2010-1 Leadership Spring

Leadership Quarterly Supervisor Magazine: Spring 2010

In this Issue Great Ways to Motivate Your Team

Keys to Coping with Information Overload

a new manager’s tutorial

Stress Detector

Barriers to Effective Listening

tension relief: deep breathing exercise

Giving Effective Feedback

10 tips for time management

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Rather than telling people what to do, effective leaders help bring out the best in their team members.

- Andrew J. Dubrin, Ph.D.

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Great Ways to Motivate Your Team

Being a facilitator, making it

easier for your team members to do a better job, will make you a more competent team leader. “Rather than telling people what to do, effective leaders help bring out the best in their team members,” says Andrew J. DuBrin, Ph.D., a management professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, and author of The Breakthrough Team Player.

“One way to succeed is to perfect your coaching style. As a coach, you can make on-the-spot suggestions and offer team members encouragement.”

Supporting your team following these tips will help you improve your effectiveness as a team leader:

Provide specific feedback.

Pinpointing behaviors, attitudes and/or skills that need improvement will help you coach a team member to perform at a higher level.

Help your team devise a mission statement.

Creating such a statement can help team members focus more clearly.

Be supportive.

Providing emotional support and encouragement can help a leader improve the work of team members who aren’t performing at their best. Just being helpful may be enough.

Be a model of what you expect.

Encourage team members to treat one another as customers.

Most people treat customers with more respect and con cern than they do fellow employees at or below their levels. Encouraging team members to treat each other as customers fosters cooperative behavior and politeness.

Bring team members together for meetings, meals and occasional parties. Schedule most get-togethers during regular office hours so you don’t intrude on people’s personal time.

Emphasize that yours is a winning team.

Frequently remind team members that their work is important. Help them identify tasks they’re particularly good at and promote them as key members of the group. Build the commitment and confidence of each team member.

“For the group to develop a strong team spirit, individuals must feel a sense of mutual accountability,” DuBrin says.

“Frequently reminding team members of what they’re doing right is one way to build commitment and self-confidence.”

Emphasize group recognition.

Giving rewards for group accomplishments promotes team spirit by enabling team members to take pride in the entire team’s contributions and progress. “Consider creating a display wall for postings of team activities, certificates of accomplishment and upcoming events,” says DuBrin. “If you have room in your budget, you might want to order T-shirts, athletic caps, mugs or key rings imprinted with your team name or logo.”

Don’t keep the best assignments for yourself.

An effective leader spurs others to act appropriately by setting an example. For instance, cooperating with Doing this dampens team spirit and hampers perforpeople from other organizational units will encourage mance. “Look for opportunities that will allow other team members to perform at a high level,” DuBrin team members to do the same. says.

Foster teamwork.

Promote the attitude that working together effectively leads to success for everyone. Refer to those in the group as team members or teammates instead of subordinates or employees. Make frequent use of the words “we” and “us.” For example, “We achieved the new sales goal.”

Welcome all input.

Team spirit increases when everyone contributes.

DuBrin says, “It’s especially important that the leader not allow one or two people on their team to do most of the work.”

Source: Wellness Library Health Ink and Vitality Communications ©2010

A new manager’s tutorial Your boss has just rewarded your dedication and hard work by giving you a managerial position. But, you have never managed before, and you don’t know where to begin.

“New managers often suffer because they haven’t had good role models and have experienced training that only helped in their prior job,” says Alan Weiss, Ph.D., president of Summit Consulting Group Inc. in East Greenwhich, R.I., and author of the The Unofficial Guide to Power Management.

Here are some tips to transform your panic into progress as you begin your new career as a manager.

Be Effective, Not Popular

“Managing is about effectiveness, not about being liked,” emphasizes Dr. Weiss. You can drive yourself crazy if you try to please all your employees all the

time. Instead, focus on communicating with clarity, firmness and fairness, realizing you may not be able to give your employees exactly what they want all the time.

Understand Expectations

Employees also have different work expectations.

Some prefer a structured environment, while others want more freedom. Some like to work in teams, while others work best alone in a quiet office.

Some need a lot of recognition for their work, while others prefer to stay out of the limelight. Regular one-on-one lunches with your employees will help you to understand their personality styles as well as their work expectations and personal goals.

Manage Your Time

“Invest in your best people and don’t be usurped by attention to your remedial performers,” says Dr. Weiss. In business, time is money. Instead of using your time trying to transform poor performers into dynamos, give them simpler tasks they can perform well, then spend your time and effort building your best people.

Do The Right Thing

“Ethical conduct doesn’t exist in operations manuals or the legal department. It exists in your own value system. Always ask yourself, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’” says Dr. Weiss. “This will not only be best for your company but also will help you avoid sleepless nights.”

Appreciate Your Employees

Managers and supervisors who show their appreciation to their employees will find their employees willing to go the extra mile. Take a minute to write a note of appreciation, create a certificate of progress or give a small gift or award.

Keep A Daily Journal

What worked? What didn’t work? What got accomplished? What were you happy about? Frustrated about? This will help you analyze your problems as well as see your progress.

Find A Mentor

“These times are too complex for trial and error or gut feeling. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find someone who’s successful and respected to guide you,” says Dr. Weiss.

Maintain Perspective

“Don’t worry about your next job or promotion or about future raises,” says Dr. Weiss. “Worry instead about delivering value to the customer and support to your subordinates. If you do those two things well, all the rest will happen, too.”

Source: Krames Staywell

Management is doing things right.

Leadership is doing the right things.

- Peter F. Drucker

Barriers to Effective Listening Certain barriers can keep you from listening effectively.

Here are some common barriers you can be aware of to ensure that you are hearing and interpreting messages correctly.

Emotional and Mental Filters

These are all the preconceived ideas, feelings, hidden agendas and prejudices you bring to the interchange. It’s not possible to get rid of these filters - they’re part of the fabric of who you are. But it’s important to recognize them and keep them from interfering with what you really hear. For example, consciously knowing that a person reminds you of your mother allows you to be on guard against reacting the way you would react to your mother.

Expectations

What you expect to hear can get in the way of what you do hear. Can you keep an open mind and listen non-judgmentally if the speaker doesn’t conform to your standards and expectations? If you’re expecting a particular message, stance or prejudice from a speaker? If you think you already know what the speaker is going to say?

Physical Barriers

The best communication takes place when you and the other person are in full sight of each other.

Lack of Eye Contact

If you can’t see the speaker’s eyes or if one of you is wearing dark glasses or refuses to make eye contact, you may not have the full benefit of active listening.

Distance

If you sit in the back of the room to listen to a speaker, you’ll miss some of the speaker’s body language and possibly some of the actual words.

Objects

The most common physical barrier in communication is a desk. It gives the feeling that the person behind the desk is behind a wall.

Telephone and Writing

These, of course, eliminate all chance of communicating through body language. Missing a raised eyebrow, self-deprecating smile or puzzled frown can make a big difference in what you hear. Noise, activity, and the presence of other people can get in the way of your concentration and distract you from observing the person you’re trying to listen to. They can also make the speaker feel uncomfortable or unsafe, changing the nonverbal message.

Personal Distractions

Are you worried about money, the kids’ grades, your health? Thinking about the game you’re going to tonight and what you’re going to bring? Angry about something someone said? Try to clear your mind of personal thoughts when you need to listen to someone. It might help to write out your worries and put them aside until later. If you’re bored or tired, focus your attention by taking notes on what you’re hearing and relate the information to your own sitaution. Get enough sleep, exercise and helathy food so you’re mentally alert. Avoid looking at or touching papers, reading materials, desk gadgets or anything that doesn’t pertain to the speaker’s topic.

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Habits to Improve Your Listening Skills

1. Maintain Eye Contact 2. Ask questions 3. Take notes 4. Rephrase and repeat 5. Avoid judgment

Source: Parlay International © 2010

giving effective feedback Employees need to know how well they’re doing at their jobs. Here’s what you need to know to give effective feedback.

When Giving Negative or Corrective Feedback: Don’t beat around the bush.

Simply and clearly describe the situation or behavior that needs correcting.

Ask for a reaction.

Get the employee to talk about the situation and your evaluation of it. Expect defensiveness, and be prepared to express empathy and understanding. Avoid arguing with the employee or debating points raised.

Seek agreement.

If possible, try to persuade the employee, at least partially, that the situation needs correcting.

Develop a plan.

Work with the employee to develop an agreed-on plan for improvement. Don’t be overly ambitious,

most improvement proceeds in small steps.

Summarize the discussion.

This ensures that the employee understands the problem and what you have agreed to do about it.

Specify consequences if improvements are not made.

Document necessary improvements Follow up.

Set a date to get back together and review progress.

For feedback to be effective the employee must: • Understand what you are saying • Accept the information • Be able to do something about it

the best feedback is: Selective:

Concentrate on important areas, rather than listening to every detail of behavior.

Specific:

“You did a good job on the Jones project,” rather than “You’ve been doing a good job lately.”

Timely:

Give feedback as soon as possible after the event.

Descriptive:

Give facts; talk about what you observed rather than what you concluded from what you observed.

Sensitive:

Allow a cooling-off period if either you or the employee is angry, emotionally upset or very busy.

Helpful:

When feedback is negative, explore the alternatives for improvement, so the employee has some idea of how to improve.

Source: Parlay International ©2010

Keys to Coping with Information Overload Mailboxes are overflowing with magazines, reports and memos. Email inboxes are brimming with half-read and unread messages.

“More and more managers tell me they’re spending three or four hours a day responding to email and doing so isn’t making them more productive,” says Lyle Sussman, Ph.D., a speaker, author, management consultant, and professor of management at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

“Staying abreast of developments in your field is more important than it has ever been,” he says.

Yet even as demand for data skyrockets, the supply of information -- particularly that available on the Internet -- is outpacing demand. Anyone who works in an office or answers email can experience information overload.

Instead of spending a large chunk of your workday sorting through irrelevant data and correspondence, Dr. Sussman recommends you become an intelligent consumer of information.

To Send Or Not

Tell people what they should or shouldn’t send you.

It’s so easy now for email users to attach documents or to refer political messages to anyone in their networks. Be more assertive with your networks about what you want and don’t want to receive.”I’ve received messages from people in my network saying they would prefer I not send jokes I run across,” says Dr. Sussman. “People are trying to set limits on the supply side.”

Make The Call

Ask people to use the telephone or to stop by in person. “Phone calls and face-to-face conversations are becoming lost arts,” Dr. Sussman says. “I’ve been telling my professional colleagues that if it’s something important, they should come down to my office and talk to me. I get a lot more information that way.”

Focus On Problem-Solving

It’s fine to search the Internet and scan magazine and newspaper articles, but you can physically control what lands in your inbox by not searching so much and then by searching only for what you need.

Find A Gatekeeper

Develop closer contacts with trusted colleagues who can act as information agents. Who do you know who’s knowledgeable in your field, whose opinion you value and who can point you toward relevant information?

“If everyone located two or three such friends who can act as gatekeepers, it’s amazing how much time and frustration they could save themselves,” says Dr. Sussman.

Try A Screening Agent

Use artificial-information agents, such as email newsletters, that automatically feed your inbox with topical information.

“Services like these are why Reader’s Digest will never go out of circulation,” says Dr. Sussman. “They scan a wide variety of news sources and deliver to you only those items containing key words of your choice.”

Use These Agents Selectively

Dr. Sussman has friends who rely on seven or more artificial agents. But rather than simplify their categorical use of information, all those agents make their jobs more complex, he says. Choose just one or two of these services -- the ones that consistently send you the highest quality, most relevant information -- and drop the others.

“Unlike the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, most of us aren’t in a position to pay someone to screen our email,” says Dr. Sussman. “So we have to sort the wheat from the chaff ourselves. What makes it frustrating is that you never know what the wheat is and what the chaff is, because the world is changing so fast. We have to look at our information-search procedures in a much more pragmatic way -- they have to be driven by problem-solving.”

Source: Wellness Library Health Ink and Vitality Communications ©2010

Who do you know who’s knowledgeable in your field, whose opinion do you value and who can point you toward relevant information?

Stress Detector What’s Working on You at Work These Days?

Circle the number which best describes how often you have felt the following concerns:

1 = almost never 2 = sometimes 3 = often 4 = almost always I feel like I never have time to organize my life.

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I’m worried about my financial situation.

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I’m worried about falling behind on my responsibilities.

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I’m worried about meeting all of my impending deadlines.

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I have trouble sleeping.

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I feel like I’m pulling all of the weight for my team.

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I feel low on energy.

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I find myself getting irritable or angry at work.

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I find myself getting irritable or angry away from work.

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I get impatient with other people’s mistakes.

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I find myself speeding impatiently from one task to another.

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I feel like I never have time to take a break from work.

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I feel like I never have enough time to do my job as well as I would like.

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I feel overwhelmed by all of the polices and procedures I must understand.

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I feel like I don’t have enough support from the leadership team.

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I’m worried that as demands increase, I won’t be able to keep up.

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I feel like I never have time for myself.

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MINES and Associates ©2010

Tension Relief: Deep Breathing exercise

C

lose your eyes. Put your hand over your abdomen. Take a deep breath, way down into your belly.

Let go and hear the air whoosh out through your lips. When you’re ready, take another deep breath. Feel your belly rise slowly as the air comes in. Let it out with a whooshing sound, like the wind, as you blow through your lips.

Each breath leaves you more and more relaxed. Each breath purifies and relaxes your whole body and mind. Take another deep breath down into your belly. Feel your belly push out. As you relax, the air goes gently out of your lips.

Imagine with your next deep breath that clean, pure, white air is coming in through the soles of your feet. See it spread throughout your whole body, collecting the debris of tension and stress. The air gets darker as it takes the stress and tension from your body. Imagine the dark air being expelled through your lips, your whole body clean, fresh, and relaxed.

Now, take a deep purifying breath and feel it cleaning your body of stress and tensions. See the tension leaving your body with the breath.

Relax and enjoy the feeling of peace and calm that has spread throughout your body with each deep breath.

MINES and Associates Š2010

10 Tips for Time Management  1. Make a list, prioritize and check things off as you get them done.

2. Review your list from time to time. Is everything on that list necessary?

3. Ask yourself, “What’s the best use of my time right now?” Then do it!

4. Be willing to sacrifice “perfection” to get things done.

5. Learn to say “no” to demands that don’t benefit you.

6. Whenever possible, delgate!

7. Don’t waste your time on minor decisions.

8. Arrange your work time to keep interruptions to a minimum.

9. Be realistic about what you can accomplish during a given period.

10. When is your energy at its peak? Plan your work for those times.

Source: Parlay International ©2010

A Supervisor’s Guide To Employee Assistance Programs From time to time, situations arise when a supervisor is not sure how to respond to a particular behavior. The EAP is available on a 24/7 basis for consultation on issues such as: referring an employee to the EAP, how best to respond to and manage difficult behavior in the workplace, and whether training or some other form of group intervention (such as an organziational intervention or a conflict resolution) may be helpful for a particular situation.

The EAP can serve as an ally to anyone who is working with a troubled employee.

• 24/7 supervisor consultation regarding problems in the workplace

• Supervisor and manager training • Unlimited formal work performance referrals

• Assessment of behavioral risk on the job • Return-to-Duty conferences

• Coaching for management and leadership skills

• Advisory services in writing, revising, and implementing policies

• Conflict resolution for supervisor-employee problems

MINES believes that employees are an organization’s most valuable resource.

Your EAP is always available to provide you and your employees with resources and support.

MINES and Associates ©2010

Toll-Free: 800-873-7138 • www.minesandassociates.com

www.minesandassociates.com