Excellence is an exciting topic. Is it about being perfect, never making a mistake? Or is it more about a mindset and set of behaviours?
In this article, I will share five tips that individually, and collectively, will have you achieving excellence more often, than not.
Here’s a formula.
High-quality conversations lead to high-quality decisions, which lead to high quality actions and ultimately, high-quality results and performance. The reverse is also true. Low-quality conversations eventually lead to low-quality results.
Achieving high quality results and performance are worth the effort to learn how to conduct high-quality conversations.
The point of leverage in this model is high quality conversations. But what is a high quality conversation?
Continue reading High-Quality Workplace Conversations Matter
If you are leading a team within a poor company culture, how can you increase the motivation of your team members? Gary Ryan explains a series of practical behaviours that a Team Leader can do that will enhance the self-motivation of their team members.
Find out more about creating Teams That Matter® here .
One of our close friends had invited our family to watch their 10 year old son Joshua complete his grading for his Black Belt in karate. Having been training in karate since he was six years old this was a ‘Big Occasion’ for him.
A crowd of over 200 people had assembled in the local karate club’s hall to support children from the age of nine through to 14 complete the requirements for their various Black Belt or First Dan assessments. The formworks and kata were performed to perfection to the delight of everyone. This was followed by various fighting stick assessments, jumping and tumbling kicks & strikes, a nun-chuka formwork and finally wood breaking strikes. Considering the ages of the children their performances were very, very impressive!
Finally, six of the boys and girls who were also being assessed for a special leadership award (which is specific to this club) took it in turns to perform a speech about leadership. As each child gave their speech on their own in the middle of the gymnasium floor, no notes in hand, a structure for their speeches became apparent. The structure was:
1) Introduce yourself and your age
2) Identify your favourite karate activity
3) Name a high profile leader of your choice
4) Provide a ‘key-point’ history of your leader
5) Share a quote created by the leader
6) Explain how the quote relates to your own personal circumstances
7) Thank your parents for their support
8) Thank the audience
While I had been highly impressed by the various karate demonstrations, I was astounded by the performances of these six children. It was clear that they all had different personalities yet each of them was able to stand up in front of a crowd of predominantly adults and provide their speeches. One of the children spoke about Ghandi and provided great detail as he shared an accurate account (including dates) of Ghandi’s life. This boy was nine years old!
It was also interesting to watch each of the children stumble at some point in their speeches. When this happened, each of them drew a long slow breath, gathered their thoughts and then continued with their speech. Imagine the pressure that could have been mounting and the ‘self-talk’ that could have been going on in their heads. Yet they remained focussed and completed the task at hand. It seemed to me that the children had been well taught with regard to the structure that they should follow in providing their speeches, including what to do when they lost their train of thought. It really was a delight to watch.
To me the high level of performance that the children were able to achieve was due to a clear structure that they had been provided in preparing for their speeches. No doubt each of the children had also practiced and practiced this structure, much like they had practiced their kata and formworks. Imagine the confidence that these children will have in their lives going forward. Many adults would run away as fast as possible rather than provide a speech in front of 200 hundred people. Yet these children did it and did it well. They will have that experience to draw on for the rest of their lives. As each child finished their speech the applause sounded like it was coming from 1,000 people and not just 200. It really was extraordinary to witness!
This experience once again highlights the power of having structures to support the outcomes that you desire. While the structures that the children used for their speeches may appear simple on the surface, their importance is no less valuable. What similar examples do you have where a clear structure has supported your own or someone else’s development? What stories are you willing to share with our community? What key lesson stood out for you from your experience?
A recent article When to Fire a Top Performer on the HBR Blog Network by Eric Sinoway caught my eye. In the article Eric classifies employees into four categories based on their performance and their alignment with the organisation’s values and culture.
Sinoway’s four categories include:
The ‘Vampires’ as Sinoway calls them can cause untold damage to your organisation, despite the appearance that they ‘get results’.
Reading the article reminded me of a framework I had learned from Jack Welch while he was CEO of GE.
This complimentary ebook is for Senior & Developing Leaders who share our view that organisational success is created through enabling people to be the best they can be, was created from a selection of articles published on the OTM Academy from May 1st 2012 through to August 31st 2012.
The ebook includes articles to help you move from ‘good’ to ‘high’ performance.
Please feel free to join the OTM Academy – it’s free!
* What ‘Truth to Power’ is and how it affects performance
* Why communicating via multiple channels matters
* How Virgin Australia handled a brand damaging event
* Why change management is an oxymoron
* How to use three steps to bring organisational values to life
* How to be free of problems within your business
* How to use five steps to connect strategy to action
*And much, much more!
Order this free ebook to download here.
Contributing authors include:
Do you wish that workplace conversations could be more fact based? Are you frustrated with the poor quality of conversations that exist because people treat their assumptions (often unfounded assumptions) as if they are facts?
Understanding the complexities that underpin conversations can help you to have greater influence over them and to ultimately generate more Fact Based Conversations.
In the presentation below I explain how Fact Based Conversations work and how you can practice the skills to improve the quality of your conversations.
Gary Ryan saves leaders time and helps them to identify effective strategies that lead to high performance and respect.
Recently a participant in a leadership development program for managers asked, “I’ve discovered that ‘respect’ is a core value of mine. What are some practical ways that I can ensure that this value is present in the way that I behave as a manager?”.
The following is the list of suggestions that emerged from the conversation that was conducted with this participant and another four people at their table. It is important to note that the following behaviours can be conducted irrespective of the culture that exists within the organisation.
This list of examples is just a start. Once again it is important to note that these behaviours can be adopted irrespective of the overall culture within the organisation.
What are your examples of how, as a formal leader you have practiced the value of ‘respect’ in your role?
How have you catalysed Conversations That Matter® within your team?
“It was a culture of ‘no bad news’ within this company that was at fault”. Hastie Group CEO Bill Wild is quoted as saying in The Age .
Truth to Power is reflected in the regularity with which people lower in an organisation’s hierarchy provide honest opinions and/or data to more senior people in the hierarchy. When it is low, danger looms. It can even cause the loss of at least 2,300 jobs which is the current scenario at the Hastie Group.
Just yesterday when I was working with a management team I asked them their view on whether or not it is easy for people to provide Truth to Power. “No” was their collective response.
“Is that a potential problem for you?” I asked.
A resounding “Yes” was the reply.
If you consider a multi layered organisation, imagine if Truth to Power is low at the ‘lower’ levels of the organisation. Imagine if it is also low at the middle levels of the organisation. Then imagine if it is low at the more senior levels of the organisation.
If you were the ‘head’ of such an organisation, how much truth would you be hearing? Very little!
And that is dangerous – it could even sit at the heart of an organisational collapse.
Candor lies at the core of Truth to Power. This means that at all levels of an organisation people are encouraged to say when they believe is going on, understanding that there perspective is only part of the picture. But an important part none the less.
Truth to Power is diminished when the ‘messenger is shot’. When ‘bad things’ happen to people who provide an honest opinion or highlight ‘scary’ data in an organisation, other people learn very quickly ‘not to put their head up’.
This means that managers and leaders have to learn how to handle hearing things they don’t like to hear, especially when the ‘truth’ might relate to an issue that the manager believed had been resolved some time ago. Managers also have to have the courage to speak with their colleagues when they see evidence that they are damaging Truth to Power through their lack of engagement with their direct reports. Saying, “Bob’s always been like that, he never listens to his people” is not satisfactory. In fact it highlights managers accepting the unacceptable behaviour of their colleagues and the simple truth is that such behaviour can place everyones jobs at risk, including the managers themselves.
Truth to Power does not mean it is ‘open slather’ for employees to say what they like just for the sake of saying it. Part of truth to power includes the messenger taking responsibility for what they are saying, so their view is genuine and not an effort to ‘have a go’ because they can.
How healthy is Truth to Power in your organisation?
Gary Ryan works with Senior and Developing Leaders to enhance their capacity to achieve high performance through fully utilising the talents of their team members.
Read this article here inside the OTM Academy.