Do your answers have anything to do with mutual respect, mutual trust, and freedom of expression? Probably.
Now pause for a moment to consider if your organization’s culture supports strong relationships.
Do you have a perfectionist in your group? Someone who gets too bogged down in the details of the work--spending unnecessary time perfecting details that aren't an essential priority? Someone who is always tweaking and refining? Perfectionism isn’t about effort – giving 150%, but about being exact.
Having a perfectionist on your team can lead to problems. Their “I can do it better” attitude is divisive and creates unnecessary tension. They tend to not work collaboratively. Longer and longer work hours lead to burn out but not increased productivity. Their ongoing demand for perfection tends to leave them with feelings of failure. And they tend to be lousy delegators.
What’s possible? Change happens when someone sees things from a new perspective and engages in new activities. To help the individual see the draw backs of their behavior share a situation in which their perfectionism created a breakdown in the work environment, i.e. a missed deadline or open conflict with a coworker, and talk it through. Ask open-ended questions.
1. What did you hope to accomplish through your efforts?
2. What are some specific ways that you could have moderated your goals?
3. What consequences might have resulted from such changes?
Once the individual begins to see a different picture, work with him to set goals that are easier to achieve and within the realm of his possibilities. Moderate your employee’s expectations – shifting their focus away from faults and flaws – and then watch their performance and self-esteem soar.
By now most of us have decided on some goals for the year and while our commitment to them remains high the effort required to move us toward achievement may have started to wane. This probably comes as no surprise since fewer than 10% of people who set goals or resolutions actually achieve them. Do you want to be in the 10% or the 90%?
What can you do differently to ensure you realize your goals? Here are four steps that will support forward momentum.
1. Write your goals down. Writing them down makes them real and heightens your commitment. Before finalizing your goals ask yourself a few questions. Is this goal a priority for me? Is this only a good idea or something that I’m passionate about achieving? What could get in the way of me realizing my goal?
2. Set benchmarks. Recognize the path to realizing your goals involves many small steps. It is important to balance focus on the end result with the effort necessary to move you toward your goal. Plan out your path and acknowledge your progress as your reach each benchmark.
3. Believe and visualize. Do you know the story about the group of basketball players who spent one hour visualizing making baskets, while another group actually practiced? The visualizing players had better seasons! So visualize yourself in 2009 with all your goals achieved. What would that look like? How would it feel? Visualize once a day and see the difference it can make in your life.
4. Accountability. Have you ever talked yourself out of your goals? As the gap between setting goals and commencing the work widens we often rationalize giving up our goals because “they really weren’t that important anyway.” Narrow the gap by engaging the support of others. Start by telling other people about your goals. Ask a few trusted friends or associates to help you stay on track. If your goal is fitness related you could hire a personal trainer or find a buddy to work out with – someone you can hold accountable too. If your goal is professional development you could hire a professional coach or partner with a trusted coworker.
Take charge of achieving your goals. Commitment inspires action and action reinforces commitment.
Make 2008 the year you realize your goals!
It is important for employees to feel comfortable sharing bad news. To encourage your employees prod them during conversations to tell you what’s wrong as well as right. Ask, “What’s the toughest thing you’re dealing with right now?” or “What would make it easier for you to cooperate with your co-workers?”
Don’t scowl the minute they raise a conflict or insist you “don’t want to hear about it.” A culture where bad news is not accepted allows tensions to build – tensions that may explode later. Preventing conflict is even better than skillfully resolving conflict!
Managing your boss is an area of management ripe for conflict. This is a multidimensional issue so I’ll focus on managing your boss as it relates to setting priorities. And I'm going to assume that the boss isn't pushing off his work on the staff but is equally as overwhelmed.
How often do you find yourself working in “fire drill” mode because everything seems to be a priority? Unfortunately the management style of many executives is to delegate work in a reactive way without thought to communicating priorities. The boss may not even think of developing priorities for his own work responsibilities.
The lack of guidance regarding priorities may seem to communicate that the task "of the moment" is top priority. Unfortunately as team members jump from fire to fire everyone finds themselves in the middle of lots of projects. Having work partially complete with limited opportunity to wrap things up ... without working crazy hours, wears everyone down. The good news is the boss is not doing this on purpose and is quite often unconscious of the issues and turmoil his style creates.
What can you do? Though it may be difficult to approach the boss having a conversation about priorities is only path to change. Let your boss know that you want to respond to the requests in a way that supports him most effectively and that you aren't always able to figure that out on your own. Have a list of all your tasks and projects and ask for guidance around priorities and deadlines. Don't be afraid to negotiate when you can reasonable get something completed. Also if there is anything someone else can help you with ask your boss for support getting extra resources for special projects.
Please don’t expect miraculous things from the initial conversation. Remember change takes time so stick with it. Raise questions in the moment. When you are engaged in a project and your boss approaches you with something new ask which is a priority.
Tying your requests back to supporting your boss will help build a more trusting relationship and can help your boss shift his management style.
