Team Building Archives - Time For. . .

Who’s Driving Your Bus?

7th November 2017

In short, if it isn’t you, yourself, then it flippen well should be. Let me explain…

Too many people feel that life conspires against them. Circumstances have merged in order to stagnate their self-development, or halt their career, or ‘put on ice’ some personal ambition. For some, for sure, at times, yes life can be very much like this. I don’t dispute that. We all have moments, days, weeks… when things beyond our control (‘uncontrollables’) occur, & we have to deal with it the best we can. But for many of us, the bulk of the time, we are who we are, or where we are, because of the decisions we’ve made in the past. The things we have chosen to do, or chosen not to do.

Whether you are a leader, a manager or just (hmm – don’t like that word – no-one is ever just ‘just’) part of a team, what you do with your time, & how you present yourself & your ideas, can have a big impact on those around you, the journey you are on, & your final destination.

What I am saying is that there is so much around & in front of you that falls into a category that I would call, ‘controllables’. These are things that you can, through choice, have a direct, positive impact upon. As opposed to an arm’s length, negative, lukewarm, mediocre at best, excuse for not trying your hardest or being the best version of yourself there is. If you want to achieve anything meaningful you should be seeking ways that take you closer to the point of success. People who are successful often will find the right route through hard work, whilst those who fail to achieve greater things usually, early on in the process, only find an excuse. I can hear these ‘reasons to fail before we even start’, right now as I type: “It’s too difficult”; “My boss won’t agree to change the way we do things”; “The system is against me”; “I’m not any good at this”; “I’m scared that it all goes wrong & I look stupid”.

Seriously! If you really want something that bad, you will find a way, or at the very least put in the hours & give it a darn good try. “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse” (Jim Rohn, American Entrepreneur). If all you do find is an excuse, then you possibly just didn’t want it bad enough. In which case, don’t complain about it. It was your choice not to push yourself harder, or step outside your comfort zone. Accept responsibility for your own decision not to pursue it fully. But don’t kid yourself on & don’t blame it in someone else. Where you are at, is down to you, & you alone. Now that may be good enough for you, & there is most definitely no sin in being happy with your lot.

But what if you are feeling that you could be doing better. Well, take a long look in the mirror & give yourself a good kick up the behind & change your attitude & your approach. Once you change, you may very well find that things around you begin to change also. Positive things begin to happen. Big steps, small steps – but all heading further than what would be the case if you hadn’t accepted self-responsibility. So, get on board the bus, but don’t be a passenger. Take an active role, & get in the driving seat. Get that idea, or project, or new personal goal on the road. Find a way, not an excuse.

Beware – The Time Terrorist

23rd February 2017

When it comes to work-related difficulties with a team member, more often than not, the person falls into one of two camps. Firstly, you may have someone who is trying really hard to perform at the level required, but for some reason they just aren’t able to deliver. They are not a bad person – they may just need more coaching, or, ultimately, they may just not be suited to that role. Within this broad category, granted there can be a vast range of potential challenges. And then, secondly, there are those who, just by their very nature, go to extraordinary lengths to be obstructive against what the business requires of them. They seem to lose sight of the fact that they are paid to be productive; not to spend their time plotting against their manager’s requests or business goals. It’s this latter group that I want to focus on here. Thankfully they don’t occur that often, but when they do – oh my word, they can cause a whole team to go totally off the rails.

“My boss calls them, Time Terrorists”, a team manager recently told me. “They take up so much managerial effort that you are disabled from giving other, more valuable and more deserved members of your team a fair apportionment of your quality time.” My reply was, “Well your boss describes them perfectly. That just sums it up in so many ways.” So let’s now explore, briefly, what we mean.

First of all, as a manager you only have so much time to devote to getting the job done. Even if you take work home and graft all weekend, there are only limited hours in any week when you can interact directly with your people, and therefore coach them, assist with technical queries, encourage and motivate them etc. etc. It’s challenging enough trying to fit all of this around your other responsibilities, including the tasks handed down to you from your own boss. And then, BANG!, someone in your team, not for the first, or even the second time, starts going ‘full steam’ down a road whereby they are requiring so much more of your attention than either they warrant, or is proportionate to the issue raised. All of a sudden, all of that valuable quality team time disappears down a sink hole, from which there appears to be no escape.

It may be a fairly straight forward change in someone’s duties that has resulted in them becoming, once again, awkward. You end up having to manage the person’s expectations, take time to try and enable them to see that the change is not as bad as they are perceiving, and deal with fallout as it creeps across other team members. It sucks you up. And not just during work time! You go home and you spend time reflecting over what is going on. It frustrates you that there could be lots of positive things happening for others in the team, had the Time Terrorist not decided to once again push things beyond what would be normally acceptable. I am, most definitely, not saying that an employee should never raise concerns, or challenge their boss or the business. In many respects that’s part of the manager’s role to deal with such occurrences. But in reality these instances are rare per capita.

Call me old fashioned, but we get paid to work because our employer needs a job done. We don’t get paid to create a conveyor belt, taking people off on unproductive tangents, and creating even more work for someone else. Then in doing so, the very reason for our jobs existing in the first place is still sitting in the backlog, and adding even more pressure on our team mates as they are left making up the shortfall created by the “It’s all about me” campaign.

So what can be done about it? Well let’s first consider the perspective from someone who is on the verge of being a Time Terrorist themselves. Think about why are they at work, and what are they expected to achieve. Think about the impact on all of those around them. It’s not just the management or the business that will suffer, but also those team members who are supposedly their colleagues. Are they really being fair to everyone, and are they really doing themselves any justice? They need to get some perspective. Rise above it, and take one for the team. Tomorrow someone else may be getting asked to do something that will make their life easier. After all, they are here to work – so get on with it! It’s not supposed to be ‘full on’ fun, or filled with personal preferences. If it was, it would be called ‘leisure’ and they wouldn’t be getting paid for it! Now that would be something to moan about!

What about if you are the manager? OK, you need to be fair to all of your team, and balance that against what the business needs you to deliver. At times certain team members will warrant more of your attention than others. Your team is full of people, and they all have ups and downs along the road of life. So think long and hard. Is this really a ‘Time Terrorist’ you are dealing with, or is it just someone having a bad day? If it is the latter, then part of your role is to manage what’s in front of you. You have to be as supportive as the business allows you to be, and as considerate as the situation requires. Conversely, a ‘Time Terrorist’ is someone whose very character and regular approach (i.e. poor attitude) to their workplace, creates issues that vacuum up your time to the detriment of others and the business. Quite frankly, someone like this is of little value, if any at all, in your team. They are holding you all back, and it needs to be dealt with. The person should be made aware of their impact upon those around them, and they need to be given ample opportunity to develop their energy in more positive and productive ways. Ultimately, having tried as much as is ‘more than reasonable’ to improve the situation, if they can’t do this, then you may find yourself needing to raise the temperature somewhat. As managers we never want to go that far, but when faced with such scenarios, and in order to be fair to the business, and the rest of the team, you have no choice. In fact, if you don’t deal with it, it could be construed that you are inadvertently discriminating against the good people, as they struggle to get your time. Not that any of them would ever complain – they are too busy working on the backlog, and focusing on what they are getting paid to do! But they are the ones who really are deserving of your time and attention – BOOM!

Communicate – It’s Really That Simple

12th November 2016

As managers and project team leaders we reside over complex tasks and scenarios that need a considerable amount of thought, planning and ultimately, effective delivery. Despite all of this effort however, sometimes; somewhere; somehow; something goes wrong. And when it does, you need to get it fixed. But that is just the beginning, as you also (arguably more importantly) need to explore how to avoid a recurrence. Or indeed, many recurrences – hence why arguably more important.

So following on from the ‘incident’, you then investigate more thoroughly what went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again. Surprisingly, a huge percentage of the time when mishaps do occur they are caused, quite simply, due to poor communication, misdirected communication, or worse still, no communication at all. If you think about any failures in task delivery you have been involved with, I bet that the majority of time communication has been at the heart of what went wrong. Either that, or, at the very least, better or faster communication could have prevented or reduced the impact on those affected.

As a leader you should encourage (not strong enough Neil – this stuff is important. OK change ‘encourage‘ to ‘insist‘) your team to communicate everything they come across that could impact, not only upon their own responsibilities, but those around them and the project goals overall. And when they do come across things you need to be receptive to them telling you about it, as opposed to you creating an environment whereby they are apprehensive about doing so. Getting the communication right, at every level, means that life becomes so much simpler, as many avoidable mishaps are dealt with before they actually become a ‘mishap’ in the first place.

I once had someone in my own business saying to me; “Neil, all of this communication is wasted energy. Nothing bad ever happens!” “And why the blazes do you think that is?” was my response.

The Ideal Recruitment Choice

14th March 2016

When it comes to building a successful team within your business it is essential that you recruit the right people into the roles that need to be filled. In a previous blog (Feb 2015) I discussed the importance of ensuring that the people you employ are a ‘good fit’ for your business, and I suggested that this is probably the most important aspect to carefully consider, albeit the toughest one to measure during the selection process.

What, however, is the overall blend that ideally you are seeking to acquire when selecting new team members? As the Venn diagram displays, you are ideally looking for the candidate that first and foremost is a good fit for your team, and in addition has the suitable experience and the correct level of technical knowledge. Only when you have a potential employee who exhibits all of these characteristics, are you then faced with the ideal choice for the role. Of course there will be occasions when no-one satisfies all three areas, and you may be forced to choose someone who is less than ideal, or alternatively start the whole recruitment process again with a different approach.

So when faced with your next recruitment dilemma why not take the list of candidates and add them to your own version of the Venn diagram. Anyone who falls inside the overlap of all three areas surely has to be a serious contender. But for those who don’t, you would be wise to ensure that the successful candidate has been considered from a ‘good fit’ perspective (see blog dated 09 Feb 2015: Successful Recruitment Matrix).

Rude Manners: All Caught Up In The Net

4th January 2016

John is sitting at his desk. His colleague, Karen, has just passed the printer and noticed that he had earlier printed off a document that was still lying there. She decides to be nice (in fact she’s always nice!) and picks up the document and brings it over to his desk. Karen says, “I found this in the printer, realised it’s yours and thought I should bring it over. Oh, and by the way, you can help yourself to some cake. I brought it in because today it’s my birthday.” John is too busy to even raise his head, let alone say anything. He just ignores her as if she had not lifted a finger or said a word. Yes, you can relate to this type of behaviour. It’s something that occurs every day, in many offices. “STOP! What is he talking about? No it doesn’t. I have never seen anyone being that rude to someone they work with.”

Well I am going to challenge you. Just because you have never seen it, doesn’t mean that it never happens. Just because you never hear the one sided polite gesture, doesn’t mean that the rude silence has not occurred. Just because the other person is sitting at a screen in a different location, doesn’t mean that they don’t feel precisely the same way that ‘birthday cake’ Karen felt when John ignored her kindness. Yes, I am talking about how we communicate (or fail to!) with each other when using email, and for that matter, text and social media posts.

So let’s run the scenario again, but this time the two participants are in different offices (different businesses even). Karen sends John an email. It says something like: ‘Hi John. Found this extra piece of information that I thought you might find useful. All the best. Karen’. Moments later John receives the email, reads it and thinks to himself; ‘Yes that is useful’. He then forwards it on to his team and goes back to what he was doing. Karen meanwhile is still at her desk, and some hours later is thinking to herself: “Did he get my email?; Was it useful?; Maybe he’s on holiday; Is he annoyed with me about something?; Maybe he thinks I am interfering too much or that I am an idiot.”

Karen, you are not an idiot. John is the idiot, and apart from his lack of manners (not hugely different to the original example) he quite frankly doesn’t appreciate you or your thoughts. Or at least that is the impression he has firmly left you with today! It may not be the impression John intended, in fact he probably feels entirely the opposite towards Karen. But the lack of an appreciation of the impact of his actions (or in this case lack of action) means that he is unwittingly either causing confusion or harm, or at the very least not taking an opportunity to encourage effective behaviour from Karen in the future. Bad enough if Karen is a work colleague, but considerably more so if Karen is a customer or supplier to John’s business. As a professional, surely part of your role is to ensure that you don’t do anything that implies that you are not fully engaged with one of your customers, let alone making them feel, even momentarily, the way Karen is feeling.

An email is not really that different to a conversation, and as such you should consider this every time you receive one (OK, excluding junk mail etc.). If someone is communicating with you, how hard is it to quite simply ping back a ‘thanks’? One word that says so much. It says that you have received the email; that you value the part the person is playing in the wider process; that you are happy to treat them as your equal; that you are appreciative. If they came up to your desk with the information would you not say ‘thanks’? Would it be acceptable to ignore them on that occassion, using the excuse that you were far too busy to acknowledge their existence? I very much doubt it. So, just because it’s an email, don’t ‘not do it’ just because you can’t see them, and all around you can’t see what’s happening. Stay professional, and focus on portraying the best possible image of the business you are representing whilst dealing with its customers and suppliers.

Who’s Driving Your Bus?

Beware – The Time Terrorist

Communicate – It’s Really That Simple

The Ideal Recruitment Choice

Rude Manners: All Caught Up In The Net

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