Management
Ten Ways To Develop A Powerful Staffby Linda Talley
As a manager or boss, have you every said to yourself:
• “what a crummy staff I have”
• “I wish my folks would act differently”
• “why do they always do this to me?”
• “I can’t stand these people.
Our staff may be acting a particular way and we blame them. The truth is that we’ve trained them to be the way they are and to act the way they do. If you respond that you were just promoted or hired into your spot and the staff acts this way, here’s the answer: it’s because the previous manager trained them for you.
Most people are conditioned from childhood to act the way they do. If you want them to act differently, you’re job is to challenge them to make a fundamental change and come from a completely new perspective.
As a manager or boss, it’s our job to be fully responsible for what’s happening in our space or what’s not--even if you’re new to the job. It’s an opportunity you have rather than a problem or a situation to handle. Opportunities are a chance for your own self-expression that will add to the quality of your life.
If you’re ready for this opportunity to retrain and empower your staff so that you get exactly what you want, consider how you really want them to be and what you really want them to do.
Some managers and bosses don’t really want their staff to change-- unfortunate but true. Consider the 3 main reasons:
They get energy from complaining about the way things are or how poorly their staff operates.
They create drama or problems within their organization as a way to get energy.
They keep their staff operating at a lower lever so they can “run their power trip” on them and thereby get their energy.
The only problem with these 3 ways of being is that you don’t get a lot accomplished, neither does your staff and all of you are wondering what happened. Why isn’t this working? Now you know!
If change is really what you want, here are 10 ways to change and redevelop your staff into empowered individuals:
1. Ask your staff to bring you solutions rather than problems. Many managers are trained problem-solvers. However, if you told the truth, you really resent having to solve problems. It’s an energy drain for you.
Here’s how to make a fundamental change. When a staff member brings you a problem, don’t make them wrong, acknowledge that there is a problem and then challenge them to solve it or bring you a couple of solutions that you two will work on TOGETHER to solve.
Staff members may not like this new way that YOU’RE being because THEY will have to grow if you stop solving problems for them. A key point to remember: if a staff member becomes hysterical or highly excited about a problem, keep in mind that this is a way to seduce you into solving the problem because of the “emergency” nature.
Simply ask the staff person to report the problem rather than re-living the problem. This helps bring them back into balance and it may be more difficult for them to seduce you into solving their problems when they’re in balance and being fully responsible.
2. Ask your staff to be the very best at their present job. Most people who ask for a raise or a promotion really are telling you that they are not able to motivate themselves, need some attention of some kind, or can’t be with themselves.
Ask your staff to increase their productivity so that they are now working at 120%. When people are working at this level, self-esteem rises because they see how much more they can accomplish, other people take notice and the worker begins to build a reputation as someone who goes the extra mile. When you have staff who are operating at this level, you can then manage vision rather than trying to manage behavior.
3. Ask your staff to move away from being “risk-adverse” to fixing things even if they aren’t broken. As the manager you’ll have to be willing to do this first, but once you have people fixing things even before you see that they’re broken, turf issues are eliminated, self-esteem rises, motivation is a constant, and energy flows rather than being drained from individuals.
Organizations have a long history of being risk-adverse so staff members have been trained well in this arena. Be willing to see mistakes as growth.
4. Ask your staff to acknowledge and appreciate other staff members. The organization of the 90s has people who treat other people very, very well and this is where it starts. There’s a distinction between acknowledge and appreciate.
An acknowledgment is a statement you make about WHO the person is. It usually starts with the word “you.” An example might be: “you’re someone who never leaves a job unfinished.” Or “you know the right things to say.” Appreciation is more about WHAT the person did or is doing and it’s a good motivator. Both are very good to give to someone and receive. Why?
Because many of us have a need for acknowledgment and appreciation and we just don’t get it because we don’t know how to ask for it. So then we resort to seducing someone into acknowledging us or appreciating what we do. It’s not healthy and it’s done regularly.
If you as the manager set a high standard and be the model of someone who gives acknowledgments and appreciation, your staff will join in. If they don’t, ask them to acknowledge and appreciate you on a weekly basis or perhaps even daily.
5. Begin to use the skill of making people right even when they’re wrong and then ask your staff to do the same. When you make someone wrong, you judge, criticize, or diminish them. It doesn’t feel good but most of us have been trained to accept this kind of treatment.
You can correct a person without making them wrong and it’s called making them right even if they’re wrong. We get caught up in this because many of us listen for accuracy rather the truth. As I’ll mention in a moment, telling the truth is a skill and being accurate is a measurement.
If you take the example of a golf ball with half of it painted orange and half painted white and you showed the ball to someone and asked them what color it was, they might say that it was white. However, from your perspective, you see it being orange. Both of you are right but you may have a tendency to make the other person wrong. Making people right is when you can come from the place that they are telling the truth, even if it isn’t your truth. It’s their truth. Make them right for their truth and then put in the correction if you choose.
6. Ask your staff to “listen for” what people are saying rather than just listening to it. When you “listen for”, you’re listening for a whole lot more than you would if you were simply listening. When you “listen for,” you can “hear” a lot more. You can hear the truth, what the person really needs or wants, what’s stopping a person from getting what they want, what don’t they have in order for business to work, and finally, what is working for them in their business.
When you can listen for these things, you become a very powerful person because people will be naturally attracted to you because they feel like you really understand them, you really know what’s up for them. It’s so powerful because most people don’t listen for everything, they simply listen to the obvious and the other person doesn’t feel heard. “Listening for” takes practice and it is worth the time and focus.
7. Ask your staff to tell the truth. Telling the truth is a skill that most of us don’t have. We’re more willing to tell people what we think they want to hear rather than the truth. Many large corporations get into a mess because people don’t tell the truth.
They only say what they think the boss or-worker wants to hear. The truth is empowering and when you begin to tell the truth regardless of the consequences, you become very empowered. It’s an automatic high! If staff are going to tell the truth, managers and bosses must be willing to hear the truth and not penalize the staff member for telling the truth. This goes back to item # 3.
8. Part of telling the truth is not withholding and not stepping over anything. Ask your staff to stop withholding and stepping over anything. Both of these are energy drains and if you’re being drained of energy, productivity goes down quickly. When you withhold, you don’t say everything.
You withhold part of your communication because of a perceived consequence that means there is usually fear involved. “What if I told them this, what would they say?” It’s time to get over the fear or include the fear and say everything regardless of the consequence. When you step over something, you allow someone to take a little piece of your heart. The taking may be in the form of a derogatory remark, an off-colored remark, or an insinuation.
Stop stepping over. Stop the energy drain. Most people are afraid to confront people because we’ve been taught that it’s not nice or only do it if you really have to. The healthier way is to not let anyone have a piece of your heart and you do that by making a statement that stops them.
For example, if someone were making an off-colored remark, instead of turning your back or laughing at it, ask the person to stop. “Joe, that’s not your best and I really want your best.”
9. Ask your staff to “underpromise” and “overdeliver”. When you underpromise, you’re not always facing a deadline and you don’t have to use adrenaline to meet the deadline and drain yourself of energy. It’s really about getting ahead of the curve.
So many of us work behind the curve and it’s very draining. Whenever you’re behind the curve, you’re always going to be tired and it’s not healthy. By underpromising, you eliminate the threat of adrenaline and have the opportunity of becoming more productive. You’ll see that happening when you begin to overdeliver or to deliver the work before you said you would.
10. Work with your staff to eliminate inventories. Having and keeping inventories of things “to do” is an effective way for us to access adrenaline or to make ourselves feel important. If you actually sat down and took a look at some of the items on your list, you’d quickly realize that you’ll never finish some of the items. Be willing to reduce your inventory by 50% and work with your staff to reduce their inventory by 50%.
Sound like it might be worth considering for your business or department? These are very high level life skills and they’re about challenging people within your organization to grow. If one of your goals is to have an empowered staff, these 10 skills are a great place to start and the secret is to start with yourself first. Modeling works faster when it starts at the top. Are you ready?
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Copyright© 2002, Linda Talley. All right reserved. For information contact Frog Pond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@frogpond.com.
