Step Up And Create Your High Payoff Meetings

Copyright © 2008 Linda Feinholz

There are times in business when it gets complicated sorting out why a team gets stalled. I've had clients who were facing so many competing issues they couldn't figure out where to start: their strategy, their capabilities, their products or services, and so on.



With those companies, we often have to feel our way through as I sort the issues and help them prioritize where to start the Change process.



And there are other times when there is a clear starting point.



I'm working with an organization that knows exactly the challenge they're facing and the impact it's having on their business.



They've been sitting for hours in management meetings with very little managing or problem solving taking place. Can you imagine what it was like for them to see my slide with a calculation about the cost being over $1,800,000 in lost productivity?



Their breakdowns are a result of inexperience with practices that make individuals and teams effective. While several of them have been entrepreneurs, they now need to work at problem solving with peers. Many of them are used to being responsible for getting things done during business turnarounds and are unfamiliar with delivering on both the competing priorities of 'normal' work and client emergencies.



Most of them are in their role as division heads for the first time in their careers. They're grappling with the endless stream of challenges and paradoxical conflicts faced at that level in businesses. They know they've been less productive and much less effective than they ought to be as a team and as leaders of their employees.



A month ago I observed two days of management meetings - nearly twenty hours in which perhaps 4 hours of actual work got accomplished.



I pointed out to them that since the root of their breakdowns is not personality differences but "know how," the work I'm doing with them is to give them new tools and techniques, sort of like new hand rails, shoes and stair treads, they'll use every day.



They love the fact that what I'm teaching them is immediately valuable to them in their management meetings. AND it's also immediately useful in other settings, including their work with their own direct reports.



Because their behavior is so easy to spot when they're in their management meeting, that's where we started this week. I spent 16 hours with them 'first describing the techniques of running high payoff meetings, then doing some role playing, and then taking it straight into the rest of the meetings they had planned.



Here are 3 quick tips they learned to make your own meetings more effective and productive, immediately:



Tip #1 Have a purpose for the meeting before it begins



While these folks started their meeting with a schedule that showed a list of topics, they usually launched straight into discussions without any stated goal for any of the conversations.



Now they're stating clearly at the beginning of each conversation whether the purpose is to clarify an issue that has come up, to identify potential solutions for it, evaluate efforts underway, or come to agreement about specific actions and accountabilities.



Stating the purpose at the beginning is helping with the next tip...



Tip #2 Have the right people at the meeting



Usually, five or six members of the management team sat through hours of discussions that had no relevance for their own work in the company. Everyone was at the table "just in case" it might be useful. So they were spectators rather than contributing to the work.



Now they're planning each agenda item ahead of time, including inviting those who belong at the table and excluding people who have nothing to add.



Having the proper group to work on the matter means they can absolutely achieve the next tip...



Tip #3 Stick to the topic



When half the people in the room sat observing, they often tried to contribute ideas so the time didn't appear to be wasted. Yet their 'helpful' comments derailed conversations into explaining details already known, or addressing tactical ideas when the discussion was strategic, and so on.



Now they're holding their conversation among subject matter experts and people responsible and accountable for the results. Their conversations go deeper yet take one quarter as long as before. They're stepping up to a new level as issues that had languished without progress for months are being worked on in the next 30 days.



The entire team is very clear about the high payoff return they'll be getting using those new practices.

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Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High payoff Catalyst." Linda publishes the free weekly newsletter The Spark! to subscribers world-wide and delivers targeted solutions, practical skills and simple ways to build your business. If you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, accelerate your results and have more fun at it, get your FR'EE tips like these visit her site at www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com

Bust OUT of "Stuck!" 3 Steps That Release Your Breaks!

Copyright © 2008 Linda Feinholz

Is this you? You have customers to satisfy, professional goals to deliver on and your personal goals shoved to the back burner...and you and your friends, colleagues, clients and vendors are already talking about 'this' year. Decisions aren't getting made because too many of them feel like they're all the top priority... and you find yourself with a task list that is incomplete, messages unreturned, and lists growing longer.



"HELP ME STAY ON TRACK!"



I had a call from one of my clients this week. She was overwhelmed and anxious. And she was sitting at her desk getting nothing done. Her deadlines were looming and her team was clamoring for her attention. As we spoke it became clear that her stress was triggered by her chewing on last year's results, her uncertainty of the results she's targeting, and her frustration over results that have slipped away. ALL at the same time! It probably sounds familiar?



The truth is you will always be bombarded by more information, more ideas and more opportunity than you can follow through on - that's success!



I'll admit I've had a few of those pauses that stretched to days with my foot jammed down on the break. I found myself sitting in overwhelm last month, as I was trying to get my newsletter launched, I got in the same old black magic state of overwhelm...and pulled out my 3-step process to bust out of being stalled.



If you cannot get a handle on the tug of war for your attention, your future is at risk!



I don't want you to spend even one more day sitting at that red light. So how do you get out of overwhelm and back on track? Here are 3 steps I use that are guaranteed to work for you personally, for your team, and for your organization:



1. List EVERYTHING That's Incomplete



Rather than trying to decide anything, sit down and make a list. That's all. Just make a thorough, complete list.



Scientists have shown that people cannot make decisions when their heart rate is over 90 beats per minute. So the first order of business is to get your heart rate down, and as you focus your attention on a task, your heart rate will drop.



In this instance the task is making a list of every single thing that is incomplete. You can do this in writing or on your computer, in a program that will let you list each item on a separate line.



The items may be on other lists, on Post-It notes, in your PDA, on scraps of paper on your desktop, on the bottom of meeting agendas, in your wallet. You might find them on phone messages you've "saved" in your voicemail, on receipts you put in your "in-basket" or pinned to your bulletin board. And don't forget to look on the white board!



2. Sort Them and Tag Them



Your next task is to sort out your list and identify the key reason each item is incomplete. The question you'll ask yourself is "What is the single most important reason this is incomplete?"



Some quick and easy sorting criteria to use include:

1. I don't have the information I need to make a decision
   
2. have the information but I don't like the form the decision will take
   
3. I have the information and I like the form, but not the timing
   
4. This conflicts with another item on the list
   

Create YOUR list of criteria, and then tag each item on the list with ONE of those criteria. Once they are tagged regroup the list so that all the items that need further information are listed in a single group, and so on.



3. Prioritize Them and Act on the 1st One



Within each group, put a priority on the items in your list. This is another form of sorting, but this time it's within a group that already has a common characteristic.



You'll want to use a new set of criteria for sorting this time. The criteria might be "easiest to get done" or "easiest to delegate" or "needs to be completed in order to do other things on this list." Set your criteria and sort away!



Once you've sorted all the groups, select one group and the top item in that group and take action on just that one thing. Here's a hint - you might want to start with the "Delegate This" list if you created one. As you systematically turn those incomplete items over to others, they become a list of things you'll follow up on, rather than things you need to "Do!" and you'll have even more attention left for the things you've kept on your own list.



As you keep your attention focused, you'll retain control over your attention and find each item is dealt with much faster than you had anticipated. In turn, you'll find the sensation of overwhelm and being 'stuck' will be gone!

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Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost your professional and personal results and have more fun, get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com

Coaching Skills Training: Coaching and Communication 1

by Matt Somers

Most managers I train as coaches are clear (or have been convinced by their bosses) that they need to take on the role of coach as part of their people management responsibilities. Most are less clear about exactly what this means or how to go about it. There are obvious difficulties in defining coaching with any precision and of incorporating coaching into a general management role.



A useful starting point is to consider coaching as one type of communication and see how it fits with typical management communication that most of us will recognize.



Here we'll consider six communication styles that differ in terms of the level of control exercised by manager and team member respectively.

• Tells - When we tell people what to do and how to do it, we assume total control. This is highly attractive when time is tight or the consequence of error high.
  
• Sells - Here we loosen our control just slightly and involve team members to the extent that we realise that they must be convinced of the merits of an idea before they'll feel inclined to act upon it with any enthusiasm.
  
• Tests - A further loosening of our control and a greater involvement for team members because we literally test out an idea or decision and accept the risk that the team will not agree.
  
• Consults - I think of this as a meeting halfway, 50/50 kind of style. The team's input is sought and their ideas considered but it is still the manager that makes a final decision and thus retains a high level of control.
  
• Joins - This is an egalitarian communication style aimed at decision making by consensus. Control has switched. More is with the team members but not all of it.
  
• Delegates - The manager sets the parameters of the task, success measures, reporting guidelines, etc. but control over how to accomplish the task is given to the team member(s). The risks are high but the rewards and long term gains substantial.
  

A common mistake in considering management communication in this way is to think that one style is necessarily correct. Each has its advantages and disadvantages and the most effective managers adapt their style to reflect the needs of the situation and of the person with whom they are communicating. For example if, as you are reading this, a fire alarm sounded it would clearly be absurd to arrange a meeting to discuss options for evacuating the building. What would be needed is for someone to take the lead and to ensure that people were moved to safety quickly and in accordance with the laid down procedures. Similarly, a new person on the team will need a period of close monitoring and some instruction before they have built up the knowledge and experience required for delegated tasks.



In a future article I'll expand on the relative advantages and disadvantages of each style and examine where coaching fits.

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Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years' experience. He works with a host of clients in North East England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock. His popular mini-guide "Coaching for an Easier Life" is available FREE at http://www.mattsomers.com