Category Performance Management

Just like financial investments, each day you make time investment choices that determine the course of your life. The problem is, it’s not until we hone in on where our time is going that we realize something’s not adding up.

The 80/20 dilemma

Have you ever heard that 20% of your problems take up 80% of your time?

It’s the same with people.

One of the most frustrating parts of my job as a supervisor was time spent dealing with “bad apples.”

One time that sticks out was when I had to deal with two back-to-back “BIG UGLY’ HR issues.

To give you perspective (and maintain confidentiality), both “issues” involved a glut of lawyers, HR managers, risk-managers, top-level executives, and their boss, who just happened to be me.

I was frustrated. I wanted to focus my time investment on people who were not in trouble.

Countless hours are spent, even wasted, worrying about, and dealing with these problems.

Don’t forget the mental space lost by having these issues play on your mind. More importantly, those are the same hours you could have spent investing in those who need – and deserve – your time.

Rethink your time investment

Imagine what could have been accomplished if all of those resources wasted on the bad apples could have been invested in high potential people.

Everyone on my team knew about the conduct of these two people. Most thought they had been unfairly getting away with something for a long time. The big surprise was that the matter had finally been dealt with.

As leaders, it is our job to deal with issues and problems.

But, when issues and problems threaten strategic goals and team dynamics, what is the cost to the organization and our people?

(Click here to read about the high cost of poor leadership.)

On reflection, three things come to mind:

1. Don’t overthink things. Manage the risk and get rid of the problem as fast as you can.
2. People are not stupid. They often know more about what is going on than you do.
3. Keep your eye on your goals. Invest time in those who can help you get there.

Now, take each of these three points and apply them to how you make your own time investment decisions.

Speaking of time, invest three minutes in this article right now to learn what to discuss with your team to create a lifetime of positive change (for everyone).

How to make better time investments

If you ask me, the first step to making investments simply begins with being conscious of where and what you invest.

When it comes to a time investment, you’ll want to consider if you’re making the best possible use of that time.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I spending time on things and people that help me reach my goals?
• Am I making the best possible use of my time?
• Will this action move me/my organization closer to the desired result?
• What kind of ROI am I getting for my time? Does it make sense?

Remember, you wouldn’t choose a handful of stocks to invest in without doing your research to determine your odds of getting the best ROI. The same should go for your time. Make a conscious effort to focus your time investment on the things, people, and tasks that need it most.

(Don’t miss these three other questions to ask before you waste time, money, and people!)

Did you learn a lot from this post on time investment? Don’t miss these ones either:

5 Tools That Helped Me Survive a Workplace Bully (Guest post)
80% Of Projects Fail Because Of ‘People’ Issues … Here Are 6 Things You Can Do To Reduce That Risk
People Pleasing Leaders & Soup Sandwiches – 5 Messes You Make When You Try to Make Everyone Happy

This article was originally published in 2014. It was updated in 2020 just for you!

Have you, as a leader, established a culture of safety in the workplace?

Leadership is not a position.

It is an attitude – management is the position.

One has nothing to do with the other.

Safety, too, is an attitude.

What is a culture of safety?

A culture of safety is a state of mind and a way of living your life. Safety is the result. Safety is the choice in every moment of every day.

Those with a safety leadership attitude who promote a culture of safety will choose to do the job safely at every moment.

Companies are waking up to the fact that people who blindly follow orders on a job site still get hurt. But safety leaders who choose safety in every moment save themselves from harm by the choices they make.

In the workplace, a culture of safety is quickly becoming a coveted element in any organization.

Developing a culture of safety

Here are the 7 cultural traits an organization with a culture of safety performers will possess:

Honesty

This comes wrapped in accountability and responsibility.

Any attempt to deflect accountability negates honesty. Honesty is the trait that allows leaders to be vulnerable and accept that they don’t know everything. You can fix what you don’t know, but you can’t fix what you cover-up. Honesty is a willingness to be who you are and make no excuses for it. Values and core beliefs are tied to honesty.

One of those core beliefs will be promoting a culture of safety and self-preservation.

Want to talk more about honesty? Please take a look at this post, where I discuss moral courage as a leadership characteristic.

Communication

This is the key to keeping yourself and others safe on a job site.

If no one is talking, then no one is listening. When no one is listening, instructions get missed, and people get hurt. Communication doesn’t happen by scolding or by lectures. People don’t respond well to scolding and being lectured. Communication involves conversation. People engage themselves in conversation.

When they are engaged, they are paying attention.

For more on communicating with your people, take a look at how to Improve Your Conversations By Not Talking – 3 Tips You Can Start Using Today.

Confidence

Anyone working without it is a prime candidate to get hurt. Some work is simply intimidating. And when a worker lacks confidence in performing the job, others are put at risk. When a worker is continuously scolded, they will lose their trust.

Lack of confidence is a distraction.

Setbacks happen on every job site. When a setback occurs, people turn to those who display confidence and an “I’ve got this” attitude–all commitment to a culture of safety.

Commitment

It’s perhaps the most contagious of all traits.

Working alongside those without the commitment to the job is tenuous. Knowing that a co-worker could quit at any moment leaves workers unsure and confidence on the job site wanes.

But when you are surrounded by those who have a deep-seated commitment to the job, it brings a sense of peace and sureness about doing the job safely. Commitment means to focus, and when workers are focused, they will act safely.

Positive Attitude

Regardless of whatever adversity you may face, your attitude is critical.

A positive attitude is what turns someone’s debilitating roadblock into a temporary setback that is easily overcome. People focused on the worst attract the worst. People who can find the silver lining will emerge as victors. They see what needs doing and take action instead of wallowing in fear. A positive, supportive worksite tends to attract those who will contribute to it.

Speaking of positivity, here are three 3-minute articles to discuss with your team to create a lifetime of positive change (for everyone).

Intuition

When you are plugged into your surroundings, you can see what is coming and prepare for it.

There is a quiet confidence in merely “knowing” what is about to happen. You can prepare yourself and those around you. You can address issues before they become issues. The tough decisions are easy to decide when you can depend on your gut instinct for answers.

Learning to trust yourself is as essential as your team learning to trust you.

Sense of Humour

There is no reason safety can’t be fun.

The benefits of being safe are happy and joyful. So why can’t we laugh on the job site?

There is little reason to laugh when you don’t feel confident, lack commitment, or frequently face safety issues. But when you and your workmates have a sense of self, have confidence, excellent communication, and a great attitude, there’s no reason that you can’t have fun at work.

Humour allows people to settle into their work comfortably.

Establishing a culture of safety is the new Leadership.

Start by looking for these seven traits in yourself and your teammates.

And if you want to talk about Leadership and a culture of safety at your next safety meeting, I can help.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check these out, too:

5 Steps You Can Use To Build a “First Team” Mindset
80% Of Projects Fail Because Of ‘People’ Issues … Here Are 6 Things You Can Do To Reduce That Risk
People Pleasing Leaders & Soup Sandwiches – 5 Messes You Make When You Try to Make Everyone Happy

This article was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated.

A client once told me her supervisor had asked if she needed anything to help her accomplish her job. She said, “No, but every once in awhile it would be nice to hear thank you and receive a little recognition for doing good work.”

Her supervisor told her, “We don’t say ‘thank you’ or ‘good job’ because it demotivates staff and makes them complacent.”

Really?

I worked with some of the most hard-nosed soldiers the Canadian Army ever produced. When they gave you an “attaboy,” it was a great day.

I remember working so hard on a patrol that even the insides of my eyelids were sweating. Everything was running like clockwork. My section accomplished our mission and returned to headquarters to brief the bosses.

My Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) was in the briefing and never once broke his stony expression. The look on his face could have scared the snakes off of Medusa’s head. I had no idea what was in store for me. But after the briefing, the RSM took me aside and said, “Nice work.” It was a terrific feeling.

People want and need recognition beyond their compensation package. No one deserves to be taken for granted. Some people need their ego stroked, some need a quiet touch on the shoulder, and some need to be publicly honoured.

Just be careful not to give platitudes.

The leadership skills of the manager may be the most important factor in achieving desired results. And two of the most difficult tasks in dealing with employees are praising and reprimanding.

Giving Credit and Recognition

“If you tell a Hun he is doing a good job when he isn’t, he will not listen long and, worse, will not believe praise when it is justified.” —Attila the Hun

Even Attila the Hun had it figured out.

Human beings crave recognition.

Recognition helps to satisfy this desire and gives the person being commended inspiration and renewed enthusiasm. As Attila the Hun warns, some people hand out so much praise that it loses its significance.

Praise should be kept for the extra effort and really good performance, not just for doing what is expected.

To be an effective manager, you should know that people do better in a positive environment of acceptance and understanding.

To use praise effectively:

• Give credit when it is due.
• Be specific about the reason for the recognition.
• Be sincere.
• Ask the advice of your people. The most sincere form of praise is accepting someone’s advice and suggestions. If you can’t accept a suggestion, you should provide a diplomatic explanation why.

On top of giving recognition where it’s due, part of being a great leader means having emotional intelligence.

Here’s how to increase it.

Taking Corrective Action

On the other hand, good leadership and management often require an employee be called to account for making mistakes, or for work or personal factors related to the job.

Here’s a refresher on how to reprimand someone.

Do:

• Time the reprimand properly. As a rule, the reprimand should be administered as soon after the offence as possible.
• Reprimand the person in private, never in the presence of others.
• Begin the reprimand with a question based on the facts, not an accusation.
• Take nothing for granted. Give the employee a chance to tell the entire story.
• Listen.
• Give constructive advice. Leave with a feeling that no resentment has been incurred and that a positive plan of action has been developed to correct the problem.

Don’t:

• Reprimand someone when you are emotionally upset.
• Interrupt the person’s story or anticipate a particular response.
• Get manoeuvred into an argument.
• Nag. Once the issue is settled, forget it unless there are signs of it being repeated.
• Compare the employee to other people. Always compare to a company standard.

The golden rule of corrective action is that the emphasis should always be on the error being corrected or the offence committed—never, never, never on the person who is being reprimanded.

How and When to Take Corrective Action

It’s easy to commend your people for good work and give recognition where it’s due. Doing so is often a great pleasure to a leader.

But to correct a fault, provide a reprimand, or terminate an employee for poor performance takes courage.

In my career, I have had to do too much of that kind of HR “dirty work.”

But I draw the courage to do so from the knowledge that the employee has been treated fairly and has been provided with every opportunity to improve.

How Do You Measure Up When It Comes to Recognition?

Read each statement or question below.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “never” and 5 meaning “always,” mark an “X” where you think you are today on each measure, and then mark an “O” where you would like to be.

You involve people in a creative climate in which they feel free to participate.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You understand that people don’t behave in uniform ways, and you take into consideration the personal makeup of each individual.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You have accurate, objective ways to assess the performance of your people.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You hold regular interviews with people to stimulate them to achieve desired results and coach, guide, train, and counsel them on a goal-oriented basis.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You train people to take corrective action when desired results are not forthcoming.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You take corrective action quickly when deviations from desired results and performance occur.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You show proper appreciation to staff when they merit it.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

You do not ignore mistakes, but you don’t dwell on minor ones.
1 —– 2 —–3 —– 4 —– 5

Areas for Improvement

So, how did you measure up? Could you use a little help with giving recognition and corrective action? I can help.

From being a better leader, to building a stronger team, my one-on-one coaching helps leaders prioritize their work, streamline communications, and gain the confidence they need to become truly motivational leaders for strong teams.

Get in touch today to find out how we can work together.

Did you enjoy this article? Be sure to check these out, too:

The High Cost of Poor Leadership
10 Signs You Have a Scary Boss
People Pleasing Leaders & Soup Sandwiches – 5 Messes You Make When You Try to Make Everyone Happy

This article was originally published in 2018, and it’s been updated just for you.

You would have thought I would have been smarter!

I was hired as the Chief Administrative Offer for a small town in Canada’s arctic.

During the hiring process, I specifically asked about labour relations and organizational health & culture. “Don’t worry,” I was assured, “we have a great team.”

Read about a new boss as an organizational change

I should have recognized the lie and I later found out I was hired to solve problems.

The organization was top-heavy with 7 Directors for a team of 25, and the residents had unmet needs. Stories about missed opportunities and hints of a toxic culture had drifted upward to the Mayor and Town Council.

All those factors had prompted the decision to replace the out-going CAO with someone from the outside, and I seemed to fit the bill. I had a record of accomplishments in leadership, turning around broken teams and implementing wholesale changes in business models.

But in taking on this new role, I faced a common challenge: I didn’t get to handpick the people who would be working with me.

Rather, I inherited the team that had created the situation I was hired to fix.

It was like fixing a plane in midflight.

You can’t just shut down the plane’s engines while you rebuild them—at least not without causing a crash. You need to maintain stability while moving ahead.

I needed a framework for taking over this team to:

• Assess the human capital and group dynamics they have inherited;
• To reshape the team according to the organization’s goals; and
• Accelerate performance.

Read about surviving the first 90-days as a new boss

What Qualities Are You Looking For?

Like most leaders, you may have a “gut” sense of what you look for in people.

But different situations and challenges call for different strengths.

This exercise will help you better understand and articulate your priorities when you take on a new team.

Assign percentages to the qualities below, according to how much emphasis you think each should receive, given your current circumstances and goals. Make sure the numbers in the right column add up to 100.

Those numbers will be rough, of course. For some team members (say, your head of finance), competence may be the top priority; for others (say, your head of marketing), energy or people skills may be equally or more critical. The importance of the role and the state of the business may also affect your estimates.

Your requirements will depend partly on the state of the business. In a turnaround, you will seek people who are already up to speed—you won’t have time to focus on skill-building until things are more stable.

If you are trying to sustain a team’s success, however, it probably makes sense to develop high potentials, and you will have more time to do so.

To conduct this assessment, hold a mix of one-on-one and team meetings, supplemented with input from key stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and colleagues outside the team.

Also, look at team members’ individual track records and performance evaluations.

Depending on your style, these meetings might be informal discussions, formal reviews, or a combination, regardless you should approach them in a standard way.

Then What?

Prepare.

Review available personnel history, performance data, and appraisals. Familiarize yourself with each person’s skills. Observe how team members interact. Do relations appear cordial and productive? Tense and competitive?

Create an interview template.

Ask people the same questions and see how their insights vary. For example, What are the strengths and weaknesses of our existing strategy? What are our biggest challenges and opportunities in the short term? In the medium term? What resources could we leverage more effectively? How could we improve the way the team works together?

And my favourite question … If you were in my position, what would you do to make things better?

Read about using silence to talk

Look for verbal and nonverbal clues.

Notice what people say and don’t say. Do they volunteer information, or do you have to work for it? Do they take responsibility for problems, make excuses, or point fingers at others? Look for inconsistencies between people’s words and body language, this can signal dishonesty or distrust of management.

Pay attention to topics that elicit strong emotions, this provides clues to what motivates people and what kinds of changes would energize them.

Summarize and share what you learn.

After you’ve interviewed everyone, discuss your findings with the team. This will demonstrate that you are coming up to speed quickly. If your feedback highlights differences of opinion or raises uncomfortable issues, you’ll also have a chance to observe the team under a modest amount of stress. Watching how people respond may lead to valuable insight into team culture and power dynamics.

Reshaping the Team

The next task is to reshape the team within the constraints of the organization’s culture, the leader’s mandate, and the available talent.

You want people to be able to share information freely, identify and deal with conflict swiftly, solve problems creatively, support one another, and present a unified face once decisions are made.

Composition.

The most obvious way to reshape a team is to replace underperformers and anyone whose capabilities are not a good match for the situation.

But this can be difficult culturally and politically, and in many cases, it’s simply not possible.

Spend the first few months observing employees in critical roles who clearly cannot do the work, or for truly toxic personalities that are undermining the enterprise.

Alignment.

Ensure everyone has a clear sense of purpose and direction.

To get everyone aligned, the team must agree on answers to four basic questions:

1. What will we accomplish? You spell this out in your mission, goals, and key metrics.
2. Why should we do it? Here is where your vision statement and incentives come into play.
3. How will we do it? This includes defining the team’s strategy in relation to the organization’s, as well as sorting out the plans and activities needed for execution.
4. Who will do what? People’s roles and responsibilities must support all of the above.

Get your team discussion guide here

Accelerate Development

Energize team members with some early wins.

Start by setting challenging goals for the next three months. Specify the work involved and who was accountable for it, and develop messages to share your team’s successes.

Once the team had those successes in place, it kept building on them.

The result is a cycle of achievement and confidence.

I recently read a terrific article on www.fastcompany.com by Lydia Dishman. She writes we all probably talk too much. She notes humans, being social animals, use communication to survive and thrive. This would not be a problem except for the fact 60% of our conversation is spent talking about ourselves.

Sadly, few of us are interesting enough to keep others that engaged 60% of the time. How Do we:

• Keep people engaged?
• Get the information we need out of them?
• Get our message across?

… By using Silence.

Silence is an unlikely source of power. With Silence, we can hear what is being said but also what is not being said. With Silence, it can be easier to reach the truth.

Use one of these tips to use Silence to improve your conversation skills:

1. When someone has answered a question, pause.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum and rushes to fill it, most people cannot stand Silence, and they will quickly fill those silent parts of a conversation with talk. You will learn the most remarkable things if you just let people talk.

Everyday immigration officers prove this at the border. They ask a question, you answer, and then they go quiet and look at you. Most people prattle on about their trip, how much extra booze or smokes they have brought home, or they fidget and give off body language that says to the officer that they are hiding something.

2. Are you losing control of a conversation? Ask a question and shut up.

Studies have shown that a person can think twice as fast as they can talk. So when you need to buy yourself some time, ask an open-ended question and allow the person to answer.

Invest that time they are talking into thinking the issue through to move the conversation towards the outcome you want.

3. When someone asks you a question, pause silently.

 Nobody likes a know-it-all. When you answer too quickly, people think you have not truly considered their question. Even if you are 100% sure of the answer… Pause. Then answer.

You are showing respect for the other person by appearing to consider what was asked and thoughtfully responding.

Click here to read about walking the talk.

If you are spending all day filling the Silence with your voice, you are, in effect, answering your questions. If you are answering your questions all day, who else is working?

Use the power of Silence—no matter how long—until someone gives you the answer you need, and the people on the other half of the conversation will feel empowered and valued.

Then, they will begin to lead themselves.

If you are soon to take over a ‘new-to-you’ department or organization, I expect you are feeling pretty good about yourself.

I know I always did.

Whenever I was taking on a new team, I’d thought about what I wanted to be as a leader, what I wanted my legacy to be, and how we would be successful.

Our experiences define what kind of leader we will be and how we will operate.

I now look back on my leadership growth, and I think about what I got right and wrong.

In hindsight, I have two observations on the role of a front line and middle manager.

1. What got you here won’t get you further.

To get to lead a team, you have had to prove you were successful with those jobs that came before.

But simply applying what you learned in those jobs isn’t enough to make you successful at the next level.

Remember that what you’ve learned so far won’t automatically make you a great boss

2. Beware of doing the job of your subordinates.

At this point in your career, you’d make a great team leader.

You’d undoubtedly be the best front-line supervisor in your company.

But that’s not your job.

If you try and make it your job to be great at your subordinates’ jobs, you’ll fail.

They won’t grow, and you won’t be able to do your actual job.

Three Differences

Don’t throw your experience out of the window but understand that being a senior leader has differences from your previous roles.

Success is about understanding those differences and acting accordingly.

These are the three differences that I observed and have reflected on:

1. Define success

Your new role offers an unprecedented level of freedom to get to define success.

When your people complete a task with a glance of an eye, you can deliver instant and visceral feedback.

So how you define success is critical and powerful. 

Your criteria for success should include a combination of performing your mission, developing your people and building your team.

Even more importantly, it should have medium- and long-term elements.

Measuring success is about how your team performs during your tenure, and whether or not you leave it in a better place than when you found it.

How you will define success will have a significant effect on your organization.

Read about success

2. Set the culture deliberately

Once you know what your ‘success’ looks like, you can set about creating the culture that will deliver it.

This is a deliberate act.

When you are planning those ‘team cohesion’ events, make sure they are underpinning the stories and messages at the heart of the culture you are trying to build.

For me, it was about being an inclusive, learning and improving organization that unlocked people’s potential to better the whole organization and not just your part of it.

Decide what culture you want then set about reinforcing it as a series of deliberate actions.

3. It’s different now, so communicate differently

For everything I’ve said above, the most significant difference between an organizational leader and being a frontline leader is about how you communicate.

You should be able to remember the faces and names of all of your employees.

But you will have a tiny amount of direct influence over your people will be face to face.

Now you will have to project your leadership through you’re the people on your leadership team.

This means that when you interact with your leadership team, you must always think about the effect of that interaction on your front line people.

They won’t hear you.

They will hear someone’s interpretation of what you said and feel the effect of your message, not the words.

Similarly, the face to face interactions you have with those outside the team will be less regular but more significant.

You will touch people’s lives less often, but the fingerprints you leave will be much deeper.

The most junior employees will remember what you did and how you made them feel infinitely more than anything you said.

Read about nail polish & coloured pencils

Enjoy the ride

As a leader, you have no choice but to lead through others.

It’s also where you gain autonomy.

These are what define its difference.

Understanding culture and communication is important to every leader.

Defining where the team is going and then creating the environment in which your people can get there is a significant part of your job.

It is all underpinned by consistent, constant communication that is designed for second-order effects.

There is, of course, much more than this.

Nor did I got everything right.

I missed opportunities.

I  controlled when I should have loosened the reigns.

When things went right, it was because I had given my people the freedom to use their initiative and rectify my mistakes.

When I got angry I always regretted it.

My biggest regrets are from when I didn’t look after my people as well as I should have done.

That said, it was a wonderful experience, and I would recommend you enjoy the ride.