I’ve always loved the coaching flowchart from “Coaching for Improved Work Performance.” When someone you lead has a performance issue, this flowchart will help you pinpoint the problem. But if you want a question to get closer to the truth more quickly, here’s a deceptively simple one: Is this a willingness gap or a knowledge … Read more
I wrote about The Inner Game in last week’s post. Here’s one concept which bears further exploration. The “work triangle” has three components: Performance, Learning, and Enjoyment. Gallwey’s premise is that we achieve our best work when Performance, Enjoyment, and Learning are balanced. But most organizational cultures focus on Performance to a major degree. What … Read more
In the late 1980’s, studying music in under-grad, many of us were disciples of The Inner Game as espoused in the books The Inner Game of Music and/or its predecessor The Inner Game of Tennis. Two of my favorite concepts from those works still impact me today: The equation p=P-iProduct (or performance) = Potential minus … Read more
If we’ve been in a room together, I have subjected you to this photo. I use it to demonstrate the maturity levels model and to serve as an analogy for how workplace annoyances and performance shortfalls affect our mindset and behaviors. In this article, there is talk of “descriptive norms,” the notion that our context … Read more
I’ve just started reading Multipliers by Liz Wiseman. I love books with a clear vision which are a combination of hard research and practical application. What Wiseman has done in this book is compare leaders who multiply talent with those who diminish talent. It’s not a general book about leadership; instead, it’s a deep dive … Read more
“Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.” Have you heard this? Have you said this? I hear this when I’m working with mangers, especially emerging leaders, but I rarely hear it from accomplished executives. Why is that? Because top-level leaders understand this: If the system works the way it is supposed to, the most capable, … Read more
Have you ever been in a conflict situation where you feel your heart rate increase, sweat lines your brow, and your whole body wants to go into fight or flight mode? Yeah, we all have. Dr. Gottman refers to this as emotional flooding. When you feel emotionally flooded, especially with the same person repeatedly, the … Read more
No one is immune to defensiveness. When we feel attacked, our first inclination is to self-protect. This comes in various forms—denial, deflection, excuses, projection. But defensiveness rarely works and ends up hurting our relationships. The third Horseman: Defensiveness Dr. John Gottman defines defensiveness as “self-protection in the form of righteous indignation or innocent victimhood in … Read more
Perhaps it goes without saying, but it is important to note here: positive behaviors build relationships and negative behaviors destroy relationships. We’ve discussed in this blog the 3:1 feedback ratio. This ratio says for every piece of negative feedback you give, you need to give three bits of positive feedback. Of course, the positive and … Read more
This is one of the best articles I’ve read on this topic. You can tell it was written by someone with an advanced degree—there is some complexity in the language—but it is all in pursuit of precision, so I can get behind that. Something new I learned from this article: It works to pay managers … Read more