The One Thing You Need to Know
Marcus Buckingham
Key To Happy Relationships: Find the most generous explanation for each other's behavior and believe it.
Love entails giving a positive explanation for the other person's behavior.
Learn to recast the other person's weaknesses as strengths.
Believe the other person is doing the best he can with what he has.
Chose your perceptions of others carefully because they will drive your behavior towards them.
Managers need to be catalysts who excel at turning peoples' talents into performance.
Leaders
Rudy Giuliani: "know your values, be hopeful, be prepared, show courage, build great teams, love people."
Army: "Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage."
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"Great leaders rally people to a better future."
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Leaders are not satisfied with the status quoa but crave progress to a better future.
Great managers need a coaching instinct and Great leaders need optimism and ego.
A leader not only believes in a better future but believes he is the best person to lead the group into that future.
MANAGING
The Basics of Good Managing
1. Select good people
2. Define clear expectations
3. Define clear consequences
4. Show you care for people
Managers play Chess not Checkers because each individual moves differently. You can't treat everyone the same.
Discover what is unique about each individual and capitalize on it.
1. It saves you time.
2. It makes each individual accountable.
3. It introduces a healthy amount of disruption.
Three Levers:
1. Identify strengths and weaknesses.
2. Identify each person's triggers.
3. Identify each person's style of learning.
LEADING
"If you know someone's fears you will know his need."
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Every leader must discover what is universal and capitalize on it.
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Five Fears, Five Needs, One Focus
1. Fear of Death--Need for Security
2. Fear of Outsiders--Need for Community
3. Fear of the Future--Need for Clarity
4. Fear of Chaos--Need for Authority
5. Fear of Insignificance--Need for Respect
Fear of the Future and the Need for Clarity is the best place to focus.
Where are your followers crying out for clarity?
1. Who do we serve?
2. What is our core strength?
"Get your strengths together and make your weaknesses irrelevant."
3. What is our core score?
4. What actions can we take today?
The Disciplines of Leadership
1. Take time to reflect
2. Select your heroes with great care
3. Practice
Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it.
Sustained success is more like sculpting than building; you don't need to add new things but cut away things. Identify what weakens you and then cut it out of your life.
Sustained success is making the greatest impact over the longest period of time.
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Pioneering Possibilities
IV. Summit Four: Pioneer Possibilities
A. That’s Impossible
1. Thank people for being caring enough to look out for your best interests.
2. But then ask, “What if…? What if the thing you’ve always dreamed of doing is possible? How would it feel to be the one who made it happen? What if, by making the impossible possible, you opened a whole new world of opportunities for yourself, your organization, and the people around you?”
3. The first step to greatness is to select an adversity-rich, worthy challenge that will stretch you in new ways and represent new possibilities, if achieved.
4. The second step is to create a plan and engineer the systems that will be the key to helping you get there.
5. The third step is to practice to perfect so you can make those systems work when they count the most.
B. What is Pioneering?
1. Do you spend most of your time doing the tried and true or do you continually invent new ways of getting things done?
2. Plate: “The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.”
3. Three Steps of Pioneering:
a) Pick a worthy goal
b) Devise signature systems
c) Practice to perfect
C. Pick a Worthy Goal
1. Ask: What if I could do something that has never been done before?
2. Factors to consider:
a) Motivation: Why do you want to do it? Tie it to a higher, grander purpose.
b) Strengths: (Will + Skill = Strengths) To what extent would this goal leverage existing strengths or require the forging of new ones? Do you have the will necessary to achieve this goal?
c) Excitement: How excited does this goal make you?
D. Devise Signature Systems
1. You may need to invent new ways of doing things that are customized to your needs and situation. These solutions become uniquely yours.
2. “If necessity is the mother of invention, then adversity is the parent of our possibilities.”
3. The best solutions are PROPS:
a) Portable: you can take them from place to place.
b) Replicable or Repeatable: they can be readily rebuilt, reused or repeated.
c) Original: they tend to be clever and unique.
d) Personal: they fit and are adapted to you, your unique style and needs.
e) Simple: they require a minimum of steps, hassles, and resources.
E. Practice to Perfect
1. Adapt, revise and improve the systems until they are perfected. Don’t get discouraged but keep at it. Most ingenious systems are the result of tenacity, relentlessness and perseverance, not genius or brilliance.
2. Questions to ask:
a) What are the criteria for an effective Signature System or solution?
b) Where and how can you practice with the new system?
c) What will you try first?
d) How will you refine your solution?
e) Where or how else might you try it?
f) Who can give you helpful feedback?
g) When or how soon can you begin?
h) How long do you need to figure it out?
From: The Adversity Advantage, Paul G. Stoltz and Erik Weihenmayer
A. That’s Impossible
1. Thank people for being caring enough to look out for your best interests.
2. But then ask, “What if…? What if the thing you’ve always dreamed of doing is possible? How would it feel to be the one who made it happen? What if, by making the impossible possible, you opened a whole new world of opportunities for yourself, your organization, and the people around you?”
3. The first step to greatness is to select an adversity-rich, worthy challenge that will stretch you in new ways and represent new possibilities, if achieved.
4. The second step is to create a plan and engineer the systems that will be the key to helping you get there.
5. The third step is to practice to perfect so you can make those systems work when they count the most.
B. What is Pioneering?
1. Do you spend most of your time doing the tried and true or do you continually invent new ways of getting things done?
2. Plate: “The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.”
3. Three Steps of Pioneering:
a) Pick a worthy goal
b) Devise signature systems
c) Practice to perfect
C. Pick a Worthy Goal
1. Ask: What if I could do something that has never been done before?
2. Factors to consider:
a) Motivation: Why do you want to do it? Tie it to a higher, grander purpose.
b) Strengths: (Will + Skill = Strengths) To what extent would this goal leverage existing strengths or require the forging of new ones? Do you have the will necessary to achieve this goal?
c) Excitement: How excited does this goal make you?
D. Devise Signature Systems
1. You may need to invent new ways of doing things that are customized to your needs and situation. These solutions become uniquely yours.
2. “If necessity is the mother of invention, then adversity is the parent of our possibilities.”
3. The best solutions are PROPS:
a) Portable: you can take them from place to place.
b) Replicable or Repeatable: they can be readily rebuilt, reused or repeated.
c) Original: they tend to be clever and unique.
d) Personal: they fit and are adapted to you, your unique style and needs.
e) Simple: they require a minimum of steps, hassles, and resources.
E. Practice to Perfect
1. Adapt, revise and improve the systems until they are perfected. Don’t get discouraged but keep at it. Most ingenious systems are the result of tenacity, relentlessness and perseverance, not genius or brilliance.
2. Questions to ask:
a) What are the criteria for an effective Signature System or solution?
b) Where and how can you practice with the new system?
c) What will you try first?
d) How will you refine your solution?
e) Where or how else might you try it?
f) Who can give you helpful feedback?
g) When or how soon can you begin?
h) How long do you need to figure it out?
From: The Adversity Advantage, Paul G. Stoltz and Erik Weihenmayer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Four Intelligences or Capacities of Our Nature
Our Third Birth-Gift: The Four Intelligences or Capacities of Our Nature
Four parts of our nature: Mind, Body, Heart, Spirit
Four Capacities of our nature: Physical Intelligence (PQ), Mental Intelligence (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) (50)
Mental Intelligence: the ability to analyze, reason, think abstractly, use language, visualize, and comprehend. (50)
Physical Intelligence: the ability of the body to balance and harmonize all of its functions without conscious effort. (50-51)
Emotional Intelligence: self-knowledge, self-awareness, social sensitivity, empathy and communication. A sense of timing for social appropriateness, courage to acknowledge weaknesses and needs, and the respect of differences. (51-53)
“For star performance in all jobs, in every field, emotional competence is twice as important as purely cognitive abilities. For success at the highest levels, in leadership positions, emotional competence accounts for virtually the entire advantage…. Given that emotional competencies make up two-thirds or more o the ingredients of a standout performance, the data suggests that finding people who have these abilities, or nurturing them in existing employees, adds tremendous value to an organization’s bottom line. How much? In simple jobs like machine operators or clerks, those in the top one percent with emotional competency were three times more productive (by value). For jobs of medium complexity, like sales clerks, or mechanics, a single top emotional competent person was twelve times more productive (by value).” Daniel Goleman (52)
“A person may be a ten on a ten-point IQ scale but emotionally score only a two, and not know how to relate well with others. They may compensate for this deficiency by over-relying on their intellect and borrowing strength from their formal position. But in so doing, they often exacerbate their own weaknesses and, in their interactions, the weaknesses of others as well. Then they try to intellectually rationalize their behavior.” (52)
Spiritual Intelligence: our drive for meaning, source of guidance, discernment of principles and connection with the infinite. (53-54)
Semantics and the Superior Nature of Spiritual Intelligence (54-57)
See Howard Gardner’s book, Frames of Mind for an excellent discussion of the concept of separate, yet overlapping intelligences.
See also Robert Cooper and Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence.
Some separate visual, verbal, analytical, artistic, logical, creative, economic and other intelligences.
“He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Anwar Sadat (56)
Four parts of our nature: Mind, Body, Heart, Spirit
Four Capacities of our nature: Physical Intelligence (PQ), Mental Intelligence (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) (50)
Mental Intelligence: the ability to analyze, reason, think abstractly, use language, visualize, and comprehend. (50)
Physical Intelligence: the ability of the body to balance and harmonize all of its functions without conscious effort. (50-51)
Emotional Intelligence: self-knowledge, self-awareness, social sensitivity, empathy and communication. A sense of timing for social appropriateness, courage to acknowledge weaknesses and needs, and the respect of differences. (51-53)
“For star performance in all jobs, in every field, emotional competence is twice as important as purely cognitive abilities. For success at the highest levels, in leadership positions, emotional competence accounts for virtually the entire advantage…. Given that emotional competencies make up two-thirds or more o the ingredients of a standout performance, the data suggests that finding people who have these abilities, or nurturing them in existing employees, adds tremendous value to an organization’s bottom line. How much? In simple jobs like machine operators or clerks, those in the top one percent with emotional competency were three times more productive (by value). For jobs of medium complexity, like sales clerks, or mechanics, a single top emotional competent person was twelve times more productive (by value).” Daniel Goleman (52)
“A person may be a ten on a ten-point IQ scale but emotionally score only a two, and not know how to relate well with others. They may compensate for this deficiency by over-relying on their intellect and borrowing strength from their formal position. But in so doing, they often exacerbate their own weaknesses and, in their interactions, the weaknesses of others as well. Then they try to intellectually rationalize their behavior.” (52)
Spiritual Intelligence: our drive for meaning, source of guidance, discernment of principles and connection with the infinite. (53-54)
Semantics and the Superior Nature of Spiritual Intelligence (54-57)
See Howard Gardner’s book, Frames of Mind for an excellent discussion of the concept of separate, yet overlapping intelligences.
See also Robert Cooper and Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence.
Some separate visual, verbal, analytical, artistic, logical, creative, economic and other intelligences.
“He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Anwar Sadat (56)
From: The 8th Habit, by Stephen Covey
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Inside Out Again: Conclusion
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Inside Out Again
Conclusion
There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space. Do we respond to situations positively, proactively? Are we taking control of our own lives? Meditating on this idea led Covey to start deep communication with his wife, including more and more discussion of their inner worlds. It was a time of inner discovery. They developed two ground rules. First, “no probing,” just empathize. Probing was too invasive. The second was when it hurt too much, quit for the day. The most difficult and most fruitful part of this communication came when the vulnerability of each person was touched. They discovered a new sense of reverence for each other. They discovered that even seemingly truthful things often have roots in deep emotional experiences. To deal with the superficial trivia without seeing the deeper, more tender issues is to trample on the sacred ground of another’s heart. The ability to use wisely the gap between stimulus and response, to exercise the four unique endowments of our human nature, empowers us from the inside out. (The four endowments are self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will. See the summary of Habit 1 Be Proactive.) By understanding the role of scripting, we understand the transcendent power in a strong intergenerational family. An effectively interdependent family of children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can be a powerful force in helping people have a sense of who they are, where they came from and what they stand for. “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other wings.” Anonymous. We should make a personal goal of becoming a “transition person,” a person who changes the scripts transferred to the next generation from negative to positive by being proactive. This should be part of our personal mission statement. A tendency that has run through a family for generations can stop with one person.
Anwar Sadat, the former President of Egypt, was a powerful transition person for peace in the Middle East. Sadat said, “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Real change comes from the inside out. Amiel said, “Only these truths... which have become ourselves... are really our life... So long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between truth and us we remain outside it. To become divine is then the aim of life.... It is no longer outside us, now in a sense even in us, but we are it, and it is we.” To achieve unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and our working associates, is the highest, best, and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits. Building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that creates such unity isn’t easy, but it’s plausible. If we start with the daily private victory and work from the inside out, results will surely come.
These posts were summarized by Michael Gray.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Inside Out Again
Conclusion
There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space. Do we respond to situations positively, proactively? Are we taking control of our own lives? Meditating on this idea led Covey to start deep communication with his wife, including more and more discussion of their inner worlds. It was a time of inner discovery. They developed two ground rules. First, “no probing,” just empathize. Probing was too invasive. The second was when it hurt too much, quit for the day. The most difficult and most fruitful part of this communication came when the vulnerability of each person was touched. They discovered a new sense of reverence for each other. They discovered that even seemingly truthful things often have roots in deep emotional experiences. To deal with the superficial trivia without seeing the deeper, more tender issues is to trample on the sacred ground of another’s heart. The ability to use wisely the gap between stimulus and response, to exercise the four unique endowments of our human nature, empowers us from the inside out. (The four endowments are self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will. See the summary of Habit 1 Be Proactive.) By understanding the role of scripting, we understand the transcendent power in a strong intergenerational family. An effectively interdependent family of children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can be a powerful force in helping people have a sense of who they are, where they came from and what they stand for. “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other wings.” Anonymous. We should make a personal goal of becoming a “transition person,” a person who changes the scripts transferred to the next generation from negative to positive by being proactive. This should be part of our personal mission statement. A tendency that has run through a family for generations can stop with one person.
Anwar Sadat, the former President of Egypt, was a powerful transition person for peace in the Middle East. Sadat said, “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Real change comes from the inside out. Amiel said, “Only these truths... which have become ourselves... are really our life... So long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between truth and us we remain outside it. To become divine is then the aim of life.... It is no longer outside us, now in a sense even in us, but we are it, and it is we.” To achieve unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and our working associates, is the highest, best, and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits. Building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that creates such unity isn’t easy, but it’s plausible. If we start with the daily private victory and work from the inside out, results will surely come.
These posts were summarized by Michael Gray.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Sharpen the Saw
Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Habit 7
Suppose you came upon someone in the woods working to saw down a tree. They are exhausted from working for hours. You suggest they take a break to sharpen the saw. They might reply, “ I didn’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m busy sawing!” Habit 7 is taking the time to sharpen the saw. By renewing the four dimensions of your nature physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional, you can work more quickly and effortlessly. To do this, we must be proactive. This is a Quadrant II (important, not urgent) activity that must be acted on. It’s at the center of our Circle of Influence, so we must do it for ourselves.
The Physical Dimension.
The physical dimension involves caring for your physical body eating the right foods, getting enough rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis. If we don’t have a regular exercise program, eventually we will develop health problems. A good program builds your body’s endurance, flexibility and strength. A new program should be started gradually, in harmony with the latest research findings. The greatest benefit of taking care of yourself is development of your Habit 1 “muscles” of proactivity.
The Spiritual Dimension.
The spiritual dimension is your center, your commitment to your value system. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to timeless truths of humanity. A doctor suggested that Covey try a four step prescription at three-hour intervals at his favorite place as a child. Listen carefully, try reaching back, examine your motives, and write your worries in the sand. When we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. This is why a personal mission statement is important.
The Mental Dimension.
It’s important keep your mind sharp by reading, writing, organizing and planning. Read broadly and expose yourself to great minds. Television is the great obstacle to mental renewal. Most of the programming is a waste of time. Every day we should commit at least one hour to renewal in the first three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. This practice is a “Daily Private Victory.”
The Social/Emotional Dimension.
The physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions are closely related to Habits 1, 2 and 3: personal vision, leadership and management. The social/emotional dimension focuses on Habits 4, 5 and 6: the principles of personal leadership, empathetic communication and creative cooperation. Our emotional life is primarily developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. Renewing our social/emotional dimension requires focus and exercise in our interaction with others. Success in Habits 4, 5 and 6 is not primarily a matter of intellect, but emotion; it’s highly related to our sense of personal security. Intrinsic security comes from within, from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from living a life of integrity, in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values. There is also intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living and from service, from helping other people in a meaningful way. Each day, we can serve another person by making deposits of unconditional love.
Scripting Others.
Most people are living in a reactive mode based on the social mirror. Their scripts are based on the opinions, prescriptions, and paradigms of the people surrounding them. As interdependent people, we recognize our role as part of that social mirror. We can affirm the proactive nature of others by treating them as responsible people. We can help support them as principle-centered, value-based, interdependent, worthwhile individuals. In the story of the mix up of the “bright” and “slow” students, the teachers of a group of “slow” children erroneously classified as “bright” said, “For some reason, our methods weren’t working, so we had to change our methods.” The IQ scores of the students dramatically improved. Apparent learning disability was really teacher inflexibility. Goethe taught, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”
Balance in Renewal.
Self renewal must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions—physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional. Neglecting any one area negatively impacts the rest. The same concept also applies to organizations. The process of continuous improvement is the hallmark of the Total Quality movement and a key to man’s economic ascendancy.
Synergy in Renewal.
The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly interrelated. The Daily Private Victory, a minimum of one hour a day to renew the personal dimensions, is the key to the development of the Seven Habits and is completely within your circle of influence. It’s also the foundation for the Daily Public Victory. It’s the source of the intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.
The Upward Spiral.
Renewal is the principle and process that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. Education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective leader. Conscience is the endowment that senses our congruence or disparity with correct principles and lifts us towards them. Training and educating the conscience requires regular feasting on inspiring literature, thinking noble thoughts, and living in harmony with its small voice. Dag Hammarskjold, past Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.” The law of the harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow—no more, no less. Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit and do on increasingly higher planes.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Sharpen the Saw
Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Habit 7
Suppose you came upon someone in the woods working to saw down a tree. They are exhausted from working for hours. You suggest they take a break to sharpen the saw. They might reply, “ I didn’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m busy sawing!” Habit 7 is taking the time to sharpen the saw. By renewing the four dimensions of your nature physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional, you can work more quickly and effortlessly. To do this, we must be proactive. This is a Quadrant II (important, not urgent) activity that must be acted on. It’s at the center of our Circle of Influence, so we must do it for ourselves.
The Physical Dimension.
The physical dimension involves caring for your physical body eating the right foods, getting enough rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis. If we don’t have a regular exercise program, eventually we will develop health problems. A good program builds your body’s endurance, flexibility and strength. A new program should be started gradually, in harmony with the latest research findings. The greatest benefit of taking care of yourself is development of your Habit 1 “muscles” of proactivity.
The Spiritual Dimension.
The spiritual dimension is your center, your commitment to your value system. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to timeless truths of humanity. A doctor suggested that Covey try a four step prescription at three-hour intervals at his favorite place as a child. Listen carefully, try reaching back, examine your motives, and write your worries in the sand. When we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. This is why a personal mission statement is important.
The Mental Dimension.
It’s important keep your mind sharp by reading, writing, organizing and planning. Read broadly and expose yourself to great minds. Television is the great obstacle to mental renewal. Most of the programming is a waste of time. Every day we should commit at least one hour to renewal in the first three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. This practice is a “Daily Private Victory.”
The Social/Emotional Dimension.
The physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions are closely related to Habits 1, 2 and 3: personal vision, leadership and management. The social/emotional dimension focuses on Habits 4, 5 and 6: the principles of personal leadership, empathetic communication and creative cooperation. Our emotional life is primarily developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. Renewing our social/emotional dimension requires focus and exercise in our interaction with others. Success in Habits 4, 5 and 6 is not primarily a matter of intellect, but emotion; it’s highly related to our sense of personal security. Intrinsic security comes from within, from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from living a life of integrity, in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values. There is also intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living and from service, from helping other people in a meaningful way. Each day, we can serve another person by making deposits of unconditional love.
Scripting Others.
Most people are living in a reactive mode based on the social mirror. Their scripts are based on the opinions, prescriptions, and paradigms of the people surrounding them. As interdependent people, we recognize our role as part of that social mirror. We can affirm the proactive nature of others by treating them as responsible people. We can help support them as principle-centered, value-based, interdependent, worthwhile individuals. In the story of the mix up of the “bright” and “slow” students, the teachers of a group of “slow” children erroneously classified as “bright” said, “For some reason, our methods weren’t working, so we had to change our methods.” The IQ scores of the students dramatically improved. Apparent learning disability was really teacher inflexibility. Goethe taught, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”
Balance in Renewal.
Self renewal must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions—physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional. Neglecting any one area negatively impacts the rest. The same concept also applies to organizations. The process of continuous improvement is the hallmark of the Total Quality movement and a key to man’s economic ascendancy.
Synergy in Renewal.
The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly interrelated. The Daily Private Victory, a minimum of one hour a day to renew the personal dimensions, is the key to the development of the Seven Habits and is completely within your circle of influence. It’s also the foundation for the Daily Public Victory. It’s the source of the intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.
The Upward Spiral.
Renewal is the principle and process that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. Education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective leader. Conscience is the endowment that senses our congruence or disparity with correct principles and lifts us towards them. Training and educating the conscience requires regular feasting on inspiring literature, thinking noble thoughts, and living in harmony with its small voice. Dag Hammarskjold, past Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.” The law of the harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow—no more, no less. Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit and do on increasingly higher planes.
Habit 6: Synergize
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Synergize
Principles of Creative Cooperation
Habit 6
The exercise of the other habits prepares us for synergy. Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself the most empowering, unifying and exciting part. The essence of synergy is to value differences to respect them, to build on strengths, and to compensate for weaknesses. The way to achieve synergy is through the creative process, which is terrifying, because you never know where the creative process will lead you.
Synergistic Communication
Synergistic communication is opening your mind and heart to new possibilities. It may seem like you are casting aside “beginning with the end in mind,” but you are actually fulfilling it by clarifying your goals and discovering better ones. Almost all creative endeavors are somewhat unpredictable, and unless people have a high tolerance for ambiguity and get their security from integrity and inner values, they find it unpleasant to be involved in highly creative enterprises. By taking the time to really build a team, creating a high emotional bank account, the group can become very closely knit. The respect among members can become so high that if there is a disagreement, there can be a genuine effort to understand. High trust leads to high cooperation and communication. The progression of communication is defensive (win or lose/win), to respectful (compromise), to synergistic (win/win). Synergistic communication must be achieved to develop creative possibilities, including better solutions than original proposals. If synergy isn’t achieved, even the effort will usually result in a better compromise.
Synergy in the Classroom
A synergistic class progresses from a safe environment to brainstorming. The spirit of evaluation is subordinated to the spirit of creativity, imagining and intellectual networking. Then the entire class is transformed with the excitement of a new direction. This is not a flight of fancy, but of substance. Other times a class may approach synergy, but descends into chaos. Synergy requires the right chemistry and emotional maturity in the group to develop.
Synergy in Business
Excitement can replace respectful exchanges and ego battles. But a particular synergistic experience can seldom be recreated. Rather, new experiences should be sought. By synergistically creating a mission statement, it becomes engraved in the hearts and minds of the participants.
Fishing for the Third Alternative
The “middle” way may not be compromise, but a third alternative, like the apex of a triangle. By mutually seeking to understand and be understood, the participants pool their desires. They work together on the same side to create a third alternative to meet everyone’s needs. Instead of a transaction, this is a transformation. Each participant gets what they really want, and they build their relationship in the process.
Negative Synergy
The usual win/lose approach results in expending negative synergy. It’s like trying to drive down the road with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Instead of taking their foot off the brake, most people give it more gas. They apply more pressure to strengthen their position, creating more resistance. In contrast, a cooperative approach enables accomplishment. The problem is that highly dependent people are trying to succeed in an interdependent reality. They may talk win/win technique, but they want to manipulate others. These insecure people need to mold others to their way of thinking. The key to interpersonal synergy is intrapersonal synergy synergy within ourselves helps us achieve synergy with others. The heart of intrapersonal synergy is the first three habits, which give the internal security sufficient to handle the risks of being open and therefore vulnerable. In addition, by learning to use the left brain, logic, with the right brain, emotion, we develop psychic synergy that is suited to reality, which is logical and emotional.
Valuing the Differences
The essence of synergy is to value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people. The key to valuing these differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are. The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings. That two people can disagree and both be right is not logical, it’s psychological. And it’s very real. We see the same thing, but interpret it differently because of our conditioning. Unless we value the differences in our perceptions and understand that life is not always a dichotomous either/or, that there are almost always third alternatives, we will never be able to transcend the limits of our conditioning. If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary. So when I become aware of the difference in our perceptions, I say “Good! Help me see what you see.” By doing that, I not only increase my awareness, but I also affirm you. I give you psychological air. I create an environment for synergy.
Force Field Analysis
According to Kurt Lewin, a sociologist, the current level of performance or being is a state of equilibrium between the driving forces encouraging upward movement and restraining forces discouraging it. Driving forces are positive, personable, and conscious. Restraining forces are negative, emotional, unconscious, and social/psychological. Both forces must be considered in dealing with change. Increasing driving forces may bring temporary results. Eventually, restraining forces act like a spring to throw the level back down. To produce synergy, the concepts of win/win, mutual understanding and seeking synergy are used to work directly on the restraining forces. Involving people in the problem, so they understand it, makes it their problem. They tend to become an important part of the solution. As a result, shared goals are created, enabling the whole enterprise to move upward. The legal process should be a last, not first, resort because it polarizes the parties, making synergy practically impossible.
All Nature is Synergistic
Ecology, the interrelationship of things, describes the synergism in nature. In the relationship creative powers are maximized. The Seven Habits are also interrelated and are most powerful when used together. Synergy is the crowning achievement of the previous habits. It is effectiveness in an interdependent reality. A lot of synergy is in your circle of influence. You can value both your own analytical and creative sides. You can sidestep negative energy and look for the good in others. You can courageously express your ideas in interdependent situations. You can value the differences in others when you see only two alternatives, yours and the “wrong” one. You can seek a synergistic third alternative.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Synergize
Principles of Creative Cooperation
Habit 6
The exercise of the other habits prepares us for synergy. Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself the most empowering, unifying and exciting part. The essence of synergy is to value differences to respect them, to build on strengths, and to compensate for weaknesses. The way to achieve synergy is through the creative process, which is terrifying, because you never know where the creative process will lead you.
Synergistic Communication
Synergistic communication is opening your mind and heart to new possibilities. It may seem like you are casting aside “beginning with the end in mind,” but you are actually fulfilling it by clarifying your goals and discovering better ones. Almost all creative endeavors are somewhat unpredictable, and unless people have a high tolerance for ambiguity and get their security from integrity and inner values, they find it unpleasant to be involved in highly creative enterprises. By taking the time to really build a team, creating a high emotional bank account, the group can become very closely knit. The respect among members can become so high that if there is a disagreement, there can be a genuine effort to understand. High trust leads to high cooperation and communication. The progression of communication is defensive (win or lose/win), to respectful (compromise), to synergistic (win/win). Synergistic communication must be achieved to develop creative possibilities, including better solutions than original proposals. If synergy isn’t achieved, even the effort will usually result in a better compromise.
Synergy in the Classroom
A synergistic class progresses from a safe environment to brainstorming. The spirit of evaluation is subordinated to the spirit of creativity, imagining and intellectual networking. Then the entire class is transformed with the excitement of a new direction. This is not a flight of fancy, but of substance. Other times a class may approach synergy, but descends into chaos. Synergy requires the right chemistry and emotional maturity in the group to develop.
Synergy in Business
Excitement can replace respectful exchanges and ego battles. But a particular synergistic experience can seldom be recreated. Rather, new experiences should be sought. By synergistically creating a mission statement, it becomes engraved in the hearts and minds of the participants.
Fishing for the Third Alternative
The “middle” way may not be compromise, but a third alternative, like the apex of a triangle. By mutually seeking to understand and be understood, the participants pool their desires. They work together on the same side to create a third alternative to meet everyone’s needs. Instead of a transaction, this is a transformation. Each participant gets what they really want, and they build their relationship in the process.
Negative Synergy
The usual win/lose approach results in expending negative synergy. It’s like trying to drive down the road with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Instead of taking their foot off the brake, most people give it more gas. They apply more pressure to strengthen their position, creating more resistance. In contrast, a cooperative approach enables accomplishment. The problem is that highly dependent people are trying to succeed in an interdependent reality. They may talk win/win technique, but they want to manipulate others. These insecure people need to mold others to their way of thinking. The key to interpersonal synergy is intrapersonal synergy synergy within ourselves helps us achieve synergy with others. The heart of intrapersonal synergy is the first three habits, which give the internal security sufficient to handle the risks of being open and therefore vulnerable. In addition, by learning to use the left brain, logic, with the right brain, emotion, we develop psychic synergy that is suited to reality, which is logical and emotional.
Valuing the Differences
The essence of synergy is to value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people. The key to valuing these differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are. The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings. That two people can disagree and both be right is not logical, it’s psychological. And it’s very real. We see the same thing, but interpret it differently because of our conditioning. Unless we value the differences in our perceptions and understand that life is not always a dichotomous either/or, that there are almost always third alternatives, we will never be able to transcend the limits of our conditioning. If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary. So when I become aware of the difference in our perceptions, I say “Good! Help me see what you see.” By doing that, I not only increase my awareness, but I also affirm you. I give you psychological air. I create an environment for synergy.
Force Field Analysis
According to Kurt Lewin, a sociologist, the current level of performance or being is a state of equilibrium between the driving forces encouraging upward movement and restraining forces discouraging it. Driving forces are positive, personable, and conscious. Restraining forces are negative, emotional, unconscious, and social/psychological. Both forces must be considered in dealing with change. Increasing driving forces may bring temporary results. Eventually, restraining forces act like a spring to throw the level back down. To produce synergy, the concepts of win/win, mutual understanding and seeking synergy are used to work directly on the restraining forces. Involving people in the problem, so they understand it, makes it their problem. They tend to become an important part of the solution. As a result, shared goals are created, enabling the whole enterprise to move upward. The legal process should be a last, not first, resort because it polarizes the parties, making synergy practically impossible.
All Nature is Synergistic
Ecology, the interrelationship of things, describes the synergism in nature. In the relationship creative powers are maximized. The Seven Habits are also interrelated and are most powerful when used together. Synergy is the crowning achievement of the previous habits. It is effectiveness in an interdependent reality. A lot of synergy is in your circle of influence. You can value both your own analytical and creative sides. You can sidestep negative energy and look for the good in others. You can courageously express your ideas in interdependent situations. You can value the differences in others when you see only two alternatives, yours and the “wrong” one. You can seek a synergistic third alternative.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood
Habit 5
We often prescribe before making a proper diagnosis when communicating. We should first take the time to deeply understand the problems presented to us. The real key to influence is example your actual conduct. Your private performance must square with your public performance. Unless people trust you and believe you understand them, they will be too angry, defensive, guilty or afraid to be influenced. Skills of empathic listening must be built on a character that inspires openness and trust and high emotional bank accounts.
Empathic Listening
People tend to filter the information they receive through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people’s lives, or projecting their own home movies onto other people’s behavior. When another person is speaking, we usually “listen” at one of four levels: ignoring, pretending, selective listening, or attentive listening. We should be using the fifth, highest form of listening empathic listening. Active or reflective listening is skill-based and often insults the speaker. Empathic listening is listening with intent to understand the other person’s frame of reference and feelings. You must listen with your ears, your eyes and your heart. Empathic listening is a tremendous deposit into the emotional bank account. It’s deeply therapeutic and healing because it gives a person “psychological air.” Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, and to be appreciated. Empathic listening is risky. It takes a great deal of security to go into a deep listening experience because you open yourself up to being influenced. You become vulnerable. In order to have influence, you must be influenced.
Diagnose Before You Prescribe
It can be dangerous to prescribe without an accurate diagnosis. An effective salesperson seeks to understand the needs, concerns and situation of the customer. An amateur sells products, the professional sells solutions. This is a common denominator principle with its greatest power in interpersonal relationships.
Four Autobiographical Responses
Evaluate Agree to disagree.
Probe Ask questions from your own frame of reference.
Advise Give counsel based on your own experience.
Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret based on your own motives and behavior.
These behaviors are controlling and invasive. They may also be logical, and the language of logic is different from the language of sentiment and emotion. You will never be able to truly step inside another person and see the world as he sees it until you develop the pure desire, the strength of personal character, and the positive emotional bank account as well as the empathic listening skills to do so. The skills involve four developmental stages:
1. The least effective is to mimic content, which is taught in active or reflective listening repeating what the person said back to him or her.
2. To rephrase the content is more rephrase the content is more rephrase the content effective, but still limited to the verbal communication. It’s putting the persons’ meaning in your own words. This is a “logical” approach.
3. To reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling brain, emotional level.
4. To rephrase the content and reflect the feeling includes both the second and third, feeling includes both the second and third, feeling attempting to understand both sides of his communication and give psychological air.
All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we’re not addressing the real problem. And we’ll never get to the real problem if we can’t see the world from another point of view. By seeking first to understand, we can turn a transactional opportunity into a transformational opportunity. We can get on the same side of the table looking at the problem instead of staying on opposite sides staring at each other. Emotional statements require empathic, logical-emotional responses. Children will open up to their parents if they feel their parents will love them unconditionally and will be faithful to them afterwards, never ridiculing them. Sometimes talking isn’t necessary to empathize; the words may get in the way. Empathic listening takes time, but not as much time as backing up and correcting misunderstandings, including living with problems and the results of not giving the people you care about psychological air.
Understanding and Perception
By understanding the other person, we can learn their paradigms through which they view the world and their needs. Then we can try to resolve our differences to work together.
Then Seek to be Understood
Knowing how to be understood is as important as seeking to understand in reaching Win/Win solutions, and requires courage. The Greek philosophy of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos gives the sequence for effective communication. Ethos is your personal creditability. Pathos is the empathic side. Logos is the reasoning side. Most people go straight to the logical side without first establishing their character and building the relationship. Describe the alternative they favor better than they can themselves. Then explain the logic behind your request. When you can present your own ideas clearly, specifically, visually and most importantly contextually in the context of a deep understanding of their paradigms and concerns you significantly increase the creditability of your ideas.
One on One
Habit 5 is powerful because it focuses on your circle of influence. It’s an inside out approach. You are focusing on building your understanding. You become influenceable, which is the key to influencing others. As you appreciate people more, they will appreciate you more. Opportunities to practice this habit proactively occur every day with your co-workers, customers, friends, and family. When we really deeply understand each other, we open the door to creative solutions and third alternatives. Our differences are no longer stumbling blocks to communication and progress. Instead they become the stepping stones to synergy.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood
Habit 5
We often prescribe before making a proper diagnosis when communicating. We should first take the time to deeply understand the problems presented to us. The real key to influence is example your actual conduct. Your private performance must square with your public performance. Unless people trust you and believe you understand them, they will be too angry, defensive, guilty or afraid to be influenced. Skills of empathic listening must be built on a character that inspires openness and trust and high emotional bank accounts.
Empathic Listening
People tend to filter the information they receive through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people’s lives, or projecting their own home movies onto other people’s behavior. When another person is speaking, we usually “listen” at one of four levels: ignoring, pretending, selective listening, or attentive listening. We should be using the fifth, highest form of listening empathic listening. Active or reflective listening is skill-based and often insults the speaker. Empathic listening is listening with intent to understand the other person’s frame of reference and feelings. You must listen with your ears, your eyes and your heart. Empathic listening is a tremendous deposit into the emotional bank account. It’s deeply therapeutic and healing because it gives a person “psychological air.” Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, and to be appreciated. Empathic listening is risky. It takes a great deal of security to go into a deep listening experience because you open yourself up to being influenced. You become vulnerable. In order to have influence, you must be influenced.
Diagnose Before You Prescribe
It can be dangerous to prescribe without an accurate diagnosis. An effective salesperson seeks to understand the needs, concerns and situation of the customer. An amateur sells products, the professional sells solutions. This is a common denominator principle with its greatest power in interpersonal relationships.
Four Autobiographical Responses
Evaluate Agree to disagree.
Probe Ask questions from your own frame of reference.
Advise Give counsel based on your own experience.
Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret based on your own motives and behavior.
These behaviors are controlling and invasive. They may also be logical, and the language of logic is different from the language of sentiment and emotion. You will never be able to truly step inside another person and see the world as he sees it until you develop the pure desire, the strength of personal character, and the positive emotional bank account as well as the empathic listening skills to do so. The skills involve four developmental stages:
1. The least effective is to mimic content, which is taught in active or reflective listening repeating what the person said back to him or her.
2. To rephrase the content is more rephrase the content is more rephrase the content effective, but still limited to the verbal communication. It’s putting the persons’ meaning in your own words. This is a “logical” approach.
3. To reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling brain, emotional level.
4. To rephrase the content and reflect the feeling includes both the second and third, feeling includes both the second and third, feeling attempting to understand both sides of his communication and give psychological air.
All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we’re not addressing the real problem. And we’ll never get to the real problem if we can’t see the world from another point of view. By seeking first to understand, we can turn a transactional opportunity into a transformational opportunity. We can get on the same side of the table looking at the problem instead of staying on opposite sides staring at each other. Emotional statements require empathic, logical-emotional responses. Children will open up to their parents if they feel their parents will love them unconditionally and will be faithful to them afterwards, never ridiculing them. Sometimes talking isn’t necessary to empathize; the words may get in the way. Empathic listening takes time, but not as much time as backing up and correcting misunderstandings, including living with problems and the results of not giving the people you care about psychological air.
Understanding and Perception
By understanding the other person, we can learn their paradigms through which they view the world and their needs. Then we can try to resolve our differences to work together.
Then Seek to be Understood
Knowing how to be understood is as important as seeking to understand in reaching Win/Win solutions, and requires courage. The Greek philosophy of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos gives the sequence for effective communication. Ethos is your personal creditability. Pathos is the empathic side. Logos is the reasoning side. Most people go straight to the logical side without first establishing their character and building the relationship. Describe the alternative they favor better than they can themselves. Then explain the logic behind your request. When you can present your own ideas clearly, specifically, visually and most importantly contextually in the context of a deep understanding of their paradigms and concerns you significantly increase the creditability of your ideas.
One on One
Habit 5 is powerful because it focuses on your circle of influence. It’s an inside out approach. You are focusing on building your understanding. You become influenceable, which is the key to influencing others. As you appreciate people more, they will appreciate you more. Opportunities to practice this habit proactively occur every day with your co-workers, customers, friends, and family. When we really deeply understand each other, we open the door to creative solutions and third alternatives. Our differences are no longer stumbling blocks to communication and progress. Instead they become the stepping stones to synergy.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Think Win-Win
Habit 4
Win/Win is one of six total philosophies of human interaction.
1. Win/Win People can seek mutual benefit in all human interactions. Principle-based behavior.
2. Win/Lose The competitive paradigm: if I win, you lose. The leadership style is authoritarian. In relationships, if both people aren’t winning, both are losing.
3. Lose/Win The “Doormat” paradigm. The individual seeks strength from popularity based on acceptance. The leadership style is permissiveness. Living this paradigm can result in psychosomatic illness from repressed resentment.
4. Lose/Lose When people become obsessed with making the other person lose, even at their own expense. This is the philosophy of adversarial conflict, war, or of highly dependent persons. (If nobody wins, being a loser isn’t so bad.)
5. Win Focusing solely on getting what one wants, regardless of the needs of others.
6. Win/Win or No Deal If we can’t find a mutually beneficial solution, we agree to disagree agreeably no deal. This approach is most realistic at the beginning of a business relationship or enterprise. In a continuing relationship, it’s no longer an option.
The most appropriate model depends on the situation. When relationships are paramount, Win/Win is the only viable alternative. In a competitive situation where building a relationship isn’t important, Win/Lose may be appropriate. There are five dimensions of the Win/Win model: Character, Relationships, Agreements, Supportive Systems and Processes.
1. Character is the foundation of Win/Win. There must be integrity in order to establish trust in the relationship and to define a win in terms of personal values. A key trait is the abundance mentality that there is plenty for everybody (v. the Scarcity Mentality). The abundance mentality flows from a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.
2. Relationships are the focus on Win/ Win. Whatever the orientation of the person you are dealing with (Win/Lose, etc.), the relationship is the key to turning the situation around. When there is a relationship of trust and emotional bank account balances are high, there is a much greater probability of a successful, productive interaction. Negative energy focused on differences in personality or position is eliminated; positive, cooperative energy focused on understanding and resolving issues is built.
3. Performance agreements or partnership agreements give definition and direction to Win/Win,. They shift the paradigm of production from vertical (Superior Subordinate) to horizontal (Partnership/Team). The agreement should include elements to create a standard by which people can measure their own success.
1. Defined results (not methods) what is to be done and when.
2. Guidelines the parameters within which the results should be accomplished
3. Resources human, financial, technical or organizational support available to accomplish the results.
4. Accountability the standards of performance and time(s) of evaluation.
5. Consequences what will happen as a result of the evaluation.
The agreement may be written by the employee to the manager to confirm the understanding. Developing Win/Win performance agreements is the central activity of management, enabling employers to manage themselves within the framework of the agreement. Then the manager can initiate action and resolve obstacles so employees can do their jobs. There are four kinds of consequences that management or parents can control Financial, Psychic, Opportunity and Responsibility. In addition to personal consequences, the organizational consequences of behaviors should be identified.
1. The Reward System is a key element in the Win/Win model. Talking Win/Win but rewarding Win/Lose results in negating the Win/Win paradigm. If the outstanding performance of a few is rewarded, the other team members will be losers. Instead, develop individual achievable goals and team objectives to be rewarded. Competition has its place against market competitors, last year’s performance, or another location or individual where cooperation and interdependence aren’t required, but cooperation in the workplace is as important to free enterprise as competition in the marketplace. The spirit of Win/Win cannot survive in an environment of competition or contests. All of the company’s systems should be based on the principle of Win/Win. The Compensation system of the managers should be based on the productivity and development of their people. Reward both P (production) and PC (building production capacity).
2. The Win/Win process has four steps.
1. See the problem from the other point of view, in terms of the needs and concerns
of the other party.
2. Identify the key issues and concerns (not positions) involved.
3. Determine what results would make a fully acceptable solution.
4. Identify new options to achieve those
results.
You can only achieve Win/Win solutions with Win/Win procedures. Win/Win is not a personality technique. It’s a total paradigm of human interaction.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Think Win-Win
Habit 4
Win/Win is one of six total philosophies of human interaction.
1. Win/Win People can seek mutual benefit in all human interactions. Principle-based behavior.
2. Win/Lose The competitive paradigm: if I win, you lose. The leadership style is authoritarian. In relationships, if both people aren’t winning, both are losing.
3. Lose/Win The “Doormat” paradigm. The individual seeks strength from popularity based on acceptance. The leadership style is permissiveness. Living this paradigm can result in psychosomatic illness from repressed resentment.
4. Lose/Lose When people become obsessed with making the other person lose, even at their own expense. This is the philosophy of adversarial conflict, war, or of highly dependent persons. (If nobody wins, being a loser isn’t so bad.)
5. Win Focusing solely on getting what one wants, regardless of the needs of others.
6. Win/Win or No Deal If we can’t find a mutually beneficial solution, we agree to disagree agreeably no deal. This approach is most realistic at the beginning of a business relationship or enterprise. In a continuing relationship, it’s no longer an option.
The most appropriate model depends on the situation. When relationships are paramount, Win/Win is the only viable alternative. In a competitive situation where building a relationship isn’t important, Win/Lose may be appropriate. There are five dimensions of the Win/Win model: Character, Relationships, Agreements, Supportive Systems and Processes.
1. Character is the foundation of Win/Win. There must be integrity in order to establish trust in the relationship and to define a win in terms of personal values. A key trait is the abundance mentality that there is plenty for everybody (v. the Scarcity Mentality). The abundance mentality flows from a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.
2. Relationships are the focus on Win/ Win. Whatever the orientation of the person you are dealing with (Win/Lose, etc.), the relationship is the key to turning the situation around. When there is a relationship of trust and emotional bank account balances are high, there is a much greater probability of a successful, productive interaction. Negative energy focused on differences in personality or position is eliminated; positive, cooperative energy focused on understanding and resolving issues is built.
3. Performance agreements or partnership agreements give definition and direction to Win/Win,. They shift the paradigm of production from vertical (Superior Subordinate) to horizontal (Partnership/Team). The agreement should include elements to create a standard by which people can measure their own success.
1. Defined results (not methods) what is to be done and when.
2. Guidelines the parameters within which the results should be accomplished
3. Resources human, financial, technical or organizational support available to accomplish the results.
4. Accountability the standards of performance and time(s) of evaluation.
5. Consequences what will happen as a result of the evaluation.
The agreement may be written by the employee to the manager to confirm the understanding. Developing Win/Win performance agreements is the central activity of management, enabling employers to manage themselves within the framework of the agreement. Then the manager can initiate action and resolve obstacles so employees can do their jobs. There are four kinds of consequences that management or parents can control Financial, Psychic, Opportunity and Responsibility. In addition to personal consequences, the organizational consequences of behaviors should be identified.
1. The Reward System is a key element in the Win/Win model. Talking Win/Win but rewarding Win/Lose results in negating the Win/Win paradigm. If the outstanding performance of a few is rewarded, the other team members will be losers. Instead, develop individual achievable goals and team objectives to be rewarded. Competition has its place against market competitors, last year’s performance, or another location or individual where cooperation and interdependence aren’t required, but cooperation in the workplace is as important to free enterprise as competition in the marketplace. The spirit of Win/Win cannot survive in an environment of competition or contests. All of the company’s systems should be based on the principle of Win/Win. The Compensation system of the managers should be based on the productivity and development of their people. Reward both P (production) and PC (building production capacity).
2. The Win/Win process has four steps.
1. See the problem from the other point of view, in terms of the needs and concerns
of the other party.
2. Identify the key issues and concerns (not positions) involved.
3. Determine what results would make a fully acceptable solution.
4. Identify new options to achieve those
results.
You can only achieve Win/Win solutions with Win/Win procedures. Win/Win is not a personality technique. It’s a total paradigm of human interaction.
Habit 3: Put First Things First (Personal Mangement)
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Put First Things First
Principles of Personal Management
Habit 3
Habit 1 I am the Programmer.
Habit 2 Write the Program.
Habit 3 Execute the Program.
Habit 3 is Personal Management, the exercise of independent will to create a life congruent with your values, goals and mission. The fourth human endowment, Independent Will, is the ability to make decisions and choices and act upon them. Integrity is our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves. Management involves developing the specific application of the ideas. We should lead from the right brain (creatively) and manage from the left brain (analytically).
In order to subordinate your feelings, impulses and moods to your values, you must have a burning “YES!” inside, making it possible to say “No” to other things. The “Yes” is our purpose, passion, clear sense of direction and value. Time management is an essential skill for personal management. The essence of time management is to organize and execute around priorities. Methods of time management have developed in these stages: 1) notes and checklists recognizing multiple demands on our time; 2) calendars and appointment books scheduling events and activities; 3) prioritizing, clarifying values integrating our daily planning with goal setting (The downside of this approach is increasing efficiency can reduce the spontaneity and relationships of life.); 4) managing ourselves rather than managing time focusing in preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results, thus maintaining the P/PC balance (production versus building production capacity). A matrix can be made of the characteristics of activities, classifying them as urgent or not urgent, important or not important. List the activities screaming for action as “Urgent.” List the activities contributing to your mission, value or high-priority goals as “Important.”
Quadrant I activities are urgent and important called problems or crises. Focusing on Quadrant I results in it getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. Quadrant III activities are urgent and not important, and often misclassified as Quadrant I. Quadrant IV is the escape Quadrant activities that are not urgent and not important. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because they aren’t important. They shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II. Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent. Working on this Quadrant is the heart of personal time management. These are PC activities. Quadrant II activities are high impact activities that when done regularly would make a tremendous difference in your life. (Including implementing the Seven Habits.) Initially, the time for Quadrant II activities must come from Quadrants III and IV. Quadrant I can’t be ignored, but should eventually shrink with attention to Quadrant II. 1) Prioritize 2) Organize Around Priorities 3) Discipline yourself Self discipline isn’t enough. Without a principle center and a personal mission statement we don’t have the necessary foundation to sustain our efforts.
Covey has developed a Quadrant II organizer meeting six criteria: 1. Coherence integrates roles, goals, and priorities. 2. Balance keeps various roles before you so they’re not neglected. 3. Quadrant II Focus Weekly the key is not to prioritize what’s in your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. 4. A People Dimension think of efficiency when dealing with things, but effectiveness when dealing with people. The first person to consider in terms of effectiveness is yourself. Schedules are subordinated to people. 5. Flexibility the organizer is your servant, not your master 6. Portability There are four key activities in Quadrant
II organizing, focusing on what you want to accomplish for the next 7 days: 1) Identify Roles 2) Select Goals two or three items to accomplish for each role for the next week, including some of your longer term goals and personal mission statement 3) Scheduling/Delegating including the freedom and flexibility to handle unanticipated events and the ability to be spontaneous 4) Daily Adapting each day respond to unanticipated events, relationships and experiences in a meaningful way.
Here are five advantages of this organizer: 1) It’s principle-centered it enables you to see your time in the context of what’s important and what’s effective. 2) It’s conscience directed it enables you to organize your life around your deepest values. 3) It defines your unique mission, including values and long-term goals. 4) It helps you balance your life by identifying roles. 5) It gives greater perspective through weekly organizing. The practical thread is a primary focus on relationships and a secondary focus on time, because people are more important than things.
The second critical skill for personal management is delegation. Effectively delegating to others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage activity there is. Delegation enables you to devote your energies to high level activities in addition to enabling personal growth for individuals and organizations. Using delegation enables the manager to leverage the results of their efforts as compared to functioning as a “producer.” There are two types of delegation: Gofer Delegation and Supervision of Efforts (Stewardship). Using Gofer Delegation requires dictating not only what to do, but how to do it. The supervisor then must function as a “boss,” micromanaging the progress of the “subordinate.” The supervisor thus loses a lot of the leveraging benefits of delegation because of the demands on his time for follow up. An adversarial relationship may also develop between the supervisor and subordinate.
More effective managers use Stewardship Delegation, which focuses on results instead of methods. People are able to choose the method to achieve the results. It takes more time up front, but has greater benefits. Stewardship Delegation depends on trust, but it takes time and patience. The people may need training and development to acquire the competence to rise to the level of that trust. Stewardship Delegation requires a clear, up-front mutual understanding of and commitment to expectations in five areas:
1. Desired Results Have the person see it, describe it, make a quality statement of what the results will look like and by when they will be accomplished.
2. Guidelines Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate, and what potential “failure paths” might be. Keep the responsibility for results with the person delegated to.
3. Resources Identify the resources available to accomplish the required results.
4. Accountability Set standards of performance to be used in evaluating the results and specific times when reporting and evaluation will take place.
5. Consequences Specify what will happen as a result of the evaluation, including psychic or financial rewards and penalties.
Using Stewardship Delegation, we are developing a goose (to produce golden eggs) based on internal commitment. We must avoid Gofer Delegation to get the golden egg or we kill the goose the worker reverts to the gofer’s credo: “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” This approach is a new paradigm of delegation. The steward becomes his own boss governed by his own conscience, including the commitment to agreed-upon desired results. It also releases his creative energies toward doing whatever is necessary in harmony with correct principles to achieve those desired results. Immature people can handle fewer results and need more guidelines and more accountability interviews. Mature people can handle more challenging desired results with fewer guidelines and accountability interviews.
Paradigms of Interdependence
Victories in our personal development precede our public victories. Independence is the foundation of interdependence. The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or do, but who we are. If our words and actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. Interdependence opens worlds of possibilities for deep, meaningful associations, greater productivity, service, contribution and growth. It also exposes us to greater pain. In order to receive the benefits of interdependence, we need to create and care for the relationships that are the source of the benefits.
The Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor describing relationships and the P/ PC (Production versus building Production Capacity) balance for interdependence. It describes how trust is built on a relationship. Positive behaviors are deposits building a reserve. Negative behaviors are withdrawals. A high reserve balance results in higher tolerance for our mistakes and more open communication.
There are six major deposits we can make to the emotional bank account:
1. Understanding the individual. An individual’s values determine what actions will result in a deposit or a withdrawal for that individual. To build a relationship, you must learn what is important to the other person and make it as important to you as the other person is to you. Understand others deeply as individuals and then treat them in terms of that understanding.
2. Attend to the little things, which are the big things in relationships.
3. Keep commitments. Breaking a promise is a major withdrawal.
4. Clarify expectations. The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in ambiguous, conflicting expectations around roles and goals. Making an investment of time and effort up front saves time, effort and a major withdrawal later.
5. Show personal integrity. A lack of integrity can undermine almost any effort to create a high trust reserve. Honesty requires conforming our words to reality. Integrity requires conforming reality to our words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.
The key to the many is the one, especially the one that tests the patience and good humor of the many. How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one. 6. Apologize sincerely when you make a withdrawal. Sincere apologies are deposits, but repeated apologies are interpreted as insincere, resulting in withdrawals.
The Laws of Love and the Laws of Life: In giving unconditional love, we help others feel secure, safe and validated, which gives them the emotional security to do the same for others. Making conditions for our approval creates defensiveness and insecurity, breaking down the bonds of interdependence.
Dag Hammerskjold, past Secretary General of the United Nations, said, “It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual, than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.” It is at the one-on-one level that we live the primary laws of love and life.
Problems should be recognized as PC opportunities, a chance to build up emotional bank accounts. These are opportunities to deeply understand and help others, which applies to all personal relationships in the family, with workers and with customers. The paradigm of the emotional bank account is the foundation of the habits of public victory required to avoid using personality techniques and to establish character ethics as the natural outgrowth of a secure, giving character.
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989
Put First Things First
Principles of Personal Management
Habit 3
Habit 1 I am the Programmer.
Habit 2 Write the Program.
Habit 3 Execute the Program.
Habit 3 is Personal Management, the exercise of independent will to create a life congruent with your values, goals and mission. The fourth human endowment, Independent Will, is the ability to make decisions and choices and act upon them. Integrity is our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves. Management involves developing the specific application of the ideas. We should lead from the right brain (creatively) and manage from the left brain (analytically).
In order to subordinate your feelings, impulses and moods to your values, you must have a burning “YES!” inside, making it possible to say “No” to other things. The “Yes” is our purpose, passion, clear sense of direction and value. Time management is an essential skill for personal management. The essence of time management is to organize and execute around priorities. Methods of time management have developed in these stages: 1) notes and checklists recognizing multiple demands on our time; 2) calendars and appointment books scheduling events and activities; 3) prioritizing, clarifying values integrating our daily planning with goal setting (The downside of this approach is increasing efficiency can reduce the spontaneity and relationships of life.); 4) managing ourselves rather than managing time focusing in preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results, thus maintaining the P/PC balance (production versus building production capacity). A matrix can be made of the characteristics of activities, classifying them as urgent or not urgent, important or not important. List the activities screaming for action as “Urgent.” List the activities contributing to your mission, value or high-priority goals as “Important.”
Quadrant I activities are urgent and important called problems or crises. Focusing on Quadrant I results in it getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. Quadrant III activities are urgent and not important, and often misclassified as Quadrant I. Quadrant IV is the escape Quadrant activities that are not urgent and not important. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because they aren’t important. They shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II. Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent. Working on this Quadrant is the heart of personal time management. These are PC activities. Quadrant II activities are high impact activities that when done regularly would make a tremendous difference in your life. (Including implementing the Seven Habits.) Initially, the time for Quadrant II activities must come from Quadrants III and IV. Quadrant I can’t be ignored, but should eventually shrink with attention to Quadrant II. 1) Prioritize 2) Organize Around Priorities 3) Discipline yourself Self discipline isn’t enough. Without a principle center and a personal mission statement we don’t have the necessary foundation to sustain our efforts.
Covey has developed a Quadrant II organizer meeting six criteria: 1. Coherence integrates roles, goals, and priorities. 2. Balance keeps various roles before you so they’re not neglected. 3. Quadrant II Focus Weekly the key is not to prioritize what’s in your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. 4. A People Dimension think of efficiency when dealing with things, but effectiveness when dealing with people. The first person to consider in terms of effectiveness is yourself. Schedules are subordinated to people. 5. Flexibility the organizer is your servant, not your master 6. Portability There are four key activities in Quadrant
II organizing, focusing on what you want to accomplish for the next 7 days: 1) Identify Roles 2) Select Goals two or three items to accomplish for each role for the next week, including some of your longer term goals and personal mission statement 3) Scheduling/Delegating including the freedom and flexibility to handle unanticipated events and the ability to be spontaneous 4) Daily Adapting each day respond to unanticipated events, relationships and experiences in a meaningful way.
Here are five advantages of this organizer: 1) It’s principle-centered it enables you to see your time in the context of what’s important and what’s effective. 2) It’s conscience directed it enables you to organize your life around your deepest values. 3) It defines your unique mission, including values and long-term goals. 4) It helps you balance your life by identifying roles. 5) It gives greater perspective through weekly organizing. The practical thread is a primary focus on relationships and a secondary focus on time, because people are more important than things.
The second critical skill for personal management is delegation. Effectively delegating to others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage activity there is. Delegation enables you to devote your energies to high level activities in addition to enabling personal growth for individuals and organizations. Using delegation enables the manager to leverage the results of their efforts as compared to functioning as a “producer.” There are two types of delegation: Gofer Delegation and Supervision of Efforts (Stewardship). Using Gofer Delegation requires dictating not only what to do, but how to do it. The supervisor then must function as a “boss,” micromanaging the progress of the “subordinate.” The supervisor thus loses a lot of the leveraging benefits of delegation because of the demands on his time for follow up. An adversarial relationship may also develop between the supervisor and subordinate.
More effective managers use Stewardship Delegation, which focuses on results instead of methods. People are able to choose the method to achieve the results. It takes more time up front, but has greater benefits. Stewardship Delegation depends on trust, but it takes time and patience. The people may need training and development to acquire the competence to rise to the level of that trust. Stewardship Delegation requires a clear, up-front mutual understanding of and commitment to expectations in five areas:
1. Desired Results Have the person see it, describe it, make a quality statement of what the results will look like and by when they will be accomplished.
2. Guidelines Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate, and what potential “failure paths” might be. Keep the responsibility for results with the person delegated to.
3. Resources Identify the resources available to accomplish the required results.
4. Accountability Set standards of performance to be used in evaluating the results and specific times when reporting and evaluation will take place.
5. Consequences Specify what will happen as a result of the evaluation, including psychic or financial rewards and penalties.
Using Stewardship Delegation, we are developing a goose (to produce golden eggs) based on internal commitment. We must avoid Gofer Delegation to get the golden egg or we kill the goose the worker reverts to the gofer’s credo: “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” This approach is a new paradigm of delegation. The steward becomes his own boss governed by his own conscience, including the commitment to agreed-upon desired results. It also releases his creative energies toward doing whatever is necessary in harmony with correct principles to achieve those desired results. Immature people can handle fewer results and need more guidelines and more accountability interviews. Mature people can handle more challenging desired results with fewer guidelines and accountability interviews.
Paradigms of Interdependence
Victories in our personal development precede our public victories. Independence is the foundation of interdependence. The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or do, but who we are. If our words and actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. Interdependence opens worlds of possibilities for deep, meaningful associations, greater productivity, service, contribution and growth. It also exposes us to greater pain. In order to receive the benefits of interdependence, we need to create and care for the relationships that are the source of the benefits.
The Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor describing relationships and the P/ PC (Production versus building Production Capacity) balance for interdependence. It describes how trust is built on a relationship. Positive behaviors are deposits building a reserve. Negative behaviors are withdrawals. A high reserve balance results in higher tolerance for our mistakes and more open communication.
There are six major deposits we can make to the emotional bank account:
1. Understanding the individual. An individual’s values determine what actions will result in a deposit or a withdrawal for that individual. To build a relationship, you must learn what is important to the other person and make it as important to you as the other person is to you. Understand others deeply as individuals and then treat them in terms of that understanding.
2. Attend to the little things, which are the big things in relationships.
3. Keep commitments. Breaking a promise is a major withdrawal.
4. Clarify expectations. The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in ambiguous, conflicting expectations around roles and goals. Making an investment of time and effort up front saves time, effort and a major withdrawal later.
5. Show personal integrity. A lack of integrity can undermine almost any effort to create a high trust reserve. Honesty requires conforming our words to reality. Integrity requires conforming reality to our words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.
The key to the many is the one, especially the one that tests the patience and good humor of the many. How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one. 6. Apologize sincerely when you make a withdrawal. Sincere apologies are deposits, but repeated apologies are interpreted as insincere, resulting in withdrawals.
The Laws of Love and the Laws of Life: In giving unconditional love, we help others feel secure, safe and validated, which gives them the emotional security to do the same for others. Making conditions for our approval creates defensiveness and insecurity, breaking down the bonds of interdependence.
Dag Hammerskjold, past Secretary General of the United Nations, said, “It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual, than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.” It is at the one-on-one level that we live the primary laws of love and life.
Problems should be recognized as PC opportunities, a chance to build up emotional bank accounts. These are opportunities to deeply understand and help others, which applies to all personal relationships in the family, with workers and with customers. The paradigm of the emotional bank account is the foundation of the habits of public victory required to avoid using personality techniques and to establish character ethics as the natural outgrowth of a secure, giving character.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey
In The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, Ken Blanchard teams up with William Oncken, one of the leading time management experts, to help managers learn to delegate properly. Oncken’s unique concept of the monkey makes understanding delegation humorous and clear. A monkey is any task or decision that must be made. The person who has the monkey on his back is the one responsible for taking the next step in solving the problem. The key is to put the monkeys on the backs of the appropriate subordinates and not allowing subordinates to put monkeys on your back.
Don’t take responsibility for other people’s work. When you do, not only do you end up with too much work, but you also demotivate your subordinates by taking away their role in the work. There are two negative ways to respond to someone with a problem: First, be a persecutor and attack the person with the problem for having the problem. Second, be a rescuer and solve the problem for the other person. Both have disastrous consequences. When you rescue someone you are actually implying that he is not smart enough, creative enough, able to solve his own problem, so you end up disempowering him and diminishing his ability to perform.
When someone is learning, you need to spend a lot of time with him. But once he has learned his job, you need to give him room to operate. However, you must communicate clearly why you are spending a lot of time with him or why you are leaving him alone, so there will be no misunderstanding.
Give people the freedom to make mistakes. The problem is not making mistakes but not learning from your mistakes.
“Trying is just a noisy way of not doing anything.”
It is not your commitment that makes things happen but your action on your commitment carried out consistently over time that will make things happen. Stop looking for a magic formula or system; work the one that you already have and it will work for you.
Don’t take responsibility for other people’s work. When you do, not only do you end up with too much work, but you also demotivate your subordinates by taking away their role in the work. There are two negative ways to respond to someone with a problem: First, be a persecutor and attack the person with the problem for having the problem. Second, be a rescuer and solve the problem for the other person. Both have disastrous consequences. When you rescue someone you are actually implying that he is not smart enough, creative enough, able to solve his own problem, so you end up disempowering him and diminishing his ability to perform.
When someone is learning, you need to spend a lot of time with him. But once he has learned his job, you need to give him room to operate. However, you must communicate clearly why you are spending a lot of time with him or why you are leaving him alone, so there will be no misunderstanding.
Give people the freedom to make mistakes. The problem is not making mistakes but not learning from your mistakes.
“Trying is just a noisy way of not doing anything.”
It is not your commitment that makes things happen but your action on your commitment carried out consistently over time that will make things happen. Stop looking for a magic formula or system; work the one that you already have and it will work for you.
Putting the One Minute Manager to Work
In Putting the One Minute Manager to Work, Ken Blanchard teams up with Robert Lorber, a productivity expert, to give some simple, yet powerful, principles to apply the three steps in The One Minute Manager.
The ABCs of Management:
Activator: a manager is a person who activates behavior in others. (One Minute Goals are an activator.)
Behavior: the behavior or performance the manager elicits from the workers.
Consequence: what the manager does after the behavior or performance.
The ACHIEVE Model:
Ability: does the person have the skills and abilities required to do what you are asking him to do? If not, you must train them before you give them goals.
Clarity: make sure expectations are clear and know exactly what is expected of them.
Help: am I giving the support, training and resources they need to do an excellent job?
Incentive: what’s in it for the person to reach the goal and perform at the required standard?
Environment: am I providing the environment they need to perform at peak levels?
Validity: do you know why you are asking them to do what you are asking them to do?
Evaluation: do they know how they are going to be evaluated?
These are things you must do ahead of time for your team to be successful.
Activators account for 15% of behavior while 85% is the result of follow up. Therefore, focus on the consequences of behavior by spending most of your time giving One Minute Praises and Reprimands
In order to improve performance you must pay the PRICE:
Pinpoint: what are the areas that need to be improved?
Record: you must be able to measure what you want to improve.
Involve: bring everyone connected with the process together to work on setting goals, establishing a monitoring system, defining strategies for coaching, training and resources, and agreeing on standards for evaluation and clarify the incentives that will motivate them to improve performance.
Coach: observe performance and manage the consequences.
Evaluate: summarize what has gone on through the whole process.
The problem is not that systems don’t work but that people don’t work the system. People fail to honor their commitments so the system isn’t given a chance to work. You need to be committed to your commitment. The biggest problem is that people try instead of doing. “Trying is just a noisy of way of doing nothing. “ Don’t keep running around looking for the next fad; follow up on the one you have.
The ABCs of Management:
Activator: a manager is a person who activates behavior in others. (One Minute Goals are an activator.)
Behavior: the behavior or performance the manager elicits from the workers.
Consequence: what the manager does after the behavior or performance.
The ACHIEVE Model:
Ability: does the person have the skills and abilities required to do what you are asking him to do? If not, you must train them before you give them goals.
Clarity: make sure expectations are clear and know exactly what is expected of them.
Help: am I giving the support, training and resources they need to do an excellent job?
Incentive: what’s in it for the person to reach the goal and perform at the required standard?
Environment: am I providing the environment they need to perform at peak levels?
Validity: do you know why you are asking them to do what you are asking them to do?
Evaluation: do they know how they are going to be evaluated?
These are things you must do ahead of time for your team to be successful.
Activators account for 15% of behavior while 85% is the result of follow up. Therefore, focus on the consequences of behavior by spending most of your time giving One Minute Praises and Reprimands
In order to improve performance you must pay the PRICE:
Pinpoint: what are the areas that need to be improved?
Record: you must be able to measure what you want to improve.
Involve: bring everyone connected with the process together to work on setting goals, establishing a monitoring system, defining strategies for coaching, training and resources, and agreeing on standards for evaluation and clarify the incentives that will motivate them to improve performance.
Coach: observe performance and manage the consequences.
Evaluate: summarize what has gone on through the whole process.
The problem is not that systems don’t work but that people don’t work the system. People fail to honor their commitments so the system isn’t given a chance to work. You need to be committed to your commitment. The biggest problem is that people try instead of doing. “Trying is just a noisy of way of doing nothing. “ Don’t keep running around looking for the next fad; follow up on the one you have.
One Minute Manager
In The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have written a simple, easy to understand and implement, management book that has influenced American management techniques for over two decades. They have three simple steps to becoming an effective manager: One Minute Goal Setting, One Minute Praises, and One Minute Reprimands.
One Minute Goal Setting: Make sure that both the manager and the employee know exactly what is expected and both agree on how it will be measured.
One Minute Praises: Catch someone doing something right. One minute praises need to be: immediate, specific, emotions need to be shared from the heart, and then an encouragement to keep on doing the desired behavior.
There are two different kind of strokes: strokes for being and strokes for doing. While we need to give both, we generally give more strokes for being. However, it is much more effective to give strokes for specific behaviors.
Winners are people who can come right in and do a job well without any training or supervision. They are effective, but they are rare and they are very expensive. In order to be an effective manager, you must learn how to take undeveloped people and turn them into winners. Everyone has the potential to become a winner, but many winners are disguised as losers. To be effective, you must be able to spot, recruit, train and equip potential winners.
When people are learning, you must constantly reinforce positive behavior and bring them slowly towards the goal. In the beginning you will have to praise half successes and partial victories until the learner is able to grasp complex processes. Never reprimand a learner because you will cause him to freeze and inhibit his ability to learn. Limit negative feedback and utilize a lot of positive feedback.
When learner s are reprimanded there are three common responses: First, they will try to avoid the punisher. Second, they might do nothing because they think that no matter what they do they will get hit. Third, they spend their time plotting to get even with the one who is attacking them.
Four steps to effective training: First, tell them exactly what they need to do. Second, show them how to do it. Third, delegate parts of the project to them. Fourth, observe them doing it and give positive feedback. Catch them doing something right and give them one minute praises.
If a learner doesn’t even get close to getting anything even approximately right, you do not praise them or reprimand them. In stead, you need to go back to step one and tell them as clearly as possible, and then show them, delegate and watch them again.
One Minute Reprimands: Responding effectively when someone knowingly does something wrong. One minute reprimands need to be: immediate, specific, emotions need to be shared from the heart, and then an encouragement to go back to performing the desired behavior. Reprimands must be done immediately; don’t store up mistakes and throw them all at the person at a later date because that will never accomplish anything positive. Never reprimand a learner but only someone who already knows how to do what he is supposed to do. You must be specific and focus on the behavior and not the person. You must also share your feelings without attacking the other person. Then tell him that he is better than that and can do much better.
While these principles are common sense, they are not common practice. Even though they are simple to understand they are not always easy to implement. Clearly articulating expectations at the beginning so that both sides know exactly what is expected will alleviate many of the common problems faced by managers and employees. I also think the idea of “catching someone doing something right” is powerful, yet I find it difficult to apply consistently. I find that when I am not clear about what I expect from the other person, or have failed to communicate it clearly, it is easy to fall into the negative trap of catching others doing things wrong.
I also was challenged to never reprimand a learner. It is difficult to remain positive when someone isn’t learning fast enough or is having difficulty learning a concept or skill. This book reminded me to be much more patient and intentional when dealing with learners. I also realized that learners need a lot more attention and support than I have usually given.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, even if they are not a manager. These principles work in family relationships as well as friendships and other non-business settings.
One Minute Goal Setting: Make sure that both the manager and the employee know exactly what is expected and both agree on how it will be measured.
One Minute Praises: Catch someone doing something right. One minute praises need to be: immediate, specific, emotions need to be shared from the heart, and then an encouragement to keep on doing the desired behavior.
There are two different kind of strokes: strokes for being and strokes for doing. While we need to give both, we generally give more strokes for being. However, it is much more effective to give strokes for specific behaviors.
Winners are people who can come right in and do a job well without any training or supervision. They are effective, but they are rare and they are very expensive. In order to be an effective manager, you must learn how to take undeveloped people and turn them into winners. Everyone has the potential to become a winner, but many winners are disguised as losers. To be effective, you must be able to spot, recruit, train and equip potential winners.
When people are learning, you must constantly reinforce positive behavior and bring them slowly towards the goal. In the beginning you will have to praise half successes and partial victories until the learner is able to grasp complex processes. Never reprimand a learner because you will cause him to freeze and inhibit his ability to learn. Limit negative feedback and utilize a lot of positive feedback.
When learner s are reprimanded there are three common responses: First, they will try to avoid the punisher. Second, they might do nothing because they think that no matter what they do they will get hit. Third, they spend their time plotting to get even with the one who is attacking them.
Four steps to effective training: First, tell them exactly what they need to do. Second, show them how to do it. Third, delegate parts of the project to them. Fourth, observe them doing it and give positive feedback. Catch them doing something right and give them one minute praises.
If a learner doesn’t even get close to getting anything even approximately right, you do not praise them or reprimand them. In stead, you need to go back to step one and tell them as clearly as possible, and then show them, delegate and watch them again.
One Minute Reprimands: Responding effectively when someone knowingly does something wrong. One minute reprimands need to be: immediate, specific, emotions need to be shared from the heart, and then an encouragement to go back to performing the desired behavior. Reprimands must be done immediately; don’t store up mistakes and throw them all at the person at a later date because that will never accomplish anything positive. Never reprimand a learner but only someone who already knows how to do what he is supposed to do. You must be specific and focus on the behavior and not the person. You must also share your feelings without attacking the other person. Then tell him that he is better than that and can do much better.
While these principles are common sense, they are not common practice. Even though they are simple to understand they are not always easy to implement. Clearly articulating expectations at the beginning so that both sides know exactly what is expected will alleviate many of the common problems faced by managers and employees. I also think the idea of “catching someone doing something right” is powerful, yet I find it difficult to apply consistently. I find that when I am not clear about what I expect from the other person, or have failed to communicate it clearly, it is easy to fall into the negative trap of catching others doing things wrong.
I also was challenged to never reprimand a learner. It is difficult to remain positive when someone isn’t learning fast enough or is having difficulty learning a concept or skill. This book reminded me to be much more patient and intentional when dealing with learners. I also realized that learners need a lot more attention and support than I have usually given.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, even if they are not a manager. These principles work in family relationships as well as friendships and other non-business settings.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Leverage Your Best; Ditch the Rest
Leverage Your Best; Ditch the Rest
Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan
The first step to change is to accept yourself as you and don’t judge yourself for how you got there. One of the paradoxes of change is that the more you pressure someone to change, the less likely they are to change and the less you pressure them to change, the more likely they are to change. You must accept the circumstances that you are in and not complain about them before you can move forward.
In order to get from point A to point B, you must first know exactly where you are, point A, and have a very clear idea of where you want to go, point B. Only when you have done this are you able to work out a strategy to get you there.
The key question to ask to find your life ambition: What do you yearn for that has continually eluded you? Imagine that you have what you yearn for; now what? What does it bring you that you did not have before? Now imagine that this is now yours. Now that you have it, what does it bring you? What does it look like, how does it feel, do you see yourself differently, do others see you differently, how does it affect your day-to-day living, What do you now have that you didn’t have before? As a result of this change, what is now true? Keep going through this exercise until you find what you ultimately want, not just an ends to another means.
Make sure that you really want what you are striving for. Don’t just climb the ladder; make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
What you want to create in life is your Prime Objective.
Ask these questions to help you clarify your Prime Objective:
What are you good at that doesn’t even seem like work to you?
What is crucial to your well-being?
Does the thing you are good at have any commercial value and are you using that leverage?
Are you willing to go out on a limb to market what you are good at?
What do you want people to say about you at your memorial service?
What are you willing to risk or give up entirely in order to achieve your prime objective?
If you could achieve your prime objective right now, what would it look and feel like?
Now, put your Prime Objective into writing.
In order to make a plan to achieve your Prime Objective, ask:
How would you have to set up your life to achieve your prime objective?
What must you accomplish to achieve your prime objective?
What milestones must you pass along the way?
You need to be disciplined enough to follow your plan but flexible enough to adjust to the realities that come your way. A good plan has a purposeful end and clear, specific and definable actions to take. Thinking and intending will never get you there; only action will achieve your prime objective, and action produces more action. The best way to learn is to take action and reflect upon the results in order to take better action. You will either receive positive information, keep on doing what you are doing, or negative information, make adjustments or stop.
Use backward planning: set a date for your goal and then define the last action you would have to take in achieving that goal. Then define the action just before the last and so on, until you come to the present and define the first action you must take.
For helpful tools visit: leverageyourbest.com
The following seven posts are the Seven Leverage Points:
Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan
The first step to change is to accept yourself as you and don’t judge yourself for how you got there. One of the paradoxes of change is that the more you pressure someone to change, the less likely they are to change and the less you pressure them to change, the more likely they are to change. You must accept the circumstances that you are in and not complain about them before you can move forward.
In order to get from point A to point B, you must first know exactly where you are, point A, and have a very clear idea of where you want to go, point B. Only when you have done this are you able to work out a strategy to get you there.
The key question to ask to find your life ambition: What do you yearn for that has continually eluded you? Imagine that you have what you yearn for; now what? What does it bring you that you did not have before? Now imagine that this is now yours. Now that you have it, what does it bring you? What does it look like, how does it feel, do you see yourself differently, do others see you differently, how does it affect your day-to-day living, What do you now have that you didn’t have before? As a result of this change, what is now true? Keep going through this exercise until you find what you ultimately want, not just an ends to another means.
Make sure that you really want what you are striving for. Don’t just climb the ladder; make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
What you want to create in life is your Prime Objective.
Ask these questions to help you clarify your Prime Objective:
What are you good at that doesn’t even seem like work to you?
What is crucial to your well-being?
Does the thing you are good at have any commercial value and are you using that leverage?
Are you willing to go out on a limb to market what you are good at?
What do you want people to say about you at your memorial service?
What are you willing to risk or give up entirely in order to achieve your prime objective?
If you could achieve your prime objective right now, what would it look and feel like?
Now, put your Prime Objective into writing.
In order to make a plan to achieve your Prime Objective, ask:
How would you have to set up your life to achieve your prime objective?
What must you accomplish to achieve your prime objective?
What milestones must you pass along the way?
You need to be disciplined enough to follow your plan but flexible enough to adjust to the realities that come your way. A good plan has a purposeful end and clear, specific and definable actions to take. Thinking and intending will never get you there; only action will achieve your prime objective, and action produces more action. The best way to learn is to take action and reflect upon the results in order to take better action. You will either receive positive information, keep on doing what you are doing, or negative information, make adjustments or stop.
Use backward planning: set a date for your goal and then define the last action you would have to take in achieving that goal. Then define the action just before the last and so on, until you come to the present and define the first action you must take.
For helpful tools visit: leverageyourbest.com
The following seven posts are the Seven Leverage Points:
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