If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Are You Using the ‘Whole’ of each Employee?
One of the core issues of organizational success is the ability of leadership to apply the spirit and talent of the workforce to the achievement of the stated business goals. A vital question companies need to ask and answer is, ‘‘how do we gain the greatest economic value from the talent of the people who work for us?’ The answer is … use the ‘whole’ of each employee, not just a half.
Our brains have 2 parts – referred to as the left brain and the right brain, or left and right hemispheres. Each side of the brain receives, processes and interprets information differently. Great leaders create great solutions and plans by incorporating information from both sides of the brain.
The left brain is logical, rational, analytical, linear and theoretical. Language and numeracy are specializations of the left brain. When we think with the left brain we will think in an ordered, sequential, detailed fashion. The right brain, on the other hand, thinks laterally and creatively…so we will get an idea, feel an emotion, intuitively know something or imagine an innovative possibility that breaks the mould of the old way of doing things. The right brain allows us to empathize with others and to connect with others in a meaningful way. Using the right brain we create mental pictures. With the left brain we are able to plan how to implement the pictures we see.
Traditionally business and even educational institutions, in fact society in general, has emphasized the value of the skills of the left brain only. For several decades the “knowledge worker” has been prized. The right brain was perceived as being somewhat ‘soft’ and ‘flaky’ and of little importance in the serious corporate world.
This is changing. It is becoming increasingly evident that traditional left brain thinking without right brain input, has outlived its usefulness. Great leaders respect the conceptual, intuitive, imaginative and interpersonal abilities of the right brain. There are many good business and financial reasons to understand and incorporate the talents of the ‘whole brain,’ for more effective thinking and planning. But for me, the most important benefit of using the right brain is its ability to provide us with emotional information about ourselves and others, and its ability to help us interact purposefully with others.
We can develop the most competitive, leading edge strategies but if we do not know how to engage both the intellect a well as the emotions of the employees, it will remain a strategy that is great on paper alone – a strategy that could not be taken from conception to execution. Understanding the interpersonal and emotional dynamics empowers leaders to communicate and interact with others in a way that will switch them on, instead of switch them off. (For a detailed description of how whole brain thinking and communication works, as well as the tools and skills of whole brain thinking, see my chapter in the book, Mission Possible.)
Great Leaders know how to use of the ‘whole’ of each employee?
The first step is to know which side of the brain you personally prefer – what is your own thinking style preference? Are you more logical, rational, detail oriented? Or more linear, intuitive and imaginative? Each one of us has our own thinking style preference. We need to recognize this and then we need to understand the implications of this which are that we will think with one side of the brain more often than the other. This skews our decisions, our planning and interpersonal behavior and communications (obtain a free thinking style profile HYPERLINK “https://spiritedeconomics.com” www.sandygluckman.com
The second step is to decide what you are going to do about this. Based on the fact that whole brain thinking, communication and execution has a significantly better outcome than half brain thinking, it becomes important for us to address how we can use the ‘whole’ of ourselves and of our team members. There are just 2 options here. As a leader we can either attend courses to learn how to integrate our own 2 brains. Or we can create a whole brain team. This is a complementary team consisting of individuals with different brain preferences and therefore with different thinking styles. This means Identifying those people in your personal life, your teams and departments who have a different way of thinking to yourself, incorporate them in your meetings and planning sessions and consciously include their differing perspective in your decisions. As long as we keep an open mind, they will assist us in thinking differently…and we will do the same for them.
For a complete list of Dr. Gluckman’s fascinating Keynote Topics and Leadership Development Programs contact us or visit her website: WWW.SANDYGLUCKMAN.COM
So there I am, sitting around a boardroom table, some weeks ago, and watching a group of eight executives play ego games with each other. Here are eight talented, educated, experienced, highly paid people who claim to have a common purpose and vision, misusing huge chunks of expensive company time and squandering immense amounts of precious energy on being self-centered, self-righteous, self-absorbed and self-protective.
The fact of the matter is that the decisions these eight individuals make, will increase or diminish revenue, will impact the spirit and esteem of thousands of people and can make or break the future of the organization. And yet the critical decisions on the agenda are being made by their defensive egos, as opposed to their open-minded spirit!
On this day, the air in the boardroom is filled with tension. The body language screams defensiveness. The things they say are conciliatory untruths. The jokes they make fall into the category of ‘many a true word is said in jest’ and each one is engaging in some form of one-upmanship. My mind went to my eight year-old grandson and his friends and how one-upmanship seemed to be such an inherent element of the way kids interact. The only difference is that eight year olds are not responsible for making strategic, innovative, growth-oriented decisions involving millions – or billions – of dollars.
Here’s the deal about the ego. It is never going away! And this is the good news! You see, we need our ego because it is only by consciously watching the havoc that our ego creates, that we are able to deliberately make a choice to manage our defensive ego and liberate our bold, courageous and authentic spirit.
Think of a coin. If you throw a coin up in the air sometimes it lands heads up and other times tails up. In the same way, each one of us has two sides. The one side of our being is the inauthentic ego self and the other is the real spirited self. Just as a coin is not a coin without these two sides, so as human beings we cannot exist without these two sides to our being. On some occasions we are ego side up – the ego takes over and we are defensive, playing unproductive games that set up success-diminishing conditions. On other occasions we are spirit side up – the authentic side of us comes to the fore and we are bold, courageous, open and collaborative, mixed with humility; and making remarkable things happen.
So how do great leaders manage their ego?
Step 1: They learn how their ego sounds and behaves when it is taking control.
Step 2: They are constantly vigilant for signs of this happening. They are aware that the if they can manage their ego before it does any damage, they have a greater chance of achieving their goals and the company’s goals.
Step 3: Once they recognize that the ego has taken the control and their authentic self has lost its strength, they follow three 3 steps:
Make a Statement to themselves: “Oops my ego has the power – I need to give the power back to my authentic self.
Ask themselves a Question: “What would my authentic self do and say differently?”
Respond to the situation with authentic behavior and language.
Just the simple act of becoming aware of the ego offers leaders the choice to be real or to be full of ego bluff and bluster. So the ego plays a role in our lives. Each time our ego takes control it sets up a moment of choice for us. It offers us the amazing opportunity of choosing to reconnect with the immense power of the spirited self and achieve our goals and dreams.
Finally I would highly recommend that the next time you are recruiting someone, ask them this:
Do you know how to recognize when your ego has the power?
Are you able to shift this power to your authentic self?
If they look at you like you are crazy – don’t hire them!
So there I am in a meeting with Dave and his team. Dave invited me to attend the meeting because, although he had scored exceptionally well on the employee survey, there was one aspect of his style that people found difficult to understand. He asked me to watch him in action and help him recognize what he is doing so that he can adjust this. Now, let me tell you that in all my years of consulting, I can count on the fingers of one hand, the leaders who actually approached me and asked me to do something like this. This told me a great deal about the kind of leader Dave is.
From the moment the meeting started the energy in the room was so high that it flashed through my mind that Dave should hand out seat belts for visitors. At first I thought that the coffee I had drunk earlier was too strong because I felt so pumped. Then I realized it wasn’t only me, everyone in the room was pumped.
Dave set the scene for the meeting by saying; “Team I’m interested in every possible way of seeing this opportunity. Challenge me, challenge each other and let’s come up with a solution that will knock the customer’s socks off! So lets’ get started and remember to keep an open mind. I want a 360 degree view.”
I know for a fact that the individuals in Dave’s team are not intellectually superior, nor do they have higher education or greater experience than George’s team members who are unproductive and are pulling in different directions. What is completely different about this team, however, is the behavior they display and the open, honest way in which they communicate with each other. The spirited debate between these team members is astonishing – and exciting! The team members boldly express their opinions and feelings. Each person presents a strong argument to motivate their point of view. They quote statistics and innovative trends they had gleaned from the latest literature they had read and the conferences they had attended.
In a very short time, the courageous, authentic interaction between them brings a huge amount of creative input to the table. The team uses language that boosts creative thinking – “imagine this scenario” or “let me paint a picture.” Their sense of urgency is evident, expressed in words like, “we’ve got no time to waste. Our competitors are snapping at our heels.” Dave frequently asks, “Speak to me about how this idea aligns with our vision and values?”
It struck me that despite the fact that their dialogue was fast and furious, honest and confronting, nobody was defensive or offended. The lack of ego freed the team up. They did not get into polarized options – my idea is better than yours; I am right, you are wrong. Instead I watched them look for ways to incorporate the best of the different perspectives. They speak about the brilliant iTunes solution that Steve Jobs had come up with for the music industry and use this to motivate themselves to think beyond the traditional boundaries. They keep asking themselves what strategic partners they could align with that would benefit from an integrative solution.
One of the most notable differences is that there is a lot of laughter in this team. They were actually having fun, breaking out of the current models and bending the rules or making new ones. They were enjoying playing with all kinds of way out possibilities. The expression on Dave’s face was one of pride. It was evident that he valued his team members and their input. And that they could feel this, which inspired them to offer everything they had to give.
Oh, and about that behavior that some people misunderstood about Dave – it turned out to be Dave’s spirited refusal to settle for a second best solution.
How many spirited characteristics does your team have?
In our team we:
Have a sense of humour
Are driven by a shared vision
Engage in spirited dialogue
Boldly challenge the status quo
Focus on the positives
Seek a broader view
Are enthusiastic and energetic
Communicate authentically
Assimilate multiple realities
Show humility
Invite Dr. Sandy Gluckman to your next conference or offsite meeting present one of her great keynotes.
Demonstrate Courage in Words and Action.
In the first two articles of this series of seven, I put forward a proposition that there are two types of business teams. Teams with spirit and teams without spirit. Business teams with spirit are winners. Teams without spirit are losers. The previous two articles each addressed one of the seven characteristics of business teams with spirit:
- Having an Inspiring Shared Vision
- Thinking and Acting as a Team
In today’s article we will talk about the 3rd characteristic of spirited business teams which is that such teams are winners because they demonstrate courage in words and action. Courage is an interesting concept. Have you ever wondered where true courage comes from? And why some people find it so easy to do and say courageous things and others do not? Well, here’s my take on courage. We all have two selves – an ego self, which is our social self, and is all bluff and bluster. The ego self does not have true courage. This ego self will do and say things that are defensive and self-protective because our ego is driven by feelings of insecurity.
Spirited Self
Then there is our spirited self which is our real self. Our spirited real self will do and say courageous things because it is driven by feelings of self- confidence and self-belief. So what this means is that when you are just being the real you, you will automatically behave with courage. We only lack courage when our ego is trying to be someone we are not, trying to please others, trying to be the person others want us to be.
The fascinating thing is that, given a choice, we would all prefer to be our real self. We crave the freedom to do and say the things that we truly believe in, to speak about the ideas we have, share our perspectives and express our feelings and opinions because there is nothing more empowering than just being who we are. It is the ultimate form of self esteem and self expression. So why do so many of us in the corporate environment not do this? Why do so many business teams and individuals defensively flee to their egos for protection? Mostly because, in so many companies, ego-driven leaders or managers have created a culture where employees consider it unsafe to be open and honest. They feel safer hiding their true talent and insights than courageously speaking out or doing something different.
Business Teams With Spirit
Business teams with spirit are different. These teams purposefully foster and cultivate courage. They are not prepared to ‘speak out of both sides of their mouth.’ They see lip service as being a coward’s way out. They tell it like they see it and handle the consequences. And they do this in a manner that demonstrates genuine mutual trust and respect. And as a result they are able to negotiate the best deals, come to the best solutions and deliver the best results.
How do spirited business teams foster courage?
- Their first act of courage is to speak openly about ‘courage’ in their team. They actually set aside time to talk about the issue of courage. They team makes the conscious choice to do and say courageous things instead of resorting to pretense and lip service.
- They write being courageous and real into their Team Charter.
- They derive courage from their vision. They continuously speak about their vision to each other, to the point where they are obsessed with their shared vision of greatness.
- The intense desire to achieve this dream gives them the courage to do everything in their power to achieve this. (see first article on vision)
- They create strong relationships and genuine connections with their team members by being genuine and real. They know that their team members are true partners. Knowing that their team mates ‘have their back’ and will never throw them under the bus, gives them great courage.
- They attend self development programs, or hire a life coach to continuously strengthen their spirited self and enhance their self-confidence.
- They never allow the elephant in the room to remain unaddressed.
- They only take decisions that are based on diverse opinions and perspectives.
- They challenge any member of the team who appears to have a hidden agenda or is behaving in self-serving way
Look for the fourth article in this series: Building Winning Business Teams: By Using 1+1= Out-the-Box Thinking
Invite Sandy to do her seriously-funny keynote: How to Build Unstoppable Business Teams
In the first article of this series of seven, I put forward a proposition that there are two types of business teams. Teams with spirit and teams without spirit. Business teams with spirit are winners. Teams without spirit are losers. Athletics provide a helpful illustration of the way in which I use the word ‘spirit’ or ‘spirited.’ When we apply the word ‘spirit’ to a team (or an individual) we are saying that they demonstrate behaviours that indicate life force energy, such as being feisty, courageous, energetic, funny, determined, curious, genuine, collaborative and focused.
In last week’s column we addressed the fact that teams with spirit are teams that are magnetized and united by a shared vision.
The term ‘teamwork’ has been overused, often without an understanding of the depth of this term. Being a team player is about having the self-awareness to identify how what you are doing and saying impacts others. Teamwork starts with looking in the mirror and asking ourselves a confronting question, ‘is my behavior and communication switching others on or switching them off from our common purpose?’
Here’s what I see in business teams around the world. If you take a team, place them in a room to conduct a teambuilding exercise, or climb a mountain with them to strengthen teamwork, this does not result in a sustainable shift in the way this team works together. Soon after they return to the stress of the real world, they revert back to their old behaviors.
Why can’t they sustain the team spirit they thought they had in the team build exercise? Mainly because their ego gets in the way. No amount of intellectual reasoning, statistical proof, recipe style tools and techniques, or innovative teambuilding exercises will make any difference in a team who are relating to each other with ego defenses. Business teams that need teamwork initiatives to help them build team spirit and behave as a team, are teams whose egos are getting in the way of genuine connection and collaboration. To build winning business teams, therefore, it is vital to teach the teams how to stop sweating the ego stuff.
How do you build a team that genuinely thinks and acts as ‘Us?’
Perform a team audit to discover the behaviors displayed by the team. List those behaviors that act as a barrier to collaboration – as well as those behaviors that that support partnership. This is best done by an outside professional to ensure objectivity. See HYPERLINK “https://spiritedeconomics.com/exp-4-a.htm” https://spiritedeconomics.com/exp-4-a.htm for excellent audits.
The team explores the results of the audit and takes ownership of the fact that:
We display some ego behaviors that create barriers between us and are holding us back from producing spectacular results.
We display some spirited, collaborative behaviors that we need to strengthen
The team writes and commits to a Team Charter that states:
They will individually and collectively commit to building a spirited collaborative team capable of producing extraordinary results.
Each team member will strengthen their own spirited team behaviors and minimize their ego behaviors.
They have permission to offer each other honest feedback each time ego behavior acts as a barrier to the team’s success.
Offer professional coaching for team members to assist them in acquiring enhanced skill in the agreed spirited team behavior and communication skills.
Agree quick win team goals. Obtain a baseline measures for these goals. Agree timeline for measuring success.
Build in 10 minutes for feedback after meetings – a progress report on the team’s spirited behavior and communication.
Measure and celebrate achievement of the identified goals.
In next week’s column we will talk about the third characteristic of a Team with Spirit – Demonstrating Courage in Words and Action
Invite Sandy to do her seriously funny Keynote Talk: ‘What Vision? I don’t see a Vision.’ She will show your audience what makes a vision work. https://spiritedeconomics.com
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