Use This Powerful Process to Empower Your Team
to Solve Problems on Their Own

How do you empower your team to solve more problems on their own?

In today’s Asking for a Friend from the PMI Rochester conference, David shares our very popular “9 What’s” coaching methodology to empower better decision-making and problem-solving. Read the original article here. 

The following nine questions will empower your team and help you to free up your own time and increase your team’s ability to think and problem-solve on their own.

9 Important Questions to Empower Your Team

Goal

1. What is your goal?

Start here to check for understanding and ensure that the team member has a good grasp of defining the problem.

Reflection

2. What have you tried?

This question ensures you don’t spend time covering the ground they’ve already explored to solve the problem. It also requires your team member to make some effort before requesting help.

3. What happened?

Finish gathering facts by asking them to talk about the consequences of the solutions they’ve already tried. Sometimes just the act of talking about it will help them figure out a new solution.

4. What did you learn from this?

Click the image for more detail on the 9 what’s process

With this question, you empower your team member by asking them to reflect on their experience. Often, the act of examining what happened and what learning they can draw from it will spark a new approach to solving the problem.

Analysis

5. What else do you need?

This is a check to see if there is additional training or equipment they need.

6. What else can you do?

Now it’s time to empower your team member by having them generate some new options. When you ask this question, one of two answers usually happens. Your team member might say, “I don’t know” or they might offer some options, eg: “Well, I was thinking I could try option A or I could try option B.”
If they say, “I don’t know,” we’ll come back to that with question #9. Let’s assume for now that they offer some options.

7. What do you think will happen if you try option A? What about option B?

You’re asking your team member to explore the potential consequences of their proposed solution. This gives you insight into their thinking and helps them think through what makes their choices viable or desirable.

If they are missing a critical piece of information, you can supply it here without telling them what to do. Eg: “One additional factor you will want to know is that the customer considers that a vital feature.”

Commitment

8. What will you do?

This is the critical step to empower your team member. As you helped them review the facts, reflect on what they learned, explore alternatives, and the consequences of each choice, the goal is for your team member to choose their solution.

Bonus Question

9. Super-Bonus Question to empower your team: If you get an “I don’t know”

Ask “what might you do if you did know.” (read the article in the comments for more on how to ask this well and why it works).

How about you? How do you empower your team to solve more problems on their own?

How Do I Ask Better Questions: Asking For a Friend with Chad Littlefield [VIDEO]

The post Empower Your Team to Make Better Decisions appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Most managers will say they want those outcomes and that they believe in an empowered team, but unintentionally prevent their teams from doing their best. Avoid these common roadblocks and you’ll release your team to be their best:

1. Soak up their time
2. Unclear definition of success
3. Be a chokepoint
4. Misguided support
5. Keep information to yourself
6. Fear new ideas
7. Lack of accountability

What is an Empowered Team?

“Empower” is one of those business lingo words that risks losing its meaning because it’s used so often – and often incorrectly. Even the core meaning of the word (to give power) is challenging. There are some times you do “give” power over…for example, when you ask someone to make a decision or offer an opportunity to try something new.

But most of the time, empowerment isn’t about you giving your team anything – it’s about helping them understand and own the power they already have. This means removing roadblocks, supporting them, giving them the information they need to make effective decisions, and helping navigate relationships with other teams.

An empowered team solves problems on their own, they think critically, the own their outcomes and work together to achieve them. They are confident and competent, while continuing to learn and grow.

One Big Reason Managers Disempower Their Team

The most common mistakes that disempower teams often result from a manager’s insecurity. Insecurity looks like a manager who feels they have to demonstrate their value by taking up everyone’s time, being the source of all knowledge, or unwillingness to consider new ideas because of the risk involved.

If any of those sound familiar, we invite you to reframe what success looks like in your role. It isn’t the work you do or how smart you are. Your success is how successfully your team performs, how they grow, and the quality of problems they solve.

Seven Common Mistakes that Roadblock an Empowered Team

As you build an empowered team, focus on removing these roadblocks and watch your team flourish.

Soak up Their Time

People need time to do the work that’s at the core of their function. Take up too much of that time with meetings or endless discussions and they end up working after hours to make up the gap (or not). Either way, it’s a problem.

At the same time, your team needs to meet. You should have one-on-ones. You should discuss and make decisions together. How do you find the right balance?

The shortest way to answer this question is to ask, “Is this meeting for the team/employee’s benefit or for mine?” Will it truly help them be more connected, productive, effective, visible, or equipped? If it’s not an effective use of their time, consider eliminating, consolidating, or automating that process.

If it is a good use of time, lead your meetings efficiently with a clear outcome for the discussion. Protect your team’s time—in today’s workplace, it’s one of the greatest acts of service you can give.

Unclear Definition of Success

When we talk with managers about empowered teams, one of the first questions they ask is “How can I empower my team when they don’t get the results we need?”

The answer to this question almost always comes back to two things: unclear definitions of success and/or a lack of training.

The challenge for most managers is that they think they’ve communicated what success looks like, but their team doesn’t have the same picture at all. It often takes far more communication up front than you think it will.

Take the time to check for understanding, schedule the finish, and describe in detail what a successful outcome looks like or will accomplish (and if you don’t know yet what success looks like, be upfront about that. Include future time and emotional energy for edits).

As your team works toward that goal, revisit those outcomes – will their current approach achieve those goals?

Be a Chokepoint

How often is your team waiting on you for information, your opinion, or a decision? If you are a consistent chokepoint, there are several solutions. You may need to give the team more information. You might need to invite them to trust their judgment (and respond with regard as they learn). It’s possible they need more training in how you would think about the subject or make a decision.

If you’re a consistent chokepoint, set aside consistent time to invest in growing your team’s skills and abilities. Get comfortable with not being a part of every decision – remember, that’s not your job. Helping your team know how to make good decisions is where the magic happens.

Misguided Support

Like the people in them, teams have natural life cycles. They usually start needing training and equipping, then need to grow their competence and confidence on the way to mastery. Give your team the support they need when they need it.

Some managers over-rely on one type of support. For example, if you’re an ace at coaching and accountability conversations, and you tend to see everything through that lens, you will miss opportunities to help a low-confidence team build their belief in their own ability. Encouragement would be more effective.

The confidence-competence model is a useful way to think about the specific support your team needs.

Keep Information to Yourself

There are usually two causes when managers don’t share information with their team. First, the manager doesn’t want to share it for fear of becoming irrelevant or losing the value their knowledge gave them. The second cause is time – you’re moving fast and hadn’t realized the team didn’t know or could really use that information.

If you worry about losing value when you share information, remember:

Success isn’t the work you do or how smart you are. Your success is your team’s performance, how they grow, and the quality of problems they solve.

To help your team get the information they need, include five-why questions (ask why five times until you get to foundational reasons) to uncover needed connections and purpose. Another useful technique is a pre-mortem – done well, you’ll uncover critical information and opportunities.

Fear of New Ideas

Another common roadblock for empowered teams is a manager’s reluctance to consider new ideas. It’s understandable: if what we did yesterday worked, why would we want to change it?

It’s a natural way to think and, unfortunately, it doesn’t serve you or your team well. The world is changing. Your competition is changing. Technology evolves.

New ideas and solutions are critical for your long-term success. You don’t have to embrace every idea, but the more you create a culture where solving problems and daily innovations are the norm, the more relevant and effective you and your team will be.

Start here to help your team think through and contribute game-changing ideas. And here’s a resource to help you share your ideas (and be a role model for your team).

Lack of Accountability

A poorly performing team member or someone’s disruptive, negative behavior are roadblocks to team performance. In highly effective, empowered teams, the team may address it internally. If not, healthy accountability and feedback conversations are another place where you help remove obstacles to a truly empowered team.

Here’s a resource for more on how to have effective performance conversations that achieve results and build relationships.

Your Turn

Leading empowered teams can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences you’ll have. But it requires reframing what success looks like in your role. Become a leader who removes roadblocks like the seven mentioned here and watch what your team will achieve.

I’d love to hear from you: what would you add to this list? What other common roadblocks can frustrate or undermine an empowered team?

Are you ready to accelerate team performance?

Increase communication, connection and trust while driving results. See our Team Accelerator Program page and sign up for the free demo to learn how.

The post How Managers (unintentionally) Roadblock an Empowered Team appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

That’s why I was delighted to read Dr. Sydney Finklestein’s Harvard Business Review article, The Best Leaders are Great Teachers. I immediately got a copy of Dr. Finklestein’s book, Super Bosses, and invited him on Asking For a Friend to talk about how to grow leaders as teachers.

How Do We Grow Leaders as Teachers (highlights and excerpts)

1:40 Source of inspiration

Going back to simple lessons about life such as moving slower. Taking time to really talk with people. Taking a breath.

3:00 What is a “Superboss”?

A Superboss is a leader who creates other leaders.
They have a track record of generating and regenerating talent.
And most importantly, a Superboss is a teacher.

3:54 Three categories of Superbosses

Iconoclast
Creative people who create a following because of their deep talent.
They are leader teachers because they create an environment of interaction and collaboration.

Glorious Bastard
They really want to win. AND, they know they need to surround themselves with superstar talent to make that happen.

If working for a glorious bastard, you have to be all in. The payoff can be big though tough. The career acceleration can be extreme.

Nurturer
This is what most of us think about when we think of a leader as a teacher. This is the leader who really cares about you – who wants you to get better.

8:15 How does a Superboss unleash constant creativity in their team?

1. Model creativity and innovation
2. Allow people to fail for the right reasons
3. Create a culture of experimentation

10:30 Discussing clarity and curiosity (innovation) using quotes from Sydney’s book

“Employees cannot innovate in meaningful ways unless they have a frame in which to work – and the Superbosses’ fundamental vision provides that grounding.”

Superbosses are uncompromisingly open. Uncompromising about the vision, but open to ideas within that vision.

“When Superbosses hire employees they implicitly invite them to buy into their vision and become part of the revolution. But they also invite them to buy into the mindset of openness and innovation that made that vision possible in the first place.”

They have an entrepreneurial mindset, always on the lookout for great, untapped talent. They notice underlying skill sets in people no matter the job they currently have.

16:40 Leaders as teachers – How can I be a leader/teacher?

A hallmark of a Superboss is to be a teacher.
This happens in an organic manner, often informally.
They are willing to go the extra step.
They continue to learn themselves.

Superbosses teach professionalism, points of craft, and life lessons which include elements such as:

How you carry yourself
How you communicate, sell, prepare for meetings
Grounding in integrity and ethics
Mindset of innovation
Continuous learning (which provides you more to teach.)

21:48 Practical Techniques for Leaders as Teachers

1. Customize how you work with people on your team. Recognize differences and adapt your approach accordingly.
2. Create opportunities for learning. (This requires delegation.) Find what each member of the team can excel at.

25:47 What if being a Superboss doesn’t come naturally?

The follow-up book, The Superboss Playbook, has exercises that can help develop these skills.
Anyone can learn. You have to want to. Have a mindset of giving people guidelines and see what they come up with. Superbosses tend to be 50/50 introvert/extravert.

28:30 Final thoughts about Leaders as Teachers

We only get one shot at being a leader. Why wouldn’t we want to be the best we can be?

Your turn. What’s your best practice for being a leader teacher?

The post How do we grow leaders as teachers? (Video) with Dr. Sydney Finkelstein appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

During times of uncertainty and change, it’s easy for your team to get lost in the chaotic swirl of indecision —to wring their hands and wait and see. It’s also the perfect time to empower your team, to step up and take the lead.

“Where there is chaos, seize control.”

One of my early bosses and mentors, Gail, said this to me almost daily during a turbulent time at Verizon. Gail was a world-class role model of how to empower your team.

I was young and newly promoted in an HR role in the midst of a big merger. We were reorganizing every department.  Everyone had a new boss and a new team. Many senior leaders were in the midst of relocating their families to Manhattan which added to the distraction.

We were merging systems, policies, programs—you name it.

Every time I would walk through her open door with an idea, she would say the same thing: “Where there is chaos ____________ (and she would smile, wait for me to fill in the blank with the words “seize control”, and then eagerly listen to what I had to say.)

“Seizing control” had nothing to do with power or politics. It was all about learning to lead courageously when others were not, and to do the right thing for the business.

Gail knew we knew that.

If you want to empower your team in this way, be sure they know that too.

Empower Your Team With Probing Questions

What Gail would do next made all the difference too.

When I questioned the political ramifications of not getting the right buy-in she would offer these questions:

• “Do we need this?”
• “Is it a sound business decision?”
• “Do you have a strong implementation plan?”
• “Is your team behind it?”
• “Has anyone told you not to do it?”

Then she would say, “Karin by the time everyone figures out that we need to do this, your team will already be doing it, and have great results. You’ll have best practices we can scale elsewhere. Just be sure you execute well and tell me before you break any big rules. I promise to have your back.”

If you want to empower your team, it starts by having their backs.

Tips for Encouraging Empowerment on Your Team

Now that I grow leaders for a living, I’ve often thought about Gail and her approach to empowerment and why it worked so well. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Create real clarity about what matters most and why.

Although politics, people, and policies were in flux, we knew unequivocally what mattered most for our roles.

Getting the right people in the right seats.

Re-recruiting our top talent.

And, showing up as true strategic partners to ensure the business was thriving.

If what we wanted to do contributed to one of those priorities, we knew we had a green light.

2. Articulate parameters and boundaries for decision-making.

When you’re working to empower your team, be sure your team knows what kinds of decisions you expect them to make and which are out of bounds. (Our free strategic empowerment tool makes this easy). For example, Gail was clear about which decisions we needed to include our finance partners and which did not. And, also the kinds of decisions that might add to the chaos.

3. Encourage your team to challenge and empower one another.

Empowerment can feel scary. It’s easier to wait for permission so there’s someone else to blame as things go wrong. Gail made it crystal clear that this is the way we do things around here. So, she would say things like, “Go ask Lisa (my peer) what I’m going to say about this idea.” And of course, she knew Lisa would smile and say, “Where there is chaos seize control.” And then, ask me the questions Gail would.

When Gail retired, I took over a good portion of her role. That was one of the easiest leadership transitions I’ve ever made, because the team already was empowered to “seize control” as needed, and I could focus on the more strategic elements of the role.

4. Help your team fail forward.

As you can imagine, when you truly empower your team, sometimes they’re going to really screw it up. I know I did. What happens next matters more than just about anything else if you want your team to stay empowered in the future.

Another of Gail’s favorite phrases, was, “Well, we certainly learned something from this one, right? The good news is you’ll never do THAT again, will you?” All said with a friendly smile.

5. Celebrate the empowered behaviors, not just the outcomes.

Although it was over two decades ago, I clearly remember Gail’s staff meetings where she would call us out, “Karin tell them what you did … and exactly how you did it.” Sometimes, she would laugh and say, “I’m not sure it’s going to work, but it’s one heck of a plan.”

You get more of what you encourage and celebrate and less of what you ignore. If you want to empower your team, call out the empowered behaviors you want to see more.

Your turn.

Have you ever worked for an empowering leader like Gail? What are your best practices to empower your team?

The post When Things Get Crazy, Look for Ways To Empower Your Team appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You want to empower your team to make the right decisions. But delegating can be scary.

After all, some decisions are not up to them. Heck, some are not even up to you.

So, how do you delegate the right decisions and ensure your team understands the decision-making parameters?

Recently we’ve had several clients ask us to help their managers get better at delegation.

So we’ve created this delegation decision-making tool (we call it the strategic empowerment tool) and incorporated it into many of our leadership development programs.

We thought it would be helpful for you as well in your work to delegate the right decisions.

The Strategic Empowerment Tool To Help Delegate Better

How This Tool Works

CONCEPT

People need freedom and autonomy in order to do their best work, solve problems, and build better ways of getting work done. But where should they use their discretion and where do they need to do it the “company way”?

What decisions do you want to fully delegate, which do you need some involvement, and which decisions do you just need to be kept in the loop about? Strategic empowerment removes the guesswork and helps people focus their creativity and problem-solving where it will make the most difference.

WHY this tool works:

Strategic empowerment provides clear definitions and removes the guesswork about where to innovate.

RESULTS

Clarity about how and when to innovate and creatively solve problems leads to more focus on established processes and more innovative solutions where they are most needed.

RELATIONSHIPS

Clarity about how and when to innovate and creatively solve problems creates psychological safety and trust between colleagues.

WHEN to use it:

Use the Strategic Empowerment to guide conversations before delegating or once or twice a year to reinforce parameters for decision making as you encourage your employees to solve problems and think more strategically.

Download the Strategic Empowerment Delegation Tool by clicking here.

How to Do I Empower My Team By Delegating Well?

This tool works very well at every level of the business from executives delegating to middle managers, to project managers, to frontline supervisors and employees.

In this Asking For a Friend, Karin shows how this strategic empowerment delegation tool can be used with entry-level customer-facing employees.

“How do you ask your staff to stick to policy but also provide an excellent customer experience by providing some degree of flexibility?” #AskingForaFriend.

Your turn.

What are your best practices to get better at delegating the right decisions?

See Also:

Lead Your Team to Make Better Decisions, Faster

Effective Delegation, An Easy to Use Tool

Leadership Without Losing Your Soul Podcast Episode:  The Secret Ingredient to Master Delegation

Leadership Skills: 6 Leadership Competencies You Can’t Lead Without

The post How to Get Better at Delegating the Right Decisions (With Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The more you can get your team to solve problems on their own, the more time you have to do the work that only you can do. This 9 What’s Coaching method works like magic to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills on your team. It also works as a human-centered coaching tool, to help guide any team member (e.g. a direct report, co-worker, project team member, or mentee) who is working to achieve a specific goal. 

Effective Problem Solving: The Struggle is Real

“David, I just don’t have time. My team constantly needs my help, but I need them to do more and solve problems on their own. There’s so much to do that some days I just want to give up!”

Lynn was a mid-level manager in a mid-sized healthcare company. She’d sought out coaching because the demands of her job were nearly unbearable. Between the needs of her team members and her supervisor’s expectations, she’d been working 60-hour weeks, her health was suffering, and she’d reached the end of her rope.

Have you ever felt like Lynn? If you feel overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

If you ever struggle with feeling like you’re doing your team’s thinking for them and don’t have time to do your own work, these are signals that your team needs help to think and solve problems more effectively.

Hero or Harassed?

Most managers respond to these signals one of two ways: they get upset or they dive in to “help” by offering solutions. Unfortunately, neither response gets you what you want: more time for your work and more responsibility from your team.

On the one hand, if you get upset and chastise your team for coming to you to solve problems, they will stop bothering you.

They’ll also resent you and begin dragging their feet rather than solve problems that need attention. But hey, they’re not bothering you anymore, right?

On the other hand, if you play the hero and jump in with answers, the immediate problems get solved and work continues. But next time an issue comes up, your team still can’t solve problems on their own, and, worse, you’ve now taught them that if things get difficult, you’ll just figure it out for them. Yes, you’re the hero, but say goodbye to your own productivity!

The good news is that there’s a better way.

9 Questions For Better Problem Solving 

When a team member comes to you for help (assuming they’ve been trained and this is a problem they should be able to solve on their own), rather than jumping in with the answer, you have an opportunity to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The following nine questions will help you to free up your own time and increase your team’s ability to think and problem-solve on their own.

GOAL

1. What is your goal?

Start here to check for understanding and ensure that the team member has a good grasp on defining the problem.

REFLECTION

2. What have you tried?

This question ensures you don’t spend time covering the ground they’ve already explored to solve the problem. It also requires your team member to make some effort before requesting help.

3. What happened?

Finish gathering facts by asking them to talk about the consequences of the solutions they’ve already tried. Sometimes just the act of talking about it will help them figure out a new solution.

4. What did you learn from this?

With this question, you ask them to reflect on their experience. Often, the act of examining what happened and what learning they can draw from it will spark a new approach to solving the problem.

ANALYSIS

5. What else do you need?

This is a check to see if there is additional training or equipment they need. Sometimes your team member will say something like: “You know, if I knew how to use pivot tables, I think I could do this.” Great – connect them to a spreadsheet guru for a quick lesson and get them moving.

6. What else can you do?

Now it’s time to have them generate some new options. When you ask this question, one of two answers usually happens. Your team member might say, “I don’t know” or they might offer some options, eg: “Well, I was thinking I could try option A or I could try option B.”

If they say, “I don’t know,” we’ll come back to that with question #9. Let’s assume for now that they offer some options.

7. What do you think will happen if you try option A? What about option B?

You’re asking your team member to explore the potential consequences of their proposed solution. This gives you insight into their thinking and helps them think through what makes their choices viable or desirable.

If they are missing a critical piece of information, you can supply it here without telling them what to do. Eg: “One additional factor you will want to know is that the customer considers that a vital feature.”

COMMITMENT

8. What will you do?

This is the critical step that you’ve been leading up to. As you helped them review the facts, reflect on what they learned, explore alternatives, and the consequences of each choice, the goal is for your team member to choose their solution.

When they choose it, they own it. If they choose something that seems to be a clearly inferior option, you can ask them to help you understand why they think that’s their best option. If they don’t understand some of the other issues affecting the decision, you can also add those to the mix.

Enter The Super Bonus Question to Help Your Team Solve Problems

9. Super-Bonus Question

You might be wondering what to do if the person replies to one of your questions with, “I don’t know.”

“I don’t know” can mean many things. Rarely does it mean the person has zero thoughts about the issue.

More often, “I don’t know” translates to:

1. • “I’m uncertain.”
   • “I don’t want to commit before I know where you stand.”
   • “I haven’t thought about it yet.”
   • “Will you please just tell me what to do?”
   • “I’m scared about getting it wrong.”

Your job as a leader is to continue the dialogue – to ease the person through their anxiety and train their brain to engage. This is where the super-bonus question comes in.

With one question you can re-engage them in the conversation and move through “I don’t know” to productivity.

When someone says, “I don’t know,” your super-bonus question is: “What might you do if you did know?”

Why The Super-Bonus Question Works Like Magic

The person who was stymied two seconds ago will start to share ideas, brainstorm solutions, and move on as if they were never stuck. It’s amazing and hard to believe until you try it.

The super-bonus question works because it addresses the source of the person’s “I don’t know.” If they were anxious or fearful, it takes the pressure off with tentative language: “If you did know…” Now your team member doesn’t have to be certain or look for your approval and they’re free to share whatever they might have been thinking.

If he or she hadn’t thought about the issue or didn’t want to think about it, you’ve lowered the perceived amount of energy they have to spend. You’re not asking for a thesis on the subject, just a conversational “What might you do?”

Our brains can do amazing work when we remove the emotional blocks. When you do this for your team, you train their brain to engage, to push through their ordinary blocks, and increase their performance. Ultimately, they will be able to have these conversations with themselves and will only need to bring the very serious issues to you.

Celebrate Success

You’ll know you’re succeeding when a team member tells you: “I had a problem. I was going to come and talk it over with you, but then I thought, you’re just going to ask me all these questions. So I asked myself all the questions instead and I figured it out.”

Celebrate those moments and encourage them to start asking those questions of the people around them. You’ve just increased your team’s capacity for problem-solving, freed up time to focus on your work, and…you’ve built a leader!

Does your company need a Courageous Culture – with higher engagement and a results-oriented approach to innovation? Where your employees speak up, share their ideas and drive quality performance and productivity? Check out our Strategic Leadership and Team Innovation page to learn more about our programs. 

See Also: How to Provide More Meaningful Performance Feedback

Stop Asking How Can We Improve: New Research Says the Best CEOs Do These 3 Things When Asking For Feedback (CNBC)

Your Turn

Remember, when a team member can’t solve problems, good questions are your best solution.

We’d love to hear from you: Leave us a comment with your questions about this business coaching process or share your best practice for helping team members improve their critical thinking and problem-solving.

The 9 What’s Coaching model is just one of the popular tools in our leadership training programs.  For more information, contact us at info@letsgrowleaders.com.

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They’re the phrases that should send a shiver up your spine if you want to lead for results. I’ve heard them from team members in every industry imaginable. You might recognize them:

• “I’ve just stopped trying.”
• “Why bother?”
• “I give up.”
• “Just go along to get along.”
• “When someone bothers to tell me what to do, then we’ll worry about it.”
• “What’s the point?”
• “It doesn’t matter what you do.”
• “They don’t care, so why should I?”
• “Everything they say from the stage don’t mean anything for me and my life.”

Walking Dead

Every time I hear one of these, I shudder.

These are the words whispered by the walking dead – maybe they haven’t left your team or company yet, but there’s no life left in them. They’re just shuffling through the day, going through the motions, like zombies.

If you have people in your team or organization talking this way, one of two things has happened:

1) You have discouraged your team by failing to lead.

2) You have a very negative team member who will be discouraging the rest of the team. (And they’re still there because you’ve failed to lead.)

Either way, it’s time for you to lead. Every person wandering around …

thinking that their effort makes no difference …

feeling that no one cares …

feeling frustrated and refusing to take responsibility …

Has quit.

They’re a walking tragedy of vital human life stunted and withering away. (Not to mention tons of lost productivity for the organization.)

Tough Love

If you want to lead for results, I applaud you. We desperately need good leaders.

But leadership means responsibility. If you have disheartened people on your team who have stopped trying, that’s on you. The reasons are usually straightforward:

• a lack of encouragement or appreciation
• outright hostility and abuse
• no vision
• absurd systems prevent them from being effective
• no autonomy or ability to make meaningful decisions
• they don’t trust you or one another

These are a leader’s responsibilities. And if you’re leading, you’re responsible.

Lead for Results

As every reader of Winning Well knows, you can treat people well and lead for results. They’re not mutually exclusive. In fact, they go together.

When people:

• are empowered to make meaningful decisions …
• understand the purpose behind what they’re doing …
• trust their leadership and their team …
• feel appreciated for what they do …
• feel they’re making a difference …
• are held accountable for their contribution …

They own the outcomes, are energized, proactively solve problems, and personally invest in what they’re doing.

Which team member would you rather have?

Where to Begin?

1) If you are leading a team that shows signs of the zombi-fication, honestly assess your motivations.

Are you leading for results and relationships?

If not, I invite you to start small. Pick one area—perhaps encouragement—and honestly show appreciation. Or maybe start by removing a frustrating system that prevents people from doing their best work.

The point is, don’t change everything all at once. You can’t do it and you’ll frustrate yourself. Start small.

If you’re not sure where to start and you have any team members you can trust to give you honest feedback, ask them. Or do a DIY 360 evaluation and pick just one thing—the most frequently occurring item and address it.

People are remarkably graceful. When they see you work on being effective, your credibility soars.

2) If you are in an organization characterized by the zombies, build a cultural oasis.

Start by encouraging the people you see every day. Recognize others for what they’ve done. Begin talking about what your team might accomplish or where it could be. Look for problems you can solve.

We Need You to Lead for Results

Whatever your formal role, we need you to lead. We need people who dare to dream, who show us the way. We need people who will take risks to solve problems that others refuse to recognize even exist.

We need people who ask the right questions, who challenge our thinking. We need people who inspire us, who motivate us, and who encourage us.

We need leaders.

We need you.

Happy Halloween

The post How to Lead for Results and Stop the Zombie Apocalypse appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

For leaders at every level, there are times when you must implement a decision or pursue a goal that you don’t agree with or where you didn’t get input. These are critical moments in your leadership. Handle it poorly and you lose all credibility. But it’s also an opportunity to grow your influence and energize your team to do work they’re proud of. In this episode, David shares practical help for motivating your team when you don’t set the goals.

The post Motivating Your Team When You Don’t Set the Goal appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

I answered joyfully. But the truth is, I’ve been making a lot of my own freedom in a corporate day job for the last 2 decades. Much freedom comes from getting clear on who you are and taking control over your corner of the world.

6 Ways to Feel Freedom at Work

1. Butt Out – Not always, but sometimes. It’s easy to get sucked into someone else’s drama. I have a colleague who says, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” There’s huge freedom in that sentiment. Sure, if you’ve got something substantial to offer by all means engage, but just like more spectators to an accident, more is not always helpful. Free up your energy for something more productive.
2. Establish Personal Boundaries – Knowing how far you’re willing to go will take a lot of stress out of each situation. Having a clearly established values, ethics and boundaries will help you feel more in control of decisions and makes it easier to let go of minor frustrations. It’s liberating to know who you are and to live by that code. You’ll be surprised how much people will respect you taking an occasional solid stand, if most of the time you’re supportive and helpful.
3. Create Structure and Processes – The more you can establish routines and systems for every day activities, the more time you’ll have for experimentation and creative exploration of new ideas. Plus structure keeps you organized, and nothing will make your boss leave you alone than a well-organized approach.
4. Speak Up: – Every time I take over a new team, I begin with the following words: “If something feels stupid, it probably is. Say something.” We then proceed to celebrate when someone outs some “stupidity (of course never actually using the “s” word. )“I’m just wondering if this really makes sense in the context of that.” I’m always amazed how many people feel strangely empowered by this basic invitation to speak the truth. If something feels stupid, speak up, and encourage your team to do the same.
5. Build White Space Into Your Calendar – It’s tempting to jam your calendar to the brim with “productive” activity. When your brain is full, there’s no time for creative signals to get through. Build some deliberate time in to your day to step back and take the long view. If you’re in an hourly structured job where that’s impossible, find a way to carve out a few minutes of your personal time to really reflect on how you are doing your work and how you could be more impactful. It will pay off in the long run. Read more
6. Create a Cultural Oasis – If you’re feeling frustrated by the culture of your organization, do what you can to create a cultural niche in your neck of the woods. Lead how you would like to be led. Engage your peers in creative ideas. Be the boss you wish you had. Encourage special projects, volunteer for new assignments. Read more here

The post 6 Surprising Ways to Feel More Freedom at Work appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Their team yearns for bold vision, challenging questions, and scaffolding support. But they look up and see weakness, which makes them feel weaker and diminishes results.

Nothing saddens me more than potential leaders who give away their power. Feeling powerless to change the game, they buckle down and support, but don’t inspire.

Somehow they think this approach will inspire loyalty and translate to results. They’re in no position to empower, because they have not power to share. Great leaders generate power and then share it.

5 Ways to Regain Leadership Power

Teams are empowered by power. Be sure you have enough to share.

• Connected – Build great relationships up down and sideways. Your team longs for a leader who’s in the game, and teaches them how to play it.
• Courageous – Stop complaining about the system, or what can’t be done. If you really think you’re powerless, step down and let someone else be the leader.
• Creative – Help your team find solutions in the areas they feel most helpless
• Challenging – Encourage your team to do more than they ever thought possible. Expect a lot.  Keep raising the bar. Forget benchmarks and establish higher standards. Celebrate progress and build desire for what’s possible.
• Calm – Stay above the fray. Buffer the madness, but also teach them how to sail in a storm.

Yes, this is part of our crowd-sourced e-book series on the Biggest Mistakes Team Leaders Make, so please share your stories.

The post The Most Frustrating Mistake Managers Make appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.