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Category Archive: Organizational Culture

How To Have Difficult Conversations When You Hate Conflict

Posted by on May 24, 2017

This issue is one of the hardest things I have to deal with in working with leaders who are wired to avoid conflict. My only effective coaching strategy is to show them through their own experience that the longer they wait the higher the price. So if you hate all the drama, deal with it early and the outcome will be well worth the risk. Excellent post by Joel Garfinkle:

“Avoiding or delaying a difficult conversation can hurt your relationships and create other negative outcomes. It may not feel natural at first, especially if you dread discord, but you can learn to dive into these tough talks by reframing your thoughts.

Begin from a place of curiosity and respect, and stop worrying about being liked. Conflict avoiders are often worried about their likability. While it’s natural to want to be liked, that’s not always the most important thing. Lean into the conversation with an open attitude and a genuine desire to learn. Start from a place of curiosity and respect — for both yourself and the other person. Genuine respect and vulnerability typically produce more of the same: mutual respect and shared vulnerability.”

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3 Steps To Resolving Conflict

Posted by on May 19, 2017

All of us at some point in time will have conflict and disagreements with someone else either in our personal lives or professionally at work. These situations can be painful at times but seeking resolution is the only way to maintain positive momentum in your life.

There are at least three critical steps that you must take if you want to restore the relationship and move forward in your own life.

Own Your Part—In every disagreement there are always two sides to the story. I have never known a situation where there was not some responsibility for the problem with both parties. If we think the other party is the major offender then we tend to wait for them to make the first move. Instead we need to take whatever percentage of the problem is ours even if it’s minor and do what we need to do to admit it and ask for forgiveness regardless of what the other person does.
Talk To Person Privately—Most of the time when we are having problems with another person we tend to go to other people first and complain or try to find emotional support. What we should do is go privately to the person who offended us first and tell them in a respectful way why we are offended and give them a chance to respond. When we are talking about someone else to another person rather than talking to them the situation will only get worse.
Give Them Benefit Of Doubt—When we sense that a conversation is not going well and we can tell it may hurt us we have a decision to make. We can either assume the worst about the other person’s motives or we can believe the best. Many times if we can give them the benefit of the doubt at this critical moment then even though it may still hurt there will be no lasting damage because we give them a pass because we trust their heart.

The reason many times we can so easily see problems in other people is those same things live within us.

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10 Things You Will Hear In A Toxic Workplace

Posted by on May 17, 2017

One of the hardest things I have to deal with as an executive coach is to help any leader improve when in reality they are working in a toxic culture. I remember Jim Collins describing it as a place where the truth can no longer be told because leaders keep shooting the messenger. Trust has been lost and silos have been built to protect everyone from each other and the organization. Liz Ryan is always excellent:

“Just because you don’t like your job doesn’t mean you are any less talented, capable, smart or creative than you ever were. You are growing new muscles through this painful experience that stinks to live through but will make you stronger in the end.”

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The Role Of Storytelling In Creating Your Culture

Posted by on May 12, 2017

Every leader is constantly trying to find new and creative ways to communicate the culture of their organization both internally and externally. I have found no better way than storytelling.

The simplest definition of storytelling is when you can link existing personnel, ongoing priorities and outstanding performance then you have a story to tell. This will allow you to reinforce core values and celebrate success by acknowledging over and above situations that give credit to your people and remind everyone of what is really important.

In essence, if you have no stories to tell, then you are not performing in critical areas. The good news is that in most organizations there are character driven people that are doing an outstanding job. The bad news is their stories are not being told.

I have never seen this work informally by just asking people for outstanding results during a meeting or telling a few stories during annual meetings. This will probably require formalizing this entire process to create a system where stories can be routinely asked for and submitted to someone who can evaluate them and then find an appropriate platform for communication.

This must not though feel like a monthly performance review system where everyone is checked against their numbers. It needs to be like what happened great in your area this month that would encourage everyone in the organization to know.

The formula is simple existing personnel + ongoing priorities + outstanding performance = Success. The only missing piece is telling the story.

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6 Ways To Energize Your Team

Posted by on May 10, 2017

I have often said that leaders more than anything else are dealers in hope. You are the emotional thermostat for your team. If they sense your positive attitude it will give them the confidence that we will get through this and win in the end. This Michael Hyatt post is excellent as always:

“As a leader, you have an effect on people. When you leave the room, people either feel taller or smaller. This is an almost super-hero power, but, unfortunately, leaders are often unconscious of it. A few years ago, I met with an author I had always admired. It wasn’t our first meeting; I had met with him a few times previously. I had always enjoyed being with him and left our encounters with a renewed commitment to serve him well.

But this time was different. He marched into the meeting with an entourage of assistants and a heavy dose of entitlement. Something had changed.”

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How To Change Organizational Culture

Posted by on January 11, 2017

According to John Kotter there are many reasons change initiatives fail especially in large organizations. The number one reason is there is not a clear sense of urgency for change that makes everyone willing to pay the short term price of pain due to change to gain the long term benefit of progress.

Many times the communications part of the process breaks down and the implementers do not get enough information to really buy in. The importance of creating short term wins for establishing credibility for the entire process cannot be overstated.

When the new of change becomes the norm there are several key factors that let you know it is now firmly in the D.N.A. of your organizational culture:

More change, not less: The guiding coalition uses the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle additional and bigger change projects.
More help: Additional people are brought in, promoted, and developed to help with all the changes.
Leadership from senior management: Senior people focus on maintaining clarity of shared purpose for the overall effort and keeping urgency levels up.
Project management and leadership from below: Lower ranks in the hierarchy both provide leadership and specific projects and manage those projects.
Reduction of unnecessary interdependencies: To make change easier in both the short and long term, managers identify unnecessary interdependencies and eliminate them.

When everyone in the organization starts to articulate the new vision in their own words as if it were their idea then you know they own the process. It is time to start looking for what needs to be changed next, the process never stops.

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5 Steps To Get Honest Feedback

Posted by on December 26, 2016

One of the things I experience in my executive coaching over and over again is the tremendous negative cost of leaders not having a willingness to tell people the truth. People really do want to know what is expected and where they stand but insecure leaders can’t seem to have the honest conversations. This Forbes post will help you get the feedback you need:

“As an executive coach, some of the saddest moments I witness is when someone gets feedback…too late. “I was shocked” said one leader to me recently. “It felt like a kick in the stomach coming from someone I trusted.” Her voice cracked as she said this to me. It was clear she was trying to contain her emotion.”

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Why Gratitude Is So Important In The Workplace

Posted by on November 30, 2016

Most of the behavioral issues I deal with in the workplace are because the person I am coaching has lost their perspective. They focus in on a series of small hurts and dwell on them to the point they become bitter and negative. In every situation without exception, the key core issue is they are no longer grateful for all the good in their lives. This Fast Company post deals with why this is so important:

“Gratitude is absolutely vital in the workplace, says UC Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons, author of The Little Book of Gratitude: Creating a Life of Happiness and Wellbing by Giving Thanks, and a leading researcher on the subject. “Most of our waking hours are spent on the job, and gratitude, in all its forms, is a basic human requirement,” he says. “So when you put these factors together, it is essential to both give and receive thanks at work.”

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Leadership Is About Promising To Listen Well

Posted by on November 7, 2016

We all struggle with the commitments we make either to ourselves about eating a healthier diet or to someone else about something we said we would do and simply forgot. When we want to take our commitment to the next level we start making promises.

A promise is defined as a declaration that something will or will not be done and there is assurance given and an expectation created. Promises should be reserved for the top priorities and the people we care about the most.

One promise we should all be willing to make to the people that matter is that I will carefully listen to what you have to say. As Stephen Covey said in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People we should first seek to understand the other person before we ask to be understood.

Our motives are no longer to show how smart we are, win the argument or avoid pain. We sincerely want to understand what the other person is thinking and feeling to the point we acknowledge their value as a person.

Listening involves time and a willingness to be patient until we have embraced all that the other person wanted to share. Think of at least one person in your life today that you really care about and make a promise that I will lay down my agenda for the benefit of someone else.

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Ten Unmistakable Signs Of A Toxic Culture

Posted by on November 4, 2016

This issue is a really big deal and it’s not only negatively impacting productivity, it’s causing a lot of people to hate coming to work. They hate it not because of the excessive work load but because of the constant negative drama that consumes everyone daily. This Forbes post nails the problem:

“Maybe it’s a pay practice that doesn’t make sense, or a burning issue that everybody knows and worries about but that has never been spoken about other than furtively, in hallway conversations. The first time you raise a sticky issue at work, it will feel scary — but it will feel more comfortable to speak your truth every time you do it.”

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