During this first quarter 0f 2008 I have been meeting with and talking with numerous heads of human resources and organisational training and development people in companies of various industries. The common interest in all these people was not only how do we improve the performance of our key people but how do we get them to change and improve their leadership and communication skills.
It was during a recent talk at an institute meeting on Leadership to a room full of senior executives from the engineering, construction and resource industries that I had one of those “aha” moments.
This group was keen to learn more about how to improve their management and leadership skills as they were now in senior leadership positions having come through technical roles.
You see I also come from this technical background so I could appreciate why they were really struggling with some of the concepts that just were not around 10 years ago.
People with MBA’s, engineering, technical and finance type degrees and backgrounds, are often (not always) logical and analytical thinkers that enjoy delving down into problems. And here in lies the dilemma. When analysing and trying to changes processes or systems, an analytical and problem-focused approach is very useful. But when trying to change people, something else is needed.
Their standard practices for improving performances involve techniques that are largely ineffective: giving advice (telling), solving their problems, or trying to work out what they are thinking. It is best to give up trying to second guess what people need and focus on helping others think for themselves. The best way to do that is by defining solutions rather than problems. And helping others gain new thinking habits.
Pivotal to all this is enabling others to have their own insights. Once people have had new insights for themselves, the leaders role is provide the encouragement, ongoing support and belief in the person, over time, so they develop this new habit. Then we will truly bring out the best in others.
Now this may sound obvious that to improve people’s performance we need to focus their thinking on solutions, rather than problems. It is surprising how little people do this in practice. When dealing with such groups, and hundreds of other such instances, somehow people always go straight to the problems.
Focusing on problems leads us to the past. This is also where many of beliefs we hold to be true are false, so we are merely reinforcing those beliefs when we put our attention there. It forces us to try and change what cannot be changed. This can also lead to blame, excuses and justification. It is slow, and drains valuable mental energy.
Focusing on solutions, however, immediately creates energy in our minds. It opens up ideas and possibilities. If we want people to come up with great ideas, to think well, to reach their potential as employees, we want them focused on solutions most of the time.
The fastest way to transform performance, particularly with intelligent, high functioning people, is to get them to ask about solutions. It sounds so simple but it is extremely rare in the workplace. So a person in a leadership position should be disciplined in getting their people to focus their thinking on solutions. This can be the difference between asking “Why did this happen”, and “What shall we do about this?” It is a choice. It is a discipline, a mental habit we either have or can develop.
Getting people to think for themselves and be solution focused can be a stretch for a lot of people. Leaders understand that their job involves taking people beyond their current comfort zones, so they learn to be comfortable with making people uncomfortable. Change is a stretch and bringing about change is not easy as it requires stretching.
Change can bring on strong emotions. There are two main things to be aware of here. First is to be aware that people often give up when they try something new, so it helps to let them know their frustration is normal. Second, given all the fear and uncertainty in creating any new change, providing lots of encouragement and accentuating the positive is a big help.
In many organisations there is a leadership crisis, a lack of the right talent to fill key positions at mid and senior levels. As leaders go through the process of moving from managing oneself to managing others, they need to change the way they think, yet organisations have scant internal resources allocated to helping key people go through this change. They need to instil in their leaders and managers the ability to transform performance by improving thinking.
Thinking is what many key employees are paid to do. Many employees are highly capable individuals who will thrive on this approach. They want to work smarter; they want to be smarter and are crying out for help. I witnessed this again first hand in that room full of senior executives grappling with the change from becoming managers to becoming leaders.
Transforming Performance by Improving Thinking. - To learn more about this author, visit Geoff Flemming's Website.
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Geoff Flemming
(Visit Geoff's Website)
5 years experience in working with a range
of small to medium businesses - turning
good businesses and organisations into
extraordinary ones.
In the last 16 years Geoff has had
extensive experience running a range of
small businesses. His previous business,
SME Solutions has been expanded nationally
and is enormously successful. It is still
run by Greg Carter.
Prior to that Geoff was a partner and
Director of Total Business Solutions, an
agency owned by Geoff and also Peter
Coulson and Darrell Hardidge. Since then
both Peter and Darrell have moved onto
other very successful ventures.
Geoff's experience in working and coaching
business around Australia ranges from
engineering and fabrication businesses, to
manufacturing, distributuion, importing
and service businesses as well as retail
including large nurseries, salons and
restaurants.
Geoff has a passion for leadership and
organisational development. His presence
in leading, coaching and inspiring is well
known and he is quickly developing into a
well known and sought after speaker.
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