This week, we look at the third concept of “The Big Three.”
This is not new ground for this blog, and I encourage you to check out related posts:
Effective Feedback is About the Future
Leaders Model the Behavior they Expect
Attitude is not everything. Listen to Batman and focus on behavior…
It is good to be efficient, yes. It is also good to be comprehensive.
Sometimes, however, those two things don’t work well together.
Since starting this business, most of my work helping groups has been through 4-8 hour workshops.
There is a demand for leadership training that can be delivered in much shorter periods of time, though.
Something that strikes most visitors to Walt Disney World is how “nice” of a place it is. It’s very clean. The employees are called “cast members” because they’re playing a role and they have a reputation for great service and friendliness. Everyone knows that.
But there’s another unique element present at Disney World that is seemingly beyond
T=r+d
…where T is “trust,” r is “reliability,” and d is “delight.”
I attended EntreFest 2011, and one of the best sessions I attended was
Keeping it simple is something I like other people to do. I, however, am not always so good at it. That’s why I like simple equations – they help me focus, and help me explain things to others.
p=P-i
…where p is
The title is lifted verbatim from the tenets of Manager Tools, and the brilliant minds of Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne. I encourage you to go to the source if you want to go deeper.
But the short version is this:
Any feedback on any behavior is most helpful to the individual and the organization if it is
Don’t say don’t.
Really. Two reasons- one is pretty esoteric and provokes skepticism in me, but the second is nearly self-evident:
1) Some research shows that the use of words/phrases involving “not” or even “-n’t” (like don’t) are subconsciously turned into the positive by the listener, because negative talk is rejected. So if a person is told “don’t be late!” they actually perceive “be late!”, increasing the likelihood of non-compliance.
As a guy obsessed with maxing out potential in groups and individuals – and one who believes the person at the top is the one most responsible for making it happen – I was pretty fired up about the concept of Undercover Boss. In each episode, a CEO goes undercover, in disguise, to work next to front-line employees.
The format got tired quickly – boss leaves fancy home and doting family, stays in fleabag hotels, realizes he/she is totally inept at frontline tasks, discovers that employees are (gasp!) real people with real problems, cries (most episodes), promises to change, and gives lavish rewards to the episode’s featured employees.
What a great concept – and what a disappointment in a show.
Recently, Iowa’s new Director of the Department of Education, Jason Glass, posed three questions in his blog.
These questions got people talking – mostly online. Mr. Glass has made himself very transparent and accessible online, particularly on Twitter. This is a good example of best practices in leadership.
And that’s the purpose of this blog: to explore best practices in leadership. Our schools need leadership to become as effective as possible. One such leader is today’s guest blogger, Matt Pries.
Something we talk about in Group Dynamic workshops is this: 80% of decisions are made based on emotion, not ration. Also, we tend to act less mature when stressed. The lessons? There are many.
One is this; when stressed, see if you can delay acting, or speaking, or addressing a situation until the stress passes. This will increase the likelihood of a better decision, and (more importantly) better interactions and relationships. Be nice.