In recognition of the giving nature of the Festive Season and to celebrate the year we will be donating to the Jimmy Little Foundation.
The Jimmy Little Foundation plays a significant role in the lives of indigenous Australians. They support a range of programmes centered around preventative health, education and treatment (including mobile renal dialysis units for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders).
The Foundation (www.jlf.org.au) is also sponsored by Medicines Australia and several pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, and its vision is to “Increase the life expectancy of indigenous Australians”.
We are pleased to be contributing to this initiative and recognize that the Festive Season is both a time for celebration and a time for reflection and support.
All the very best from everyone at Pharmaceutical & Medical Professionals.
2012 is going to be a busy year. The economy will continue to dominate our thinking. There will be an increased focus on delivering results.
You've assembled your team. You've communicated the plan. Resources are in place. Everyone is ready to go. But you are concerned about several of your employees. You're not confident that they will deliver.
What will you do?
Chapter 8 of McKenna and Maister's book 'First Among Equals - How to Manage a Group of Professionals' provides practical advice on how to help underperformers.
Firstly, it's helpful to consider the reasons why someone may be underperforming. The authors surveyed a cross-section of group leaders and asked them this question. The reasons were:
1. Trouble at home or other personal problems (divorce, alcoholism, depression).
2. Burnout - no longer finding the work interesting or stimulating.
3. Lack of competency.
4. Fear of failure in trying something new and reaching for career progress.
5. Quality of life choice - lack of desire to contribute more energy or time to the business.
6. Externally driven reasons such as the loss of a recent client or downturn in their sector.
7. Failure to keep up in their field; being less in demand.
8. Struggling because of poor time management or other inefficiencies.
9. Lack of knowledge about what they should be doing to succeed.
10. Being poorly managed.
11. Insecurity due to things like company merger discussions.
Depending on the specific dynamics within companies and teams there will be a number of other factors which contribute to underperformance. However the main reasons identified centered around burnout, loss of enthusiasm, quality of life choices, personal/family issues and externally driven market changes.
Generally people are not underperforming because they don't know what to do, or they don't want to do it, or the incentives aren't there. If they aren't doing what they should it is probably due to something deeply personal in their lives. By talking with them, managers will be able to find out what it is and will then be able to deal with it.
Lack of performance is very rarely to do with competence and everything to do with confidence.
The role of the manager is to work with the individual to understand what is happening and to reignite confidence - the results will then follow.
McKenna and Maister outline a number of steps to be taken to help a person whose performance needs attention:
1. Set up a meeting to discuss the performance issue that concerns you. Stress your commitment to solve the problem together. Ask the team member to bring their ideas to the meeting eg "I'd like to catch up with you on Wednesday to talk about your workload. I have some concerns about your numbers and since you are a lot closer to it than I am I'm keen to discuss your ideas on how things could improve".
2. Reassure the person of your confidence in them and your desire to be supportive, eg "I know that there are times when the results don't come in. I know that you can turn this around. I'll do anything I can to help".
3. Get agreement that a performance issue exists, and discuss causes. This may involve firstly setting out the specific performance expectations for the person. The individual may respond with a range of emotions - they may become defensive, uncooperative or hostile. Stay positive and listen carefully, because it's important to identify and understand the reasons for underperformance. The key is to stay calm in the face of resistance. Don't become frustrated or angry.
4. Identify and discuss any obstacles to performance beyond the individual's control. These obstacles may be real (administrative policies, compensation inequities, physical or emotional health, or not feeling fully responsible) or imagined (lack of priorities, convenient excuses). When the obstacles are legitimate your role as manager is to help to remove them. When the suggested obstacles are not real you need to confront the excuses, eg "The reality is that you are accomplishing less and I am concerned for you. Do you have some ideas on how we can help you refocus and what specific first steps you could take to get back on track".
5. Seek ideas for improvement by keeping your team member focused on the areas in which performance improvement may be possible eg "Are you aware that it is taking you longer to complete your tasks than others? What do you think we can do to improve this situation?"
6. Agree on specific actions to be taken to solve the performance issue. Although, as manager, you may have a number of constructive ideas to resolve the situation, it is important to allow the individual to come up with remedial ideas first. By doing this it will be their plan, not yours, and they will own it. Then set out all the ideas, and work together to come up with an action plan. Allow the person to choose which actions are of the highest priority and capable of being implemented, and then get them to outline the actions in writing, eg "So that we're clear about what needs to be done please send me a short summary with the action plan". By doing this, they own the plan.
7. Set specific follow-up dates to review progress. These should be short review meetings, a few weeks apart, where you acknowledge any achievement, no matter how small. Your role as manager is to 'praise achievements back to acceptable levels of performance'.
2012 will be a very busy year. All the indicators are there. The state of the global economy is causing companies to re-evaluate their business models, to drive efficiencies, to reduce costs, to increase outputs. More will be expected of everyone, and the role of manager is to instil confidence, to remove obstacles, and to unleash performance.
References
First Among Equals - How to Manage a Group of Professionals, Patrick McKenna and David Maister. Free Press 2002
Conflicts are unavoidable when different personalities work together. Someone will say something, or do something and this will cause another team member to have strong negative feelings. These feelings can include annoyance, frustration, disappointment and anger. The offended individual will replay what happened over in their mind and will talk, often at length, with others in the company. However they will generally not talk to the offending person directly.
As a manager you are likely to be sensing that something is happening, and may be hearing noise from across the company. It may be brought to your attention that two team members are always 'at each other' with put-down remarks or finding fault with one another. There's also the chronic bickering and the demeaning comments. Or there may be icy coolness where they ignore each other except during the most formal of interactions.
This general air of discontent is affecting workplace morale and productivity and you need to do something about it. Underlying issues need to be confronted and, as the manager, if you don't intervene to help people discuss their problems, situations can intensify to the point where lasting damage will occur.
In McKenna and Maister's book "First Among Equals - How to Manage a Group of Professionals" (Chapter 17) advice is given that the most effective response to dealing with conflict is one of negotiation. The manager listens to both sides, identifies the common areas of interest and agreement, and builds on these areas of agreement so that each individual can understand the other's point of view.
5 steps to resolve conflict are outlined:
1. Describe the conflict and the non-productive behavior you are observing:
For example, "It appears to me that neither of you seems to be listening to the other, and obviously each of you has some very strong views on how you want to approach this project".
Potential triggers for conflict include differences in needs, goals, values, or competition for scarce resources. As manager you must take the initiative to bring the disagreement to the surface as soon as it is apparent and help the people involved to analyse their differing points of view. The first step is to get your two team members to take the time to look objectively at how they are interacting with each other.
2. Ask each person to comment on the causes of the disagreement:
For example, "Can I suggest that we take a few minutes and may I ask each of you in turn to comment on what you see going on between you? What is the problem here as you perceive it?
As manager you must exercise active listening and be able to hear the emotional aspects of what is being said. During the meeting calmly invite each of them to describe what they think is the reason for their conflict. Don't try to solve the problem. Simply invite your colleagues to discuss the underlying cause of their differences.
There are four basic categories of conflict (See 'Managing Workplace Conflict', Jean Lebedum, AmerMedia Inc 1998):
i. Over facts and data. A basic misunderstanding or misinformation is the easiest type of conflict to resolve.
ii. Over process or methods. Your people may have the same goals but differ on how to achieve those goals, a situation where compromise is often possible.
iii. Over purpose. Your people may have different goals or agendas, which sometimes can be merged.
iv. Over values. Your people may have differences in basic beliefs or principles. These create the most difficult conflicts, and sometimes people must agree to disagree.
3. Have each person summarize what the other person said:
For example, "For purposes of just making absolutely sure that we are all understanding each other, can you briefly tell us what you just heard your colleague say is the core issue?"
Now ask each person to repeat back what the other person said. By having each one paraphrase the other's main points, you are encouraging them to listen to and acknowledge each other's views. Then ask each person to confirm, clarify or correct the summary that was repeated back. As manager, maintain a position of neutrality. Don't try to solve the conflict. Your role is simply to gather information.
4. Ask each person, in turn, to identify points of agreement and disagreement:
For example, "Can we identify the points where the two of you obviously agree? You both seem to be saying that you want to work together on this project. Now, without losing sight of that, let's identify the points of contention between the two of you on how you each want to approach this differently".
First ask each to identify the points of agreement in their two respective positions. Then do the same for areas of disagreement. Should either person just want to rehash where they disagree, ask questions to help them see where they agree. Don't pretend the differences don't exist. Your role is to clarify the various points of view. An interpersonal conflict is most likely to be productively resolved if both parties can see that they stand to gain something from the resolution. As manager your task is to highlight what is in their mutual best interests, or where they need each other to accomplish more than either of them could on their own.
5. Invite your colleagues to suggest ways to proceed:
For example, "How would you suggest we move forward? Are either of you willing to compromise slightly in the interests of achieving what you both have agreed that you want?"
Ask them to suggest actions that address the points of agreement and disagreement they've just reviewed. Your role, as manager, is to have them reach agreement on the steps that are needed to resolve the situation. Look for workable suggestions and small action steps. Sometimes the only viable suggestion may be simply to let the dust settle and set a date for another meeting between the two.
Any agreements and actions that do result from your discussions should be put in writing to prevent any further problems from arising and reduce the chances of any misunderstanding at some later point.
Conflict within the workplace is inevitable. People have different personalities and different working styles. They have different goals and agendas, different views on processes and methods, or they may be competing for scarce resources. Your role as manager is to resolve conflict between team members as early as possible so that workplace morale and productivity is maintained.
References
First Among Equals - How to Manage a Group of Professionals, Patrick McKenna and David Maister. Free Press 2002
Managing Workplace Conflict, Jean Lebedum, AmerMedia Inc 1998
There’s an excellent book for managers called: “First Among Equals – How to Manage a Group of Professionals.”, by Patrick McKenna and David Maister. It’s applicable to both new and experienced managers and gives good practical advice on how to manage a range of workplace situations.
I’ve previously summarized the first 4 chapters of the book and in this blog I’ll provide summary notes from chapters 5-8.
Chapter 5: Win permission to coach
Coaching is an activity, not a title or position. It is the process by which you help another person fulfil his or her potential. It requires that you judge well when to intervene and when to stay away.
Coaching is what is required when some member of your group:
1. Is unclear about his or her career path.
2. Asks for advice, assistance, feedback or support.
3. Is taking on a new task or responsibility.
4. Appears frustrated or confused.
5. Seems indecisive or stuck.
6. Is performing inconsistently.
7. Expresses a desire to improve.
8. Performs below acceptable standards.
9. Has a negative attitude that is impeding their work and the work of others.
Before you can even begin to develop and stretch your people’s talent, you must assess whether you have earned the right to be able to do so.
Preparation (planning what you are going to say and how you are going to help) is an important part of any effective coaching process. However many coaching opportunities may be spontaneous, requiring quick action in order to assist a situation or prevent a problem from arising.
There are many challenging dimensions to coaching. Successful group leaders learn how to straddle the line between “too little” and “too much”.
Here are some basic steps that may help in your winning permission to coach:
1. Ask how things are going – your aim is to find out what is on the individual’s mind. Your best approach is to be informal and open-ended. Identify an opportunity to help someone expand on his or her skills, knowledge and abilities. Look for signals or cues indicating that coaching could add value. Take time to tune in to the need behind the words.
2. Confirm that the individual is ready for coaching. “Do you have a few minutes to discuss this? Would you be interested in talking about what happened? Perhaps I can help. Is this a good time or do you want to schedule something later today?”
3. Ask questions to clarify the situation, and offer your support and help. Phrase your questions carefully so they do not pressure the person or imply a negative reaction. Use questions that draw out facts. Try to build awareness, not solve the problem. Determine if the individual has the right information to move forward.
4. Offer information as appropriate. Offer only necessary information. Respond briefly, being careful to take your cue from the other person.
5. Listen actively. Don’t interrupt with your own ideas. From time to time, summarize with your own ideas.
6. Help this person identify possible courses of action. Avoid offering any of your own ideas until the person you are coaching has finished. Encourage them to think aloud.
7. Agree on the next step. Prompt the person to make a firm commitment to action. Clarify what specific steps are required and when.
8. Offer your personal support and confidence. Conclude by expressing your continued interest, your confidence in your colleague’s ability to solve the issue and your offer to help, if and where you can do anything that would support them in accomplishing their objective.
Chapter 6: Listen to build rapport
As a coach, it is important to be a good listener.
What good listeners do:
1. Probe for clarification.
2. Listen for unvoiced emotions.
3. Listen for the story.
4. Summarise well.
5. Empathize.
6. Listen for what’s different, not for what’s familiar.
7. Take it all seriously (they don’t say ‘you shouldn’t worry about that’).
8. Spot hidden assumptions.
9. Let the other person “get it out of his or her system”.
10. Ask “How do you feel about that”
11. Keep the other person talking (“What else have you considered”)
12. Keep asking for more detail that helps them understand.
13. Get rid of distractions while listening.
14. Focus on hearing your version first.
15. Let you tell your story your way.
16. Stand in your shoes, at least while they’re listening.
17. Ask you how you think they might be of help.
18. Ask what you’ve thought of before telling you what they’ve thought of.
19. Look at (not stare at) the person as her or she speaks.
20. Look for “congruency” (or incongruity) between what the person says and how he or she gestures and postures.
21. Make it seem as if the other person is the only thing that matters and that they have all the time in the world.
22. Encourage by nodding head or giving a slight smile.
23. Show awareness and control of body movement (no moving around, shaking legs, fiddling with a paper clip).
Active listening is the ability to pick up, define and respond accurately to feelings expressed by the other person.
People find it difficult to communicate their feelings about sensitive situations. Yet a critical part of your role as a group leader is to get people to share their issues, and how they feel about them, with you.
Chapter 7: Deal differently with different people.
Not every individual can be managed or inspired the same way. A manager must learn to deal with each individual according to the things that energise that individual.
People think, communicate, decide and behave differently. They also use their time differently, handle emotions differently and deal with conflict and stress differently. The group leader who fails to take these differences into account will rub people the wrong way, mis-communicate and consequently experience great difficulty in establishing rapport and trust.
People can adopt various styles ie
Analytical – wants to get it right
Driver – wants to get it done
Amiable – wants to get along
Expressive – wants to get noticed.
By adapting your approach based on understanding preferences in styles, you increase the receptivity to whatever you are trying to communicate.
To create an effective coaching relationship with any of your people you will need to adjust (temporarily) your natural approach.
Chapter 8: Helping Underperformers
A common mistake in dealing with underperformance is rushing to talk to the underperformer without pausing to consider why he or she is underperforming.
If you are going to make a difference, your task of turning an unproductive person around is often to help him or her find some meaning in what they (and your group) do. If the issues are loss of enthusiasm for the company’s work and/or personal issues, then you need to help the individual rediscover the energy, excitement, passion in the group’s work.
Ask first. Very often we just rush into assumptions about why people are unproductive. The reason is usually not hard to figure out if you have a track record of ongoing informal conversations with your people eg “I get the sense that you’re not fully engaged with everything here. You don’t seem to be showing the normal levels of passion you have shown in the past. Something is going on. I would love to help you if I can. Is there anything I can do?”
Effective group leaders know that the key to improving underperformance is to address it early and proactively before it becomes a full blown problem.
A number of important steps can be taken to help a person whose performance needs attention:
1. Set up a meeting to discuss the performance issue that concerns you.
2. Reassure the person of your confidence in them and your desire to be supportive.
3. Get agreement that a performance issue exists and discuss its causes.
4. Identify and discuss any obstacles to performance beyond the individual’s control.
5. Seek ideas for improvement.
6. Mutually agree on specific actions to be taken to solve the performance issue.
7. Set a specific follow up date to review progress.
Coaching someone to success depends upon systematic, quiet repetition. You will need to use frequent (if gentle) reminders.
The above is a brief summary of chapters 5-8 of “First Among Equals – How to Manage a Group of Professionals by Patrick McKenna and David Maister (The Free Press 2002).
There’s an excellent book for managers called: “First Among Equals – How to Manage a Group of Professionals.”, by Patrick McKenna and David Maister. It’s applicable to both new and experienced managers and gives good practical advice on how to manage a range of workplace situations.
The book is divided into 4 sections: 1. Getting Ready; 2, Coaching the Individual; 3. Coaching the Team; and 4. Building for the Future.
In this blog I’ll provide summary notes from Section 1: Getting Ready.
Chapter 1 Clarify your role:
How, exactly, do you add value as a group leader?
A leader has to bring a certain energy and optimism to the business. Part of your job is to build energy and enthusiasm.
Most often you will be working with highly talented people who do know what to do and how to do it, but just aren’t doing it. The causes may be numerous (fear, suspicion, lack of drive, attitudes, problems at home or structural organisational impediments) and you will find that most of the barriers have to do with feelings, attitudes and emotions. Your role, therefore, and your essential skills, will be to help people fulfil their potential by influencing these feelings, attitudes and emotions.
Among the contributions you can make are the following:
a. Create energy and excitement.
b. Be a source of creative ideas and stimulate creativity in others.
c. Forge teamwork
d. Help develop a common purpose that everyone can buy into.
e. Help to solve problems and break down barriers for team members. Make it easier for them to succeed.
f. Act as a sounding board – help people think through their issues.
g. Enforce standards (deal gently, promptly, but firmly with noncompliance).
h. Be a conscience (“gentle pressure”) when self-discipline fails.
i. Be a constant source of encouragement to improve effectiveness, quality and efficiency.
Chapter 2: Confirm your mandate
Is there an explicit agreement about your rights and responsibilities?
Before you can effectively manage a team, you must ensure that you have reached agreement on what is called your “terms of engagement” or your mandate. You may think everyone around you already shares the same view of your mandate, but it’s worth checking ie what is expected of you.
A major part of a team manager’s real value comes from discussing individual performance and engaging in effective follow-up with individual members of the group…without follow-up little is implemented.
The value that the manager brings to each team member of the group is to act as a conscience mechanism. The leader serves to remind them of projects that they undertook to complete, to offer genuine hands-on assistance, and to help implement other projects.
Chapter 3: Build relationships – One at a time.
What are the key skills you must have?
The overwhelming determinant of whether or not you will be effective as a team manager has to do with your people skills – interpersonal, social and emotional.
Your success as a leader will depend on whether or not you are received by your people as a trusted advisor.
Common traits of trusted advisors;
Trusted advisors:
1. Seem to understand us, effortlessly, and like us.
2. Are consistent: we can depend on them.
3. Always help us see things from fresh perspectives.
4. Don’t try to force things on us.
5. Help us to think things through (it’s our decision).
6. Don’t substitute their judgement for ours.
7. Don’t panic or get overemotional; they stay calm.
8. Help us think and separate our logic from our emotion.
9. Criticize and correct us gently, lovingly.
10. Don’t pull their punches: we can rely on them to tell us the truth.
11. Are in it for the long haul: the relationship is more important than the current issue.
12. Give us reasoning (to help us think), not just their conclusions.
13. Give us options, increase our understanding of those options, give us their recommendations and let us choose.
14. Challenge our assumptions: help us uncover the false assumptions we’ve been working under.
15. Make us feel comfortable and casual personally, but they take the issues seriously.
16. Act like a person, not someone in a role.
17. Are reliably on our side and always seem to have our best interests at heart.
18. Remember everything we ever said (without notes).
19. Are always honourable: they don’t gossip about others (we trust their values).
20. Help us put our issues in context, often through the use of metaphors, stories and anecdotes (few problems are completely unique).
21. Have a sense of humour to diffuse our tension in tough situations
22. Are smart in ways we’re not.
Would you agree that this is what your team members would appreciate in a trusted advisor?
Would you agree that, if you acted in this way, they would be more likely to accept your influence?
How well does this list describe how you currently act in guiding, counselling, encouraging and supervising others?
While a coach needs many attributes and skills, one attribute dominates the list: whether or not those you are trying to influence trust your motives. If people think you are truly trying to help them, they will listen to you; if they think you are nagging and exhorting them in order to make yourself look good, they will resist your influence.
Chapter 4: Dare to be inspiring
Do you know how to inspire people?
Your team will best achieve peak performance by unleashing the power of your people. This is not done by managing them, nor by leading them, but by inspiring them.
Here’s a few important questions to reflect upon:
1. Do you show a genuine interest in what each of your team members want to achieve with their careers?
2. Do you show an interest in the things that mean the most to your people in their personal lives?
3. Are you there for your people in their times of personal and professional crisis?
4. Do you informally ‘check-in’ with each of your people every so often?
5. Do you offer to help when some member of your team clearly needs it?
The fundamental purpose of the team manager is to inspire others. Inspiration comes from within and the manager’s job is to create the environment which can invite it. Inspiration is not derived from selfish motives, but from caring about people, caring about the relationships with those people and caring enough to intercede so that people can perform better than they thought they ever could. To be an effective coach requires patience, persistence and permission.
The above is a brief summary of the first four chapters of “First Among Equals – How to Manage a Group of Professionals by Patrick McKenna and David Maister (The Free Press 2002).
Fearless Leadership - Contributed by Kathryn Taylor, Pharmaceutical & Medical Professionals
Mergers, acquisitions, restructures, patent expiries! As the pace of the healthcare industry rapidly increases, so does the need to engage staff throughout periods of change. Katharine McLennan’s presentation at the AHRI Practice’s Day in March struck a cord as to how to improve motivation within our industry throughout these times.
Presenting on Fearless Leadership: The Neuroscience behind the phrase “leadership as a conscious choice”, Katharine (Executive General Manager, Talent and Business Unit Human Resources, Commonwealth Bank) tapped into the importance of awareness for leaders, of their choices and resulting impacts on employees. Katharine provoked thought with the statement “leadership is a moment by moment conscious choice” going on to explain that fear is built into our nature and has an impact on all we do. In essence, she outlined fear as “false evidence appearing real”, detailing experiences throughout our average day resulting in our brains entering “fight, flight or freeze” mode. She explained we can better manage our response through a four part model around knowing what “triggers you” or others into fear and working towards “choosing rationally” within the limited space of 0.3 seconds we are offered during our brains processing.
In detailing the model she explained first you must “know your triggers”. Referring to the four key parts of the brain, Katharine remarked what is key to rational choice is the limbic area which receives emotions and the pre-frontal cortex which is rational, able to process decision making in a calm manner. Going on to outline what Daniel Goleman has named the “Amygdala Hijack”, we understand we can control our response to situations through awareness of our brains processing and improved mental fitness in responding to our triggers. Katharine explains that as humans we are all impacted by the same factors each day, these are best identified as status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. With a resound of understanding Katharine draws on numerous office encounters to detail these aspects.
Who has had issues resulting from not including someone in a meeting or project? The employees’ reaction of unjust and lack of respect are reflected through their triggers of status, relatedness and fairness. When bonus time arises employees react to perceived disparity, responding to their needs for fairness and status. When announcing a restructure there is uproar to the transformation reflecting an alteration in certainty, status and autonomy. While waiting for a colleague to complete part of a project, employees are faced with a lack of autonomy and certainty to deliver their role. Each day employees compare titles, car spaces and positions all relating to their view of status. Questioning how they fit into a meeting, project, team or situation they are reflecting on their relatedness to that event. Katharine summarised that all five elements will cause an Amygdala Hijack unless we can recognise the situation and know how we will respond automatically, which is the second part of the model.
We have all seen the iceberg as a demonstration for leadership, but have we used it to compare our behavioural responses? In this representation the tip of the iceberg is perceived behaviour, what is seen and so known often resulting in the three natural response behaviours of fight, flight or freeze. The very base underneath is our subconscious core beliefs, these are our needs and experiences that shape us as individuals. These core beliefs have impacts on our requirements for attention, autonomy and security. Between the tip and very base is the area of conscious intention where we can control aspects of response or reaction based on what we know of ourselves and others. Katharine reminded us to reflect on those hidden parts when responding to what is exposed.
The third step in the trigger model is to ensure you choose rationally, Katharine reminded us that “we do have a choice”. This received an interesting reaction from the audience. Choice is of course the challenge as we have the same responses over many years and so need to re-educate and train ourselves through repetition and a revised mental state. Katharine gave the example of exercise. How often do we avoid or make excuses for exercise? She had recently retrained herself into a new yoga routine, discussing her procrastination at the start compared to her anticipation for it now. The role of leaders is to recognise in the office environment very few things in our normal day will lead to life or death. Our response can be to allow the Hijack to occur and become irrational, suppress it with a “stiff upper lip” or pause, allowing time to see and so assess the real FEAR for reappraisal. She encouraged leaders to use that pause throughout the day to maintain and build the trust with their employees. Emphasising the need for leaders to constantly build trust Katharine outlined Maister’s trusted adviser equation of trust, as follows, stressing that the “leader builds trust when choice is in effect”.
The followers perception of the leaders Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy The followers Attitude to Trust
Katharine recognised “mind fitness” as most critical to achieving successful outcomes when challenging our beliefs and changing our natural responses, the final piece of the puzzle. So what is mind fitness? She explained “we are getting more unfit as a race” and so there has been an increase in depression and health issues, she believed there are more physical diseases as a result of our state of mind. In explaining mind fitness Katharine explained four different brainwaves, beta (which does most of work), alpha (when we are daydreaming), theta (an out of the blue brainwave state, for example when you have a sudden idea in middle of night or REM sleep) and delta (which is a really slow state, where empathy and intuition occurs, this is where athletes play competitive sport). So how can we train our brains and so improve mind fitness, spending more time in the “delta” zone? Katharine encourages holistic fitness which incorporates education, stress management, spirituality, exercise, nutrition, connectedness and environment.
Reflecting on the four stages, know your triggers, know your reactions, choose rationally and mind fitness, Katharine concluded by posing the question “what is the meaning in your life”? Encouraging people to see the opportunity and make their choice.
How is all this relevant to us in the healthcare industry? It is the reality of how many “trigger points” are prevalent in each day and so how many “choices” need to be made, another role in itself. Working with highly educated professionals, engaged community groups and patient populations within expanding or multinational businesses we encourage employees’ innovation, creativity and flexibility. To maximise their motivation and energy for work we need to ensure we “pause” and remember how rarely we are in those life and death situations. We are there to educate, inform, instil and mentor these skills in all our employees in the hope that they embrace it and thrive as a result, forming the next generation of leaders.
In a recent blog (January 24th) the attributes of successful leaders were outlined.
In summary, successful leaders have highly developed emotional intelligence. They have self awareness – they know their strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and impact on others. They have self-regulation – they control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. They have motivation – they relish achievement for its own sake. They have empathy – they understand other people’s emotional make-up. And they have social skill – they build rapport with others to move them in desired directions.
A number of people have asked how you assess Emotional Intelligence. In addition to a range of psychological tests available a very effective way to assess someone’s EI is by asking them relevant questions and then probing their responses for additional insight.
Grouped into the 5 categories of Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skill these questions can be modified depending on whether the situation is an interview, a reference check or during a performance discussion.
Sample questions to include during interviewing, performance discussions and reference checking:
Self-Awareness
Tell me about yourself.
How would your colleagues describe you?…tell me more
Tell me about your strengths and your limitations.
Tell me about a time when you received feedback.
Tell me about a time when you had a great success.
Tell me about a time when you made a big mistake.
Self-Regulation
How do you handle stressful situations?
How do you relax?
Tell me about a time when you got angry. What did you do?
When do you feel most under pressure?
How do you handle multiple demands?
How do you achieve work/life balance?
Motivation
What motivates you?
Why do you work?
How do you measure success? What results do you achieve?
Tell me about some challenging goals you have set?
How do you overcome obstacles and setbacks?
What do you do to stay up-to-date with industry developments?
Empathy
Describe a time when you had to deliver difficult news.
What do you do when someone comes to you with a problem?
Describe the people in your team and discuss what they need and how they feel.
Describe a time when understanding someone else’s perspective helped you understand them better.
What do you do to understand someone else’s behaviour?
How do you understand what your team members are feeling?
Social Skill
Tell me about a time when you needed to influence someone.
Describe a difficult issue you had to deal with.
Tell me about what you would do to gain respect as a new manager.
Tell me how you build networks within your company.
Work Life balance is essential for business success. With work/life balance you are more productive over longer periods of time. Because you have a more balanced perspective you spot opportunities that you may otherwise miss had you been over-worked and over-tired. We talk with many candidates and clients about workplace issues and understand what’s important to everyone. From these discussions, and my own experience, I’ve put together my Top 10 tips for Work Life Balance.
Tip number 10: Set goals, plan and prioritize:
Having clear goals makes life so much easier because you know where you are going, how to get there and you have more control. Without clear goals you can experience feelings of confusion and frustration and this can drain your energy and decrease your productivity.
A good technique is to decide what is important to you and then write it down. By actually writing it down your thinking is clearer and you are more likely to achieve the goal. In writing down the goals make sure that they are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. So instead of “becoming healthy” a SMART goal would be “to join a gym and go 3 days a week at 6 o’clock for 1 hour”. In thinking about your goals in this way you are more likely to achieve them.
Tip number 9: Have structure in place:
Work/Life balance is all about flexibility, but to have flexibility you need a solid structure around you – both at work and at home. Structure is important because it brings certainty to the world – you know what’s going to happen and why it’s going to happen. Without structure life is a bit more chaotic. You then find that you use both physical and emotional energy to bring meaning and clarity to different situations.
Structure also means having the right tools to work flexibly. To achieve work/life balance you need to be able to work from a variety of locations and at different times of the day. For this, laptops, mobile phones, remote access and flexible hours are important. To support flexibility the company needs to be well structured, with good support systems and needs to have an internal culture which supports flexible working arrangements.
Tip number 8: Practice good time management:
Central to good time management is to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time and for the right length of time. To be able to do this, its necessary to establish your priorities and then focus only on those tasks that advance important goals. Those goals that will bring in high pay-off results. Activities that absorb too much time should then be simplified, delegated or eliminated.
Good time management means focusing on results. It’s important to aim for excellence, but not necessarily for perfection. When you aim for excellence you will achieve an excellent result, but when you aim for perfection you may never quite get there. You will spend far too much time in getting it completely right, when excellent was all that was required.
A good time management technique is to make appointments – with both yourself and with others. In the workplace, making appointments with people and covering several topics is more time effective than constantly interrupting others with minor details. And the best time management technique is to “not to think about it” but to simply “get started”.
Tip number 7: Undertake training in the techniques required:
Everyone needs training to learn the operational techniques required for effective Work/Life balance. There are a number of books and courses on time management; goal setting; maximizing productivity; increasing effectiveness; negotiation, relaxation and stress management, and a range of providers for this training. A number of companies provide elements of this training however individuals have the responsibility to seek out this training if they are to achieve optimal Work/Life balance. The techniques are not rocket science but you need to be exposed to the methodology to gain maximum benefit.
Another important training aspect for a successful work/life balance is interpersonal skills training. Getting on with other people is a very necessary aspect of achieving work/life balance.
Tip number 6: Take holidays and long weekends:
Everyone needs a total break from the operational side of your role so that you can freshen your perspective on what needs to be done. It’s easy to tell yourself that you are indispensable and always need to be around. But if you’ve got good structure in place, with good support systems, you can take time off. I know people who when they go on holiday they take their mobiles, are in daily contact and will even leave their holiday earlier to deal with an urgent issue. They haven’t had a holiday, they’re not refreshed and when they need to be thinking optimally they are too tired and burnt out.
Tip number 5: Reward yourself:
Rewards are important because they are the something extra you have been working towards. So, after you have set your goals, and you’ve achieved them – take the reward.
In taking rewards a good technique is to focus on making money, not just saving money. There are many ways to make additional money, outside of work, such as buying and selling real estate, day trading on the share market, cleaning out your garage and having a sale, or commercializing a hobby. With the additional money you make you can afford the reward. A big part of Work/Life balance is feeling great about yourself, and what better way than to have lots of rewards.
So, reward yourself, both at work and at home. By doing this, everything will become more enjoyable. Take the small rewards and take the big rewards – you deserve it.
Tip number 4: Stay healthy:
It’s important to eat well, sleep well and exercise.
Occupational Health and Safety is an important component of staying healthy – and it’s as valid at home as it is at work. It’s important to have a good desk, a good chair, good lighting and not to fall over cables and at home it’s just as valid. Also a good bed is a must – because you spend so much time there.
Together with OH&S think about the times that you’ve put your back out when gardening or you’ve been moving house and lifting heavy furniture. It may seem that you’re saving money, but when you’re off work with a bad back – does it really seem worthwhile?
Medical check-ups are important and there are a range of healthcare professionals to provide a comprehensive service – from physiotherapy, massages through to aromatherapy and relaxation therapy. When working hard, all these services are valuable and cost-effective.
Tip number 3: Be positive, passionate and enthusiastic:
Mix with positive people and don’t accept negativity – either privately or professionally. See the opportunity, not the obstacle, and if you can’t see the positive side of any situation look harder, look longer and look at it differently. There’s always a positive spin.
Two great techniques are ‘positive self talk’ and ‘visualization’.
Instead of telling yourself you can’t do something and filling your mind with negative thoughts, think positively and tell yourself “I am a great person, I’m valuable, I’m good at what I do, everything is great, I’m excited about my work, my goals and my life.
Visualisation is a technique taught by a number of practitioners. It involves determining your end goal and actually seeing, feeling, touching and experiencing the emotion of the goal. In this way you have already achieved your goal because you are actually experiencing it. Everything that you do moving forward is therefore a natural step towards achieving something that you already own. Similarly, another technique taught in stress management is to visualize a particular place that is special to you. When you are feeling stressed, or awake at 3 in the morning, you go back to that space in your mind and start to feel much better.
Tip number 2: Love your Job:
Career development is a journey and with every journey it’s more enjoyable if you enjoy every stage. Enjoy the tasks, the people, the environment and the opportunities. You can maximize your enjoyment by undertaking a number of professional development courses. Your enhanced knowledge and understanding will increase your control and with this control you will achieve a better balance. So, to enhance your work/life balance it is so very important to enjoy what you do, or change what you do.
Top number 1: Love your life:
Again, enjoy the journey, everyday and in every possible way. You should only be doing those things that you want to do. Take control over your life, be true to yourself and never accept less than you want. Enrich yourself – socially, culturally and intellectually. Constantly focus on your personal development, achieve your goals and enjoy the journey.
What’s the ‘right stuff’ to be a leader? It’s more art than science as David Goleman describes in his article in Harvard Business Reviews 10 Must Reads1. Through his research he has found that the most effective leaders have a high degree of emotional intelligence. IQ and technical skills are important but mainly as ‘threshold capabilities’ ie they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions.
Without emotional intelligence a person can have a bright analytical mind and an endless supply of smart ideas but they still won’t make a great leader. Organisations are full of stories of highly intelligent, highly skilled executives who have been promoted into leadership positions only to fail at the job; and others with solid, but not extraordinary, intellectual abilities and technical skills, who have been promoted into similar positions only to soar.
Goleman’s research focused on how emotional intelligence operates at work. He examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective performance within the areas of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.
In his research Goleman analysed 188 companies to determine which personal capabilities drove outstanding performance. He grouped the capabilities into three categories: purely technical skills like business planning; cognitive abilities like analytical reasoning and competencies demonstrating emotional intelligence such as the ability to work with others and effectiveness in leading change.
On analysing performance data it was shown that emotional intelligence played an increasingly important role at the highest levels of a company where differences in technical skills were of negligible importance.
1. Self-awareness
Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and drives. People with strong self-awareness are honest with themselves and with others. They are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. They recognize how their feelings affect them, other people and their job performance.
People with high self-awareness are candid and have an ability to assess themselves realistically. They are able to speak accurately and openly about their emotions and the impact they have on their work.
Self-awareness can be identified during performance reviews. Self aware people know and are comfortable talking about their limitations and strengths and demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism. By contrast people with low self-awareness interpret the message that they need to improve as a threat or a sign of failure.
2. Self-regulation
The key to successful self-regulation is the ability to control or redirect impulses and moods together with the propensity to think before acting. Successful self-regulators still feel bad moods and emotional impulses, just as everyone else does, however they find ways to control them.
Self-regulation is important for leaders because people who are in control of their feelings and impulses (ie people who are reasonable) are able to create an environment of trust and fairness.
Self-regulation is important for competitive reasons. In today’s fast-moving and ever-changing business environment people who have mastered their emotions are able to roll with the changes. When a new initiative is announced they don’t panic. Instead they are able to suspend judgment, seek out information and listen to others.
Self-regulation also enhances integrity – both personal and organizational. Many bad actions that happen in companies are a function of impulsive behaviour. People don’t necessarily plan to lie, exaggerate, or misrepresent situations. When an opportunity presents itself people with low impulse control just say yes. By contrast people with high levels of self-regulation challenge impulses and build lasting relationships based on trust.
Leaders with emotional self-regulation therefore have a propensity for reflection and thoughtfulness; comfort with ambiguity and change; and integrity – an ability to say no to impulsive urges.
3. Motivation
Effective leaders are driven to achieve beyond expectations – their own and everyone else’s. Many people are motivated by external factors (big salaries, impressive titles, being part of a prestigious company) however those with leadership potential are motivated by a deeply embedded desire to achieve for the sake of achievement. These people have a passion for the work itself, they seek out creative challenges, they love to learn and they take great pride in a job well done. They are often restless with the status quo, want to do things better and are eager to explore new approaches to their work.
People who are driven to achieve are forever raising the performance bar. People who are driven to do better also want a way of tracking progress – their own, their team’s and their company’s.
Whereas people with low achievement motivation are often fuzzy about results, those with high achievement motivation often keep score by tracking such hard measures as KPIs, sales results and market share.
People with high motivation remain optimistic when situations are against them. In such cases self-regulation combines with achievement motivation to overcome the frustration and depression that come after a setback or failure.
Motivation to achieve translates into strong leadership. When leaders set the performance bar high for themselves they will do the same for the organization. Similarly a drive to surpass goals and an interest in keeping score can be contagious. Leaders with these traits can often build a team around them with the same traits.
4. Empathy
Empathy means thoughtfully considering employee’s feelings, along with other factors, in the process of making intelligent decisions. It doesn’t mean adopting other people’s emotions as one’s own and trying to please everybody – because that would make action impossible.
Leaders with empathy understand the emotional make-up of people – they know what their people are feeling. People with empathy are attuned to subtleties in body language – they can hear the message beneath the words being spoken.
In today’s team based business environment empathy is an important component of leadership. Within teams a leader must be able to sense and understand the view points of everyone in the group and to encourage them to speak openly about their feelings.
5. Social Skill
Social skill is not just a matter of friendliness, rather social skill is friendliness with a purpose – moving people in the direction you desire.
Socially skilled people tend to have a wide circle of acquaintances and they find common ground with people of all kinds. It doesn’t mean that they socialize continually but it does mean that they work according to the assumption that nothing important gets done alone. Such people have a network in place when the time for action comes.
Social skill is the culmination of the other dimensions of emotional intelligence. People tend to be very effective at managing relationships when they can understand and control their own emotions and can empathize with the feelings of others.
Socially skilled people are adept at managing teams. They are expert persuaders – a manifestation of self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy combined. Good persuaders know when to make an emotional plea and when an appeal to reason will work better. Motivation makes such people excellent collaborators – their passion for the work spreads to others and they are driven to find solutions.
Socially skilled people may at times appear not to be working at work. They are chatting in the corridors with colleagues or joking around with people who are not even connected to their ‘real jobs’ Socially skilled people don’t think that it makes sense to arbitrarily limit the scope of their relationships. They build bonds widely because they know that in these fluid times they may need help someday from people they are just getting to know today.
Social skill is a key leadership capability. Leaders need to manage relationships effectively. A leader’s task is to get work done through other people and social skill makes that possible.
Summary
In summary, successful leaders have highly developed emotional intelligence. They have self awareness – they know their strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and impact on others. They have self-regulation – they control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. They have motivation – they relish achievement for its own sake. They have empathy – they understand other people’s emotional make-up. And they have social skill – they build rapport with others to move them in desired directions.
These first three components of emotional intelligence are self-management skills. The last two – empathy and social skill, concern a person’s ability to manage relationships with others. Successful leaders strengthen these abilities through persistence, practice and feedback. Emotional intelligence can be learned. The process is not easy. It takes time and commitment.
1. Notes from “What Makes a Leader?”. Daniel Goleman. HBRs 10 Must Reads. The Essentials. Harvard Business Review Press. 2011.
During interviews one question candidates are often asked is “Tell me about you”. Good and bad examples of responses to this question can be seen on our YouTube site at www.youtube.com/pmpconnect
A good example would involve the candidate saying something like:
“I've got 5 years experience as a pharmaceutical sales rep and in my current role I’m responsible for both a city and a country territory where I promote our number 1 cardiovascular product. During a typical day I call on GPs and discuss our clinical trial results and also answer any questions they may have about our products.
Here the candidate is capturing the interviewer’s attention by starting with the most relevant point. They continue with:
“During my calls I seek to understand what's important to the doctor by asking him questions. I ask him how's he treating his patients, how they are responding, and what side effects they're experiencing from taking the various drugs. From his answers I refer to our medical literature and by doing this I show him why our product gives a better result to the patient. During my visit I've got specific objectives like getting the doctor to switch patients to our product and, if we've got one coming up, I'll invite him to an evening educational seminar.
At this stage of the interview the interviewer is likely to ask “Tell me more about why you're a successful sales rep” and the candidate continues with “I'm successful because I build great relationships with my doctors and I always try to understand their needs. I can discuss complex clinical data in ways which are both interesting and useful to the doctor. I have excellent time management and organization skills and this helps me to manage my territory effectively. And I enjoy being on the road by myself and also being part of a larger team where we can share ideas.
With this response the candidate is stating behaviour relevant to the position for which they are applying.
Probing for additional information the interviewer then asks: “How would your manager describe you” and the candidate responds with:
“As a friendly and hard-working person who enjoys getting results. She may also mention that I’ve been one of the top 3 sales achievers over the last 2 years. My manager would also say that I'm a great team player, I'm reliable, I've got great communication skills, I’m comfortable with speaking in front of groups and that I can develop relationships with a whole range of people.”
Here the candidate is sharing qualities which are useful for the position whilst highlighting relevant awards.
The interviewer may then probe on a specific point to obtain more detail by asking: “Tell me more about how you develop relationships with people”.
The candidate could then respond with: “I'll ask them questions and I'll listen to what they say. I'll try to find out what's important to them and why it's important. When it's appropriate I'll talk about myself and we'll share stories. So for example when a doctor asks me for more information, I clarify what he wants, and I get the right information to him quickly. We'll then have a discussion about how he'll be treating his patients
To the same question: “Tell me about you" some candidates may respond by saying:
“Do you want to know about me as a person, or do you want to know about my sales experience”. This response will likely irritate the interviewer because their question has not been directly answered.
The candidate continues with “About work, I’ve got a medical sales background, sort of medical sales. Some of the products we sold in pharmacies so I suppose that’s medical. I always wanted to get into medical sales, so a friend introduced me to a neighbour who was in sales for a pharmaceutical company. It sounded interesting and I thought, well why not”. A rambling answer like this shows that the candidate is unprepared, and continuing with “So I applied for lots of jobs and eventually some unlucky person hired me” shows lack of confidence.
At this stage the interviewer will probe for more information and will ask: “Tell me more about why you like being a sales rep and what type of role you are looking for?” and the candidate continues with:
“I like being out and about, talking with lots of people. I love sales. I really do. I'm a natural sales person because I get on with all sorts of people. Sales is in my blood. Just ask anyone. Well, I’m looking for a job which will suit my abilities. If this medical sales job isn’t right for me I’d be keen to discuss any other roles you may have that would be suitable for my skills”.
The lack of detail in this response will annoy the interviewer and being unclear on what you want shows lack of commitment.
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