Category Archives: High Performing Teams

ebook, effective communication, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership Development, Professional Development, What Really Matters

Insights for Senior & Developing Leaders ebook released

What Really Matters! Volume 4, Number 1, 2012 complimentary edition released.

What Really Matters! Volume 4, Number 1, 2012

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 January 1st 2012 through to April 30th 2012.
Please feel free to join the OTM Academy – it’s free!

In the ebook you will discover:

* Why you should know what is on your corporate website

* How to conduct ‘Meetings That Matter’

* How clutter detracts from your service levels

* A great opportunity that results from Changing What’s Normal

* How to use illustrations to create Conversations That Matter®

*Why you should use the What Makes People Tick personality profile tool
* Why thinking like a chicken is not useful if you are an eagle
* How four extraordinary women have inspired many other people to contribute to a higher purpose

*And much, much more!
Order this free ebook to download here.
Contributing authors include:

  • Gary Ryan
  • Ian Berry

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Communication, Conversation Starter, Customer Service, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leaders, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

    Conversation Starters Catalyse Conversations That Matter®

    Conversation Starters are generally single page documents that are designed to catalyse Conversations That Matter.

    Through using a combination of text and illustrations, Conversation Starters provide focus for conversations that otherwise might not be able to occur.

    Through enabling people to focus on something other than another person, Conversation Starters allow people to talk about things that matter to them without fear of offending anyone – after all it is the document that can be blamed rather than a person.

    Access a complimentary Conversation Starter ‘Who is the Customer’ here and please let me know how you have used it.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation

    Discover the secret to motivating your team members

    Over many years of facilitating leadership development programs I have been continually asked, “What is the secret to motivating my team members?”.

    I have been taking the participants of our programs through a simple three step process to find the answer to this question. You might like to treat this process as an activity, so why not pull out some paper and a pen and see what answers emerge for you.

    Step One
    Rather than focusing upon the factors that will enable you, as a leader, to motivate your team members, let’s consider your thoughts about the factors that enable you to be the best that you can be at work. Take out your pen and paper and jot down some points that, for you, enable you to be highly motivated at work.

    Once you have completed your answer, look at the typical responses that I have received over many years of collecting participant responses to this question.

    The following are the Top 10 typical responses that are listed in no particular order of importance.
    • Recognition for the work that has been done
    • Opportunities to be creative
    • A sense of contributing to the company
    • A sense that what I do has value
    • A fair wage for my contribution, all things considered
    • Being treated fairly and trusted to do my job
    • Being given appropriate feedback on my performance
    • Having work that is interesting and that uses my skills
    • Having opportunities to develop and grow in the business
    • Having opportunities for promotion

    Step Two
    Now place yourself into your leadership role. What factors do you think will enable your team members to perform to the best of their ability? Once again take out your pen and paper and write down your answer to this question.

    Once you have completed your answer, look at the typical responses that I have received over many years of collecting participant responses to this question.

    The following are the Top 10 typical responses that I have received over many years of asking this question.
    • Being given compliments and recognition for doing good work
    • Having appropriate work delegated to them
    • Having opportunities to progress their career
    • Having training and development opportunities
    • Having work that uses their skills
    • Being paid appropriately for their work, all things considered
    • Having leadership opportunities
    • Being shown that management actually cares about them as a person
    • Being trusted to do their job
    • Being consulted about changes before they happen

    Step Three
    Look at both lists of responses. What do you notice? What stands out to you?
    Many people have responded that they are surprised at the similarities between the two lists. When I have asked why they are surprised about the similarities between the two lists, people have responded that they somehow thought that the motivators for leaders and everyone else would be different. In reality it seems that most people’s motivations are fairly similar.

    In summary, people want:
    • To be paid fairly for what they do
    • To be provided work that uses their skills
    • To be provided training and development opportunities
    • To be recognised for the work that they do
    • To be trusted to do their job properly
    • To be provided with opportunities for advancement or promotion
    • To be included in making decisions about changes that will affect them
    • To be treated fairly including being given feedback on their performance
    • To be shown that people in the organisation actually care about them as a person
    • To have work that has some value

    How to use this information
    As a leader the easiest way to use this information is to look at the three lists and ask yourself, “How am I and my organisation performing with each of these motivating factors?”. Neither leaders nor organisations are perfect, so you are unlikely to have a positive tick against each item. However, if your team members are lacking motivation then I guarantee that the underlying reason will lie in what you and your organisation are not doing to help them to maintain their motivation.

    The beauty about this simple exercise is that it can quickly highlight what you can do to increase motivation. If you discover that you aren’t properly recognising your team members for the work that they are doing, then start doing this behaviour. If you recognise that you aren’t providing appropriate development opportunities for your team members, then consult with your People & Culture department and discover how they might be able to help you. If you discover that some of your team members aren’t being paid properly, all things considered, why not commence whatever processes that you can to increase their pay to a more appropriate level? These actions and others can be taken to quickly enhance the motivation of your team members.

    Motivating team members is not as difficult as many leaders think. Follow the three steps above and take action based on your results. You will be pleasantly surprised by the increase in motivation that your team members display.

    How do you motivate your team members?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Communication, Conversation Starters, Conversations That Matter, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership Development

    How to use illustrations to create Conversations That Matter®

    Creating Conversations That Matter® is a key skill for organisational leaders. Amidst forecasting, attending to meetings and writing reports, the development of this skill is often neglected. Think about it, how do you stimulate Conversations That Matter® with your peers, direct reports and your leaders? How do you stimulate them with your key stakeholders and clients?

    Conversations That Matter® are conversations where people are able to speak from the heart, speak their truth (whatever it may be) in a safe environment where there will not be negative consequences for speaking their mind. This does not mean that people lose responsibility for what they say. Rather, their responsibility increases as respect is a core requirement for a conversation that matters to be conducted.

    So how might a leader create a conversation that matters, especially when there may be a level of distrust present amongst team members?

    One way is to use illustrations to catalyse your conversations. For these conversations to be successful, the leader must be prepared to do the following five practices:

    1. Be prepared to ‘listen to understand’ to what is being said, rather than listening to defend/justify
    2. Guarantee that no negative consequences will result to people as a result of the conversation
    3. Listen more than speak – a good rule of thumb to follow is to speak 30% and to listen 70% of the time
    4. Be prepared to ask open questions (see The Art of Skilful Questions)
    5. Judge the quality of the conversation by the level of truth that is present in the conversation (see the video Transparency – How leaders create a culture of candor)

    If you are able to follow the five practices above, then determine the focus of your conversation, then select an image that you could use and give it a go. As an example a great friend of ours Jock MacNeish has been creating such illustrations for the best part of his life. Over time Jock has created many illustrations for us and the 0 to 10 Relationship Management body of knowledge. As Licensed Elite Trainer Facilitators in 0 to10 Relationship Management, Andrew and I are able to use Jock’s illustrations.

    The 0 to 10 Relationship Management Culture Survey illustrations are very powerful catalysts for enabling people to have a conversation that matters. If you were interested to know what your team members thought about the level of autonomy that they had in their jobs, you could place the illustration below on the table and ask them to mark on the scale where they believe the level currently sits.

    When people place their finger on the scale that they believe represents their view, simply say, “Thank you for your honesty. What examples do you have that would help me to understand what this score means to you?”

    Their answers will be powerful and enable you to identify what you should keep doing, start doing and stop doing. If, of course, you have tried this technique and no-one in your team spoke up, then you may have your answer anyway!

    On the other hand if you’ve never tried this technique before please give it a go. Either print the illustration from this article or select a different onee for your team and create a conversation that matters. Please let us know how you go!

    Finally, if you like this concept but aren’t sure what illustration to use, please provide a brief description of your issue in the comments box and I’ll help you find an appropriate illustration.

    As a leader a significant part of your success is driven by your capacity to create and stimulate conversations that matter. Is this a skill that you possess? What are you currently doing to develop it?

    Please feel free to ask questions and/or to make comments about this article.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Des Hunt, High Performing Teams, Leadership, Personality Profiling, Teams That Matter, Teamwork, What Makes People Tick

    Usefulness is more important than complete accuracy when using Personality Profiling tools for teams

    There are many personality profiling tools. Myer-Briggs (MBTI), DISC, OPQ and Wave are a number of the more commonly used approaches. Technically they are hard to separate although the Wave (to which I am licensed) is able to provide evidence that it is superior to the rest.

    From a personal development perspective I advocate the use of any one of the abovementioned tools. I strongly encourage that they be used with support from experts.

    Where I don’t advocate the use of these tools is with teams.

    I don’t say this because I think the tools are poor – rather they are too complex for most people to make them useful from an ongoing perspective.

    When I conduct team development programs I ask the participants if they have ever completed any personality profile assessments. A large percentage of people indicate that they have completed assessments, but their memory of what the results meant is limited.

    “I did the MBTI and I think I was an extravert…” is as much detail as most people can muster.

    When I ask how the tool was used to improve the performance of a team people struggle to provide clear examples. However they add, “…but I thought it was really interesting and learnt a few things about myself.”

    The issue here is that we need to use team profiling tools that are memorable and useful. It is for this reason that I use the What Makes People Tick Personality Profile tool. I’ll be the first to admit that the science behind the tool is nowhere near the sophistication of a DISC or the OPQ. What is important is that the tool is easy to remember and therefore apply. You don’t have to be an expert on the tool to be able to apply its lessons within your team.

    This is a significant problem I find with a lot of the other tools. You virtually have to be an expert in them to be able to apply them in a team setting. Most people are too busy being experts in their own fields and simply don’t have the mental ‘space’ to become an expert ion personality profiling tools.

    A case in point. When recently facilitating a team development program, the youngest person in the room (a 26 year old) was able to provide a detailed description of the What Makes People Tick approach. He was able to accurately remember and describe the four personality types as well as how they were used to help improve team performance. This person was not university qualified yet he knew more about the practical application of techniques to manage personality differences that the vast majority of university graduates with whom I have worked.

    This was despite it being a full two years since he had worked with the team where he had been exposed to the tool. No one else was able to provide any examples regarding the practical application of the tools they had used.

    What Makes People Tick uses only two sets of dimensions from which a person’s profile is derived. They are:

    • Introversion/extraversion
    • People focus/task focus

    The combination of these dimensions result in a people having a combination of four preferred ‘windows’ through which they make sense of the world. These four windows are:
    • Introversion/people focus
    • Extraversion/people focus
    • Introversion/task focus
    • Extraversion/task focus

    The memorability aspect of this tool derives from the descriptions that Des Hunt, the creator of the profile then added to each of the above windows.
    They are:
    • Dove
    • Peacock
    • Owl
    • Eagle

    The majority of people are able to describe some of the key behavioural characteristics of these birds without being an expert on the tool. They are able to do this because of the differences that the images of the birds demonstrate. When the characteristics are applied to humans people have a lot of fun but are also able to make sense of how the personality differences can generate unhealthy conflict within a team. Conflict that is often hard to ‘pinpoint’ yet makes complete sense when the ‘bird’ profiles are discovered.

    More importantly people are able to quickly identify strategies for managing the differences.

    For examples, ‘Peacocks’ are ideas people who like to follow their gut instincts. Owls, on the other hand are conservative and like data to support decisions. It’s not hard to imagine how such differences in preferences could generate problems.

    Armed with this knowledge the Peacock could engage another Owl to do some research for them to find some facts to support their idea. Armed with the facts the Peacock could then present the idea to the Owl. Similarly the Owl can choose to be more forgiving of the Peacock. They might also choose to do their own research on how often the Peacock’s ideas have been useful. Upon discovering a high percentage the Owl could use this data to support the Peacock in going with their intuition. The simplicity of the tool enhances its functionality.

    What tools have you used and how useful have they been from the perspective of helping to improve team performance?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    0 to 10 Relationship Management, 0 to 10RM, Building High Performance Business Relationships, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Relationship Management, Stakeholder Management, Tony Lendrum

    Which Business Relationships If Improved Would Enhance Your Performance?

    0 to 10 Relationship Management®

    If you are involved in any form of business relationships, whether internal or external to your organisation, the quality and performance of relationships – good, bad or indifferent – are critically linked to business success.

    Better business relationships will have a positive impact on an organisation on an organisation’s financial success, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, sustainable competitive advantage, best practice, innovation and attitude. So how do your relationships rate?

    Free Webinar Interview

    Join Gary Ryan in this interactive webinar as he interviews Tony Lendrum, creator of the 0 to 10 Relationship Management program and author of his new book Building High Performance Business Relationships .

    Tony has over 30 years experience and has previously published The Strategic Partnering Handbook (four editions) and The Strategic Partnering Pocketbook.

    You will learn about the 0 to 10 RM Storyboard approach to business relationships – a framework that includes three parts, five themes and six principles.

    When: Wednesday 14th September
    Time: 11am – 11:40am (AEST GMT+10)

    REGISTER FOR THIS FREE WEBINAR HERE

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Employee Engagement, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation

    Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 10

    In the eleventh and final short video in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the last of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

    How do you rate for this factor? How does your employer rate for you?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Engagement, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Motivation, Teams That Matter

    Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 8

    In the ninth of the short videos in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the eighth of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

    How do you rate for this factor? How does your employer rate for you?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    Employability, Employee Engagement, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation

    Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 7

    In the eighth of the short videos in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the seventh of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

    How do you rate for this factor? How does your employer rate for you?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
    High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Professional Development, Teamwork

    Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 3

    In the fourth of the short videos in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the third of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

    How do you rate for this factor?

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com