Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.”                          – Stephen R. Covey

Taking Time to Refresh Makes Good Business Sense

Taking Time to Refresh Makes Good Business Sense

It's instinctive for driven professionals, especially entrepreneurs, to work 'round the clock, making little time for themselves. These ambitious types swear off the New Age folks who spew rhetoric of life balance, insisting there are only 24 hours in a day and not a minute can be squandered on actions that don't include succeeding in business.

While such a high level of inner shrewdness will take you far, there comes a point in time when exhaustion sets in. Before this happens to you, consider t several reasons why making time for yourself on a regular basis is not only important to avoid fatigue, but is actually a key factor for success.

·         Refreshing yourself frees and invigorates your mind. Just like sleep refreshes your mind and body, so does taking time off from the day-to-day grind. If your routine is the same day after day, it’s bound to get old, no matter how much a creature of habit you are. When you allow your mind to focus on something other than work, it helps you gain perspective that you can't see when you’re knee deep in the trenches.  That’s when the ideas flow and the breakthroughs come

·         You can't be good to anyone unless you’re good to yourself. This old saying should not be taken flippantly. Ask yourself, “What have you done for me lately?” If you can’t come up with a good answer quickly, chances are it’s because it’s been a while since you took some time to focus on you. You are more than just an occupational spearhead or businessperson. You are a whole person. If you don’t value that person, you can’t be effective in managing and leading others. The work will get done just the same or even better if you use your time wisely. So start by being good to yourself, take some time off and give yourself what you need.

·         You will be more creative. Creativity is not found in the organized and logical part of your left-brain. While it’s inherent for the determined professional to look for ingenuity there, creativity actually lives in the chaotic, messy and unorganized side of your right-brain. And so does inspiration. Sitting day in and day out in your office trying to move things along will at some point cause your ideas to dry up! Taking some time off from organization and practices will give you the space to explore the chaos in your right-brain. It’s remarkable what you will find in there.

·         Being a control freak isn't helpful. One reason why business leaders are who they are is because of their ability to organize, drive processes and move people toward the goal line. They know how to make things happen. They know how to control situations and create outcomes. But they can also be too controlling of people. There is only so much we are able to control and at some point we have to learn to let go before we get in our own way. Making time for you is a great way to take a step back and relinquish control, even if for only an hour per week. This will allow you to see realities as never before.  If you have the right people in place, you should easily be able to delegate tasks in your absence.

·         You keep in touch with what's truly important.   Sometimes things don't go as planned. Sometimes it gets so bad that closing the doors is the best option. Or maybe you're a leader who is shown the door one day unexpectedly, pink slip in hand. When we define ourselves by what we do, we can easily lose sight of who we are, leaving us devastated when the unexpected happens. Taking time for yourself allows you to realize that you’re more than your professional self. You owe it to yourself to honor those non-professional parts of yourself and the truth is, you never know where or when you might meet someone in your travels that can help your career or business. 

The Team Development Curve Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing

The Team Development Curve

Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing

Forming-Birth

This phase is like giving birth.  The fact that six or seven people have gathered together does not guarantee effectiveness.  Teams, like individuals, need to grow up, move through development stages, from formation to maturity.  There are a number of practitioners and researchers who have proposed any number of clearly definable stages or phases of group life.  Teams don’t experience these states exactly as they are identified, but the general descriptions are helpful.  The stages are normal, to be grown through just as individuals from adolescence to adulthood.  As teams struggle through these growing pains and become more effective as a team, they’ll even find their personal lives richer, fuller and more satisfying.

During the early formative and dependent stages, it is not surprising that individuals are concerned about membership, belonging to the group, being included.  There is as strong need to be liked and accepted.  Conflict is usually avoided at all costs.  Personal needs and wants are characterized by the following:

       

• There is conformance to the established company line.
• Feelings are hidden and suppressed.
• There is little listening and caring for others.
• Personal inadequacies and weakness are kept hidden.
• Objectives and action plans are poorly done and communicated.
• Hidden agendas remain hidden.
• Cliques and alliances begin forming.
• Feedback and disclosure are at a minimum.
• There is a strong need for approval.
• Mistakes are often used as evidence.
• Real feelings are shared outside the meeting.

Storming-Control

Once team members get the lay of the land they begin to feel comfortable, they usually want to figure out who is in control and how much influence they will have on the team.  Look for the following characteristics:

• People do not work in a unified way.
• The cliques grow and wield influence.
• Conflict intensifies and is general resolved through voting.

• There are a lot of win/lose interactions.
• Infighting exists.
• Personal strengths and weaknesses become better known.
• Commitment is debated.
• Self-centeredness becomes evident.
• Team identity is low.
• Self-disclosure is still cautious.
• Close-mindedness is evident.
• People are defensive.
• Ground rules are ignored.

This is a critical time for teams and some may even self-destruct.  If there is order without freedom, team members will rebel against rigidity or formality.  If there is freedom with out order, the chaos will produce confusion and frustration.  Member freedom within an orderly process to which the team has agreed is the best result desired 

Norming-Effectiveness

To arrive at this point is a real struggle.  It provides the team with the vehicle for becoming an effective team.  It allows them to dig in and truly be productive with their time.  This stage is characterized by the following:

• There is an attitude of change.
• Real constructive cooperation begins.
• People are more open-minded.
• Better listening is evident.
• Cliques dissolve.
• Leadership becomes more shared.
• Previously dormant people contribute.
• There is a willingness to experiment to explore all sides of an issue.
• Conflict is viewed as needed.
• Methodological processes begin developing.
• Operating methods are reviewed.
• Problem solving skills are developed and utilized

Performing-Maturity

As the team continues to constructively explore and struggle developing orderly processes, methods, and task accomplishment becomes much quicker and easier.  The work team begins functioning as mature, interdependent members.  Leadership becomes less of an issue; anyone can take the lead role when appropriate.  The team will appear to be less structured because the discipline is internally understood and monitored by the members themselves.  This level of maturity can be recognized by the following:

• Close relationships.
• Resourceful and economical.
• High spirits and morale.
• Informality and respect.
• Happy and rewarding
• Encouragement of outside help.
• Mistakes still made, but eagerly examined.
• Cohesiveness.
• Common spirit.
• High goal attainment.
• Intense loyalty.
• Open relationships with other teams.
• Flexibility, adaptability.
• Individual needs recognized and met.
• Continual review and feedback.
• New members welcomed and included.

The mature team, like the mature individual, reflects on itself, and organizes its own continuous growth and development.

These stages are not tied to time.  Some groups never achieve maturity.  Some get so bogged down at stages that it is difficult to move on.  Even mature groups may have to re-form to work out some new issue or problem, or simply lose their willingness to work together. 

Essential Leadership Traits

Essential Leadership Traits

Presence is one of several essential traits that professionals with solid leadership skill demonstrate. You don’t have to be the most outgoing or candid person in the room to manifest leadership presence.  The good news is that you don’t have to be born with presence.  You can develop presence.

Presence can be developed through:

Composure:  Self-awareness, empathy and understanding of others are essential components of leadership presence.  The ability to control your feelings, recognize others emotions, and manage your responses is critical.

Connection:  It’s essential to build rapport with others when communicating this will help them feel at ease.  In order to connect it is essential to understand your personal communication style, your challenges, how to overcome them, and how to read and adjust to the styles of others.

Appeal:  People who personify leadership presence have the skill to attract others to them. This is often achieved through effective listening skills and an ability to “be in the moment” and remain “in the moment.”  As a result, the people with whom you are interacting know that you are focused exclusively on them, and are not distracted by countless other things you could be doing at that instant.   

Confidence:   A key trait of leadership presence is to communicate and inspire confidence by what you say and how you say it.  To look confident, good posture is critical. Next, attention to eye contact is a requirement.  Make sure you only speak when making eye contact and manage your eye contact appropriately when communicating with more than one person — one thought per person is a good rule.  Ensure your facial expression matches your message and that your voice has good pitch, volume, and pace.  And of course, you must look the part.  Select your apparel and accessories carefully.

Credibility:  Not only is your content central to your credibility, but the language you choose to deliver it will sway your credibility.  Filler language such as “um,” “uh,” and “so” immediately detract from presence.  As do reducers like “just,” “sort of,” and “this may not be a good idea but…” all these reduce credibility.  When someone with strong presence speaks, others take note, and there is no doubt of the personal commitment behind their words.

Clarity:  For you to project presence, the ability to clearly communicate is essential.  If your point is unclear, any hope of commanding attention is lost. Create an elevation speech for your message.   Ask yourself, “What is my message in 10 words or fewer?”  If you can’t articulate your message to yourself you are not ready to communicate it to others.

Conciseness:  Being long-winded kills presence.  Just as it is critical to know what you want to communicate, you must be able to do it concisely.  Once you’ve delivered your message and briefly validated it, ask your listeners, “What else can I share with you about this idea?”  This way you will stay on point and only expand on a topic with the content that your listener needs.

Leadership presence is within your grasp. Many leaders develop their presence with a little personal reflection practice and coaching from one who has already developed the leadership trait of presence.

Openness- The Key to Constructive Feedback

How to Learn from Your Own Experience

What is it to be an open person?  The Johari Window provides a graphic way of looking at interpersonal openness.

The window represents the whole person.

The Open area represents that part of you – your behavior, feelings and thoughts – which you share freely with others.  When you form a new relationship this area tends to be small.  What you share with the new acquaintance is governed largely by social convention and limited to things that are public knowledge anyway.  As you get to know and trust another, you are both willing to share more of yourselves and the open areas grow in size.

The Blind area represents behavior you are not aware of, although another may be.  “Would the gift that God would give us, to see ourselves as others see us.”  You find out about your blind spot through feedback from others.

The Hidden area includes thoughts and feelings that you have not yet revealed to others through your behavior.  You share your hidden by self-disclosure.

The Unknown area is that part of you which you once knew but have forgotten, or which you have not yet discovered.  What helps you to probe into your unknown is to experiment and play.  Small children are experts at self-discovery, simply because they are experts at play.  As people grow older, they often tend to use their capacity to play, to test, to experiment, to fool around as children do.

Enlarging your area of openness by reducing the hidden and the unknown is always a little risky.  There is perceived risk to you and risk to others.  Will you hurt them?  Will you make them angry?  Will they reject you?  What will they think of you?  What will you find out about yourself?  The risk, the pain and the fear of being open can be strong deterrents.  When is openness worth it?  When is it possible?  When is it constructive?