Accomplishment Coaching

Susan called me last week in the midst of big frustration.  She had just left a meeting in which her designers slammed the breaks on a new product launch.

“I can’t believe this team.  They’re constantly putting on the breaks with new projects; especially ones that will make the biggest difference in this company.  I don’t know what to do because this is exactly how it goes here… people come up with terrific plans for new products and the culture squashes them.”

Susan jumped into a dissertation about how she was going to develop a strategy to get her team enrolled in the project, create a timeline that fit within the current culture and hope that her design team actually aligned with the plans.  Although she mentioned it, she didn’t even dare to guess what the production team would say.

Does any of this sound familiar?  You’ve been promoted up through the ranks of your organization, adhered to the operational and cultural parameters, produced results, and have deep technical knowledge of your business.  You are a brilliant leader.

Yet, just like Susan, you find yourself stymied by “how it usually goes”.

In Susan’s example above, the next step is to figure our how to make this new product launch happen.  She knows the product development process intimately, knows just how far she can push the process, and is very knowledgeable with the literal and perceived limitations of her team and the production team.

At least this is the familiar process she finds herself in.  It’s just that the possibility this new product presents to the organization will insist the organization do things very differently.

So now what?

Susan’s fallen into the ageless trap of trying to figure out the “how we’ll get this done” part of moving projects forward.  This is where most of us live most of the time.  How will we get this done?  How will I have that conversation?  What exactly do I need to say or do to make the situation turn out another way?  All based in “how“.

Now, this isn’t all bad.  Understanding “how” to coach supports me in my business.  Knowing “how” to measure assists a carpenter in producing a fine product.

But as a leader in your organization, are you paid to “do” the work (the “how” stuff)?  Or are you paid to motivate, inspire and create?

Let’s go back to Susan.  After having a brief conversation with her, she approached her production counterpart with the following statement:

“I need your production team to assemble a machine in six months rather than the 13 it usually takes for our new packaging product.”

Within a day, she had a promise from her production counterpart that he’d be able to do eight months rather than 13.  Susan completely surprised and ecstatic.  Never had the production team made a promise like that.

Here’s the key shift:  Susan simply made a declaration combined with a request.  She did not get hung up (as she typically did) with figuring out “how” the production team would make it work.  She trusted her production counterpart and left the “how” to him.

In other words, her only focus was on the “what“.

Leadership Practices:

1. Grab a note pad, pen and clean out the ears… listen for and keep track of all the times you ask the following question (or versions of it) – “How will I do that?”
2. Make a list of all the “what’s” you want to have or to happen in your business.
3. Practice declaring these “what’s” into existence without worrying about the “how”.  I.e. “I will increase sales by 35% this quarter”, “We will hire a new technical manager by July 1, 2009″, or “I will put $750 per month into savings.”

Identify and invite at least one person who could support you in each “what” declaration.  I.e. invite your sales manager to come up with 5 ideas on “how” you’ll increase sales by 35%.

Leadership is not “doer-ship” or “how to-ship”.  It’s about leading, inspiring, making bold promises and speaking and listening from greatness and possibility.

What difference will it make in your business and life if you began giving up figuring out “how” and just made requests around the “what“?

Happy What You Want,

-Coach Preston

• You walk into a retail store on a Monday morning in February and the store clerk says, “Pretty cold out there, eh?”
• A work colleague sends you an email sharing words about the promotion of another colleague.
• You create a plan for sales growth that exceeds all past sales projections and results by 75%.

What does each one of these three scenarios have in common?

If you guessed that each has something to do with you, then you win!  But that’s not where I’m looking.

The common thread of each of these scenarios is that none of them have an opinion or interpretation attached to it.  In all instances, there is nothing but facts.

So what’s the point?  I’m curious about what opinions and interpretations you’re experiencing right now in reading this.  Are you frustrated?  Are you hoping that I actually make a good point?  Are you sensing you’ll be really bored with my musings?

Exactly.

You see, we all exist in a world of interpretations.  Whether we walk into a retail store, get an email from a colleague or make plans for the future, we rarely experience any of those activities without assigning meaning to them.  What’s it mean that the store clerk said what he did?  What’s my work colleague really trying to say?  How am I going to achieve these new sales goals in the current economy?

No matter how long you or I replay these examples, we’ll end up assigning some type of meaning to them.  Why do we do this?  Because as emotional creatures, we strive to have everything mean something or align with a value system to keep order in our lives. 

Ask yourself the following question, “What’s the meaning of life?”  If you’re like 99% of folks, you’ll come up with an answer to that question, no matter what it is.  Whatever your answer, you’ve assigned the answer meaning.  Meaning that fits into your version of how things should or shouldn’t go or be.

Just to be sure, there’s nothing wrong with this process.  We live successful and fruitful lives by leveraging this process.

However, consider that although it serves us many times, when it doesn’t serve us, it does some real damage.  Here’s an example:

An insurance agent had to let a salesperson go last week.  The agency has clear expectations of performance and the salesperson wasn’t meeting the expectations.  However, when the agency owner called the salesperson into her office, the salesperson put up a huge fight.  “You’re firing me because you don’t like me.  I’ve seen you with the other folks all nice and such.”  Whether that was the case or not, the salesperson disrupted the entire office for most of the afternoon because he made his lack of performance MEAN that the agency owner didn’t like him.

The salesperson felt “snubbed”.  Or at least that’s the interpretation he created.

So what action do you think this salesperson is taking now?  Is he seeking another opportunity or trying to “right” the perceived “wrong” by complaining and threatening to sue his former employer?

If you guessed the second, you win again!

More often or not, your actions are a direct reflection of your interpretations or the meaning you assign things; empowering or disempowering.  The trick is not to stop creating interpretations, but to become more aware that you’re doing what we all have been programmed to do – create interpretations.

Since we create disempowering interpretations, it means we can create empowering ones as well.  So when you go to take your next action on a project, sales goal or in a relationship, first check to see what your interpretations are of the current state of affairs.  That check-in may prove very empowering.

Leadership Practices:

1. There’s nothing to “fix” about creating interpretations.  That would be like trying to fix how your brainwaves operate – good luck.  Rather, practice being more aware of where, when and how you act based on interpretations.  The more aware you can become, the more you’ll be at choice rather than being a prisoner of undistinguished behavior.
2. When you do get hooked (upset) by an interpretation, look to where this interpretation likely originated… in your past somewhere.  In our example above, our salesperson was getting hooked by a past experience of being told he wasn’t good enough.  Being let go from the insurance agency had nothing to do with that past experience, but his interpretations made the connection.
3. When things don’t go the way you want them to, take a moment to ask “What actually did happen?”  In other words, distinguish the facts from the interpretation.  Many times, this is all that’s required to create a new set of actions that move you in the right direction.

Happy Meaning-Making,

-Coach Preston

On October 7, 2008, US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reminded attendees at a financial meeting that the economy had been showing signs of “deceleration” even before the more obvious disruptions with the financial and credit markets that soon followed.

While noting that housing has been a primary focus, he said the concern has spread far beyond that sector.  He went on to offer messages of little hope that concluded with “…the heightened financial turmoil that we have experienced of late may well lengthen the period of weak economic performance and further increase the risks to growth.” (HR Magazine’s 2009 HR Trend Book, page 5)

Thanks for the motivation Mr. Bernanke.  And by the way, what the heck was that comment intended to create???

It ceases to amaze me how many truly brilliant people suffer from this “size 10 in mouth” disease.  A more technical (and perhaps less judgmental) term I have for this is “describe and manage”.

Here’s a sample scenario: 

You’ve just hired a new technical manager, Bob, to oversee three brand new accounts you’ve landed.  Each Monday morning at your client update meeting, Bob outlines what’s currently going on with these three new accounts.  He says that Jeff and Sally, his production team, are doing great at moving things along and the projects are on schedule.

After three months, Bob begins to share more about how Jeff is coming in late and that Sally is taking on more of the work and that he is getting frustrated with current production processes.  Bob assures you that Sally is okay taking on more work and that he’ll create a few work-a-rounds on processes.  There will only be a 45-day delay in the projects and the clients seem okay with that.

At six months, its clear things are not headed in the right direction.  Jeff left the company, Sally’s overwhelmed and Bob’s spending the majority of his time training Jeff’s replacement.  100% of Bob’s comments during the Monday morning meetings now consist of describing how he’s managing all the breakdowns with staff and resources.  The three projects are now four months behind schedule. 

Soon you get a phone call from two of the three new accounts letting you know they’re taking their business elsewhere.

What’s the problem?  Both Bob and Ben Bernanke are making one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business and life – describing your circumstances; then managing around them.

There is one sure-fire result to this process = guaranteed failure.

The moment you begin doing this, you allow your circumstances to drive the project, relationship, conversation or result.  You have now said, “My circumstances are more powerful than I.”

So what’s the alternative?  It’s really quite simple, although don’t be surprised if it scares you a bit.  We’re not trained to operate this way. 

It’s called “declaring and fulfilling”.

Let’s use Bob, the manager’s example.  Imagine that instead of him coming to meetings telling you what his circumstances are then outlining how he’ll manage them, he said the following:

“Here’s where things are with the three new account projects.  Jeff’s been showing up late to work and I had a conversation with him last week.  Although I acknowledged him for the quality of his work, he does understand I will replace him if he doesn’t handle his time issue.  He worked out the issue and he’s recreated his commitment to his work.  Sally and I talked about her tendency to take on too much and she requested I look into hiring a part-time technician.  I’ve interviewed three people and I’m making a proposal to one of them today.  We are one week ahead of schedule on two projects, on time with the third, and we will be ready to complete all three projects on time.”

Notice the difference?

In this example, Bob is not willing to look, spend time with or manage any of the circumstances.  His only objective is declaring the projects will be complete when he said they’d be complete.  His actions are reliable and forward-focused and based only on his declaration.

Imagine if just 10% more of your staff, family, community or government took on “declaring and fulfilling” rather than “describing and managing” ?  What would be possible then?

Imagine if Ben Bernanke had instead said something like:  “We are facing some challenging times right now.  And what’s next is to create a credit oversight committee within the next three months, establish a short-term credit plan for small businesses that will allow them payment flexibility for six months and inject $XXX into the economy that will be repaid by a percentage of the loan repayments from small businesses.”

Regardless of how ridiculous the above example may be, you can be assured that Mr. Bernanke would have CREATED something.  Perhaps it would be hope.  Perhaps it would be a vision of a better future.

Instead, he crippled a potential future by describing current circumstances.  The worst part… he didn’t even make an attempt at outling how we’d “manage”.  In other words, he successfully terminated possibility.

Don’t be Ben Bernanke.

Leadership Practices:

1. Catch yourself telling stories of why things are the way they are.
2. Ask yourself, “How does my story contribute to my bottom line?”
3. Practice “declaring and fulfilling” incrementally – start small.  Consider things like “I’m going to bed every night this week by 10pm” then actually going to bed at 10pm each night.  Ratchet up the gradient each week.

Go Declare,

-Coach Preston