

About the author:

Susan Fowler is one of the principal authors—together with David Facer and Drea Zigarmi—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Optimal Motivation process and workshop.

It is said that we are all actors on a stage. Whose script are you acting out?

Each of us has been given a script to play based on a combination of our genetics (what we inherited) the way we were raised, and our current environment. We can either live out those scripts, or we can choose to write and act out our own new script. We also have ability to make rewrites to our scripts along the way. BUT, writing and living new scripts is an act of self-leadership and, as Mr. Rogers said, can be hard work.

How do you go about writing a new script for your life? Here is a simple two-step process I learned a number of years ago that has made a tremendous impact in my life:

Step 1: Identify your key roles. 

Most people have several roles they play in their lives – as a family member, a worker, a community member, etc. A role is a key relationship, an area of responsibility, or a contribution you make. Some roles are life-long, such as a parent or family member. Others are seasonal like a baseball coach. Take a moment and identify five to seven key roles that you play. Try to limit your work roles to no more than two.

My current roles include companion, father/grandfather, family member, facilitator, client partner, and mission leader.

Step 2: Write an aspirational statement for each role.

An aspirational statement defines who you want to become in that role. One method of developing an aspirational statement is to imagine your 80^th birthday party. For each role, think of a key person you interact with and imagine what you would want them to say about you as they stand up and share the impact you have had on their life.

For example, this statement describes the father I desire to be:

“Our father loves us unconditionally. He supports us in our lives’ activities. He teaches us correct values and models them in his behavior. He plays with us and shows his love for us in his actions.”

I’m sure my children would say I’m not there yet, but hopefully I’m closer today than I was ten or twenty years ago.

As you start the new year, I encourage you to take some time away from the day-to-day grind of life and write your own script. Next month I will share some ideas for how to live out your script.

Let me know your thoughts or any questions you have on writing your scripts. Remember…

“You didn’t have a choice about the parents you inherited, but you do have a choice about the kind of parent you will be.”  ~ Marian Wright Edelman

About the author

John Hester is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies who specializes in performance, productivity, and self-leadership.

I was a longtime aficionado of SMART goal setting when the “M” stood for “Measurable.” However, over time, I found that a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goal simply was not SMART enough. I changed the “M” to “Motivating” and moved measurable into the “S” (Specific). Adding another dimension to make my goals more emotionally compelling worked for me. It seemed to work for others, too. Now the science of motivation explains why.

The nature of things that cannot be measured.

Setting measurable goals and outcomes is important. Having a defined finish line in front of you can be positively compelling. In my previous post, I encouraged leaders and individuals to ensure a higher level of results by reframing measurable goals into meaningful goals. However, we need to move beyond SMART goal setting and embrace aspects of work that are not easily measured.

Case in point—if you are a parent, consider this question: What do you most hope for your children? Even if you are setting SMART goals for your child’s education or acquisition of skills, I’ll bet you are like other parents—I have yet to meet a mother or father who expresses what they ultimately hope for their child in easily measurable terms. Rather, they talk about their children finding love, fulfilling a noble purpose, being passionate about their work, enjoying happiness, having meaningful relationships, feeling safe and secure, experiencing a profound connection to the world, contributing to society, perceiving they have choices and autonomy, and sensing competence and mastery.

Interestingly, I find the same phenomenon happens when I ask leaders what they most hope for their people at work. This is consistent with what research shows brings out the best in people—the fulfillment of psychological needs that generate vitality and a positive sense of well-being. Despite the deep knowledge that what they really want for people are the benefits that come through these emotionally compelling aspects of work, leaders still avoid these aspects of work and continue to focus attention on what they can easily measure.

If you cannot measure it, it does not matter. If you hold this belief, ask yourself why. Where did it come from? Is it the emotional nature of things not easily measured? Does the combination of something being both emotional and difficult to quantify fall outside your comfort zone? Is it because if you cannot measure something, you cannot control it, and you perceive that your job as a leader is to control?

Some things are best left unmeasured.

One of life’s great joys is eating in Italy. Ask anyone who has traveled there—food tastes better in Italy. I had the profound experience of attending a weeklong cooking course in Tuscany. I say profound because it literally changed the quality of my life—not just my cooking, but also my perspective on day-to-day living. The chef refused to provide exact measurements for anything he made. “How can I tell you how much water to put in the pasta dough? It depends on the quality of your flour, and the kind of day—the temperature, the humidity. You must add some water and oil until it feels right.” He was also hesitant to commit to a menu or plan for the week. If the zucchini flowers were blossoming, we would have fried squash blossoms; if not, then the ripe tomatoes would become the centerpiece of a Caprese salad. The chef was really teaching us mindfulness—to be present in the moment, to notice the world around us and not judge but be aware of our many options and choices.

When people cook with this level of mindfulness, they don’t rely on measuring ingredients or mindlessly adding a cup of flour in the bowl. What happens is something magical—they put their heart and soul in the bowl. The food becomes a possibility for something exceptional. And people can taste the difference.

Mix it up.

Of course, there are many things in life and work we need to measure. This post is not about eliminating anything that needs measuring. Pastries are a science where measuring makes the difference between a fluffy cupcake and a hockey puck.

But, a true growth step for leaders is to become more mindful of promoting those things that cannot be measured and more comfortable with the choices they bring. That includes emotions. If leaders rule out people’s emotional nature at work—including their own—because they are not mindful or skilled enough to cope, we all lose what it means to be fully human. That is too high a price to pay for being comfortable.

Try this for the next month: Reframe the belief that if you cannot measure it, it is not important, to:

If you cannot measure it, it is probably really, really important.

Observe the shift in energy when you focus your leadership on things that cannot be easily measured—things such as love, joy, and gratitude. Your people will eat it up.

About the author:

Susan Fowler is one of the principal authors—together with David Facer and Drea Zigarmi—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Optimal Motivation process and workshop. This post is the fifth in a five part series on beliefs that erode workplace motivation. You can read Susan’s other posts in the series by clicking on Rethinking Five Beliefs that Erode Workplace Motivation, Five Beliefs that Erode Workplace Motivation, Part Two, If You Are Holding People Accountable, Something Is Wrong (And it isn’t what you think.) and The Reality about What Really Matters at Work.

We will soon read all sorts of advice about how to set our New Year Resolutions, how to avoid letting yet another gym membership go to waste—and for some of us—how to avoid getting crazy during the holiday season.  That sort of thing.  Given all that we have read so far this year, haven’t we already had enough?

We in the management psychology field are no different.  We pile on extra helpings of advice just like everyone else.

From the consultants, to the newspaper columnists, everyone has good intentions to make your job and life easier and more successful.  But, maybe we should all just say, “enough.”  Aren’t our mental plates already full?

What I notice principally about all the year-end advice is how little of it is new.  It’s like idea leftovers from last year reconstituted with some fresh spin to wash it down.  I wonder why that is.

One hypothesis is that we writers are not aware of the repetition.  We simply fall into the same patterns of habituated thought that our columns throughout the year try to help us break free of.  I’m sure this is true a lot of the time.  I know it is for me. 

Another hypothesis is that on some level we realize we haven’t learned the lessons yet.  One of my spiritual teachers told me years ago, “If you don’t get it this time, don’t worry.  You’ll get another chance.”

So here I am, blessed with your attention and faced with the annual temptation to reconstitute some old advice about how to survive, or handle, or manage to enjoy, or stay centered (or sane) during the fiscal and calendar year end that many of us (me included) haven’t really integrated yet anyway.

But, here I will try to avoid that temptation to scoop another spoonful of advice on your already full plate.  You have read it all before.

I have learned that when I learn to say when, I realize that I already have enough.  And I believe you do, too.  We all do.  You don’t need to read them again.  You already “know” all that you will read from here until the end of the year.  All that’s left is the decision on what do to with it.

Happy Year End.

About the author:

The Motivation Guy  (also known as Dr. David Facer)  is one of the principal authors—together with Susan Fowler and Drea Zigarmi—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Optimal Motivation process and workshop.

That analysis found a 14-point customer satisfaction gap, a 16-point employee productivity gap, and a 45-point employee retention gap which translates into over $1 million dollars for the average organization.

In looking at the ways that leadership impacts each of these three areas, separate Blanchard research into the Leadership-Profit Chain and Employee Work Passion has found that better day-to-day operational leadership practices—including those that promote autonomy, collaboration, connectedness, and growth can significantly improve employee intentions to stay with a company, perform at a high level, and apply discretionary effort in service of company goals.

Taking some first steps

Looking to identify and address operational leadership in your own organization?  Here’s a three step process for getting started.

1. Double-check on goal alignment at the team and department level.  Make sure that all team members are working on the highest priority tasks.  Ask managers to check in and review priorities with their people.  Make sure the work is meaningful, on-target, and contributing to overall organizational goals.  You’ll be surprised at the amount of misalignment that occurs over time.
2. Identify what people need to succeed at their high priority tasks.  Depending on their experience and confidence with the tasks they are assigned, people can be Enthusiastic Beginners, Disillusioned Learners, Capable, but Cautious Performers, or Self Reliant Achievers.  Each of these development levels requires a different style of leadership—either Directing, Coaching, Supporting, or Delegating.  (Surprisingly, without training only 1% of managers are skilled at identifying and being able to deliver all four styles when needed.)
3. Make sure managers meet with their people on a regular basis.  While it is always best for managers to be able to adapt their leadership style to perfectly meet employee needs, that doesn’t mean that they should put off meeting on a regular basis to review goals and provide direction and support as best as possible while learning.  Even if managers aren’t perfect, people still appreciate a chance to talk, discuss progress, and ask for help.

Begin today

Academic research has established a strong correlation between leadership practices, employee engagement scores, and subsequent customer satisfaction scores.   The bottom line is that leadership practices matter. Encourage your leaders to review goals with their people, identify how they can help, and set up a regular time to review progress.  Take care of the people who take care of your customers.  It’s good for them—and your business too!

Interested in learning more?  Join me for a free webinar!

On October 30, I am going to be presenting a more in-depth look at the Cost of Doing Nothing analysis and sharing some strategies for addressing it.  This is a free webinar courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.  Over 500 people are registered and I hope you’ll join us also. Use the link below to learn more.

High Potential Leadership: Three Strategies to Boost Your Bottom Line

You’ll learn that:

• Less-than-optimal leadership practices cost the typical organization an amount equal to as much as 7% of their total annual sales
• At least 9% and possibly as much as 32% of an organization’s voluntary turnover can be avoided through better leadership skills
• Better leadership can generate a 3 to 4% improvement in customer satisfaction scores and a corresponding 1.5% increase in revenue growth

LEARN MORE >

In an article for the January 2010 issue of Ignite!, Setting a Leadership Point of View for Yourself and Your Organization, Ken Blanchard reminds leaders that, “Without a compelling vision and clear goals, your leadership really doesn’t matter, because leadership is about going somewhere.”

Blanchard explains that in order to create the alignment and collaboration needed to succeed, senior leaders need to provide a simple meaningful picture of where the organization is headed, how everyone fits in, and what are the values that will guide day-to-day interactions with customers.

It’s important to keep the vision-setting process simple he says, because employees are quick to dismiss visioning efforts as word-games.  One successful company that Blanchard holds up as an organization that does it right is Southwest Airlines.  As Blanchard explains, “At Southwest Airlines, they believe that they’re in the customer service business—and that they just happen to fly airplanes.”

This common vision reminds everyone at Southwest that customer service is the foundation of their organization in a way that is memorable. And when you add in Southwest’s values of warrior spirit, servant heart, and a fun-loving attitude, you have all of the ingredients for a simple and memorable vision that can guide behavior among employees and with customers.

What’s your vision for the coming year?  To what extent has that vision been shared and embraced by others in the company?  Before you start leading, it’s important everyone knows where you’re going.

You can access the complete article here.  Also, don’t miss a free webinar that Ken Blanchard is conducting on January 19, From Recovery to Prosperity: The Power of Vision and Leadership.