You want the wheels on your car aligned. When the wheels are even a little bit out of alignment, the ride is uncomfortable, the wear on tires and other parts goes up, and the vehicle works less efficiently. When the wheels are critically out of alignment the ride is unbearable, and your safety is at risk.

When things that matter in your business and your life are not in alignment:

Traditional MBA programs are built on that desire; on the belief that the behaviours that constitute good management can be learned and repeated in any context. Those programs suggest, by making management a discipline, that if you get the basic skills down, you can manage a retail business or a bank or a restaurant, each with equal success.

The trouble is, it just isn’t true. But it seems that the desire to create . . . → Read More: A System or A Symphony?]]> Share/Bookmark

There is in the human soul a desire for reproducibility. Not reproduction, (we have that for sure!), but a need to reproduce things, perfectly and repeatably.

Traditional MBA programs are built on that desire; on the belief that the behaviours that constitute good management can be learned and repeated in any context. Those programs suggest, by making management a discipline, that if you get the basic skills down, you can manage a retail business or a bank or a restaurant, each with equal success.

The trouble is, it just isn’t true. But it seems that the desire to create reproducible systems is powerful. A powerful myth.

The E-myth, by Michael Gerber, pushes that message: that the biggest failing of small businesses is that they have no formal systems. The role of these formal systems is to allow the owner to exit themselves from the daily running of the business, to ensure cost-effective workforce-building, and to make expansion (like franchising) possible.

In Lean Manufacturing’s Oversized Claims, in October 2011’s Canadian Business, similar ideas are examined. The article explores the validity of the claim that systems like Six Sigma can consistently and sustainably reduce costs simply on the basis of a perfectly executed system.

In each case there is the underlying assumption that if you could just figure out a perfect system you could do away with people, or at least highly trained, hard to replace, expensive people.

Nonsense.

While I agree that betting the success of your business on recruiting the perfect talent is a strategy guaranteed to produce an early and unhappy end, the opposite is just as deadly.
Systems matter, but people matter more. The “best” systems are nothing more than Platonic ideals, more philosophy than business strategy, and in the case of Lean systems like Six Sigma or Kaizen, are almost religious cults.

I will drive my stake into this territory:

• No production or performance system is universally applicable across every industry or environment without being modified to the point of threatening the integrity of the original system (i.e. is XYZ Pure System still XYZ Pure System after 50% of it has been modified and made conditional?).
• No production or performance system is a perpetual motion machine. That is, it cannot operate well without reasonable talent, and cannot produce remarkable results without remarkable talent. The human talent and buy-in are non-negotiable inputs for success.

What is the right mix of people and systems in a business? 

Simple: it’s the great performance mix. Not the “high performance” kind of performance. The performing art kind of performance.

Every trained actor, musician, and director understands this intuitively. They work with scripts, scores, or chord changes that are meticulously noted systems. The score of a Mahler Symphony is a notated system of an order of complexity that no Six Sigma company in the world can hope to duplicate: tens of thousands of discrete actions, notated in absolutely precise detail. Yet they are pure noise in the hands of the wrong people (and a sublime experience in the hands of great talent).

Note that the reverse is true: the world’s greatest symphony orchestra, asked to perform without score or direction, would produce noise. The system is necessary, but to assume it can every be so perfectly designed as to obviate the need for anything more than minimal talent, is understood to be ludicrous in the performing arts. So why do we perpetuate that myth in business?

Take a page from the performing arts:

1. Create the best system you can. Tailor it precisely to your vision, your audience, your times, your genre (or industry). There is NO one-size-fits-all score or script (well there is, but unless you want your company to be know as the elevator music of your industry, not a good idea). This is the score or script for your performance. Get it right.
2. Invest in talent development. Hiring a superstar is occasionally a good strategy. But not very often. It is more cost-effective, and brings much greater benefits to find people with great raw talent but only just enough experience, and invest in training them. Do it right and they will invest in your performance. The greatest ensembles have been playing together for decades. A healthy symphony orchestra has a turn-over of less than 3%. We can learn from that.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Neither good systems, nor great talent, are any replacement for putting in the hours to get it right. That is another lesson we can learn from the performing arts: it is expected in the process of creating a great performance you are going to make a lot of mistakes. Do it again. And then, when you have it right, do it ten more times. Having a great script and great talent are never enough. Even the very best put in the hours. Musicians, actors, and athletes live with this. Why do people in business think they are exempt?

I help businesses and organizations get the mix right. People and systems working together to produce remarkable results. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

The next time you are onboarding a new recruit, here’s a little improvisation I would like you to undertake. The rules:

Business Fundamentals.

Rules.

Each of these disciplines have rules at the heart of them.

So why do I find myself constantly going back there to think and act out of the box? Isn’t getting out of the box, out of the rut, all about breaking the old rules?

No. This is a complete failure of insight. We are not boxed by rules. We are boxed by habits, instincts, and unexamined emotions. One prejudice creates a prison of a box more . . . → Read More: Back to the Middle to Get Outside]]> Share/Bookmark

Information theory. Physics. Classical music & jazz. Monastic orders. The sciences of the brain and cognition. Statistics and probability.

Business Fundamentals.

Rules.

Each of these disciplines have rules at the heart of them.

So why do I find myself constantly going back there to think and act out of the box? Isn’t getting out of the box, out of the rut, all about breaking the old rules?

No. This is a complete failure of insight. We are not boxed by rules. We are boxed by habits, instincts, and unexamined emotions. One prejudice creates a prison of a box more secure than all the laws of physics combined.

Despite the popular conception that the ‘box’ is the world of rules, order and structure, it is the opposite. The box is our emotions, instincts, and habits… all the stuff we are supposed to ‘get in touch with’ to get out of the box. It is a box of comfort. The box is not really a box at all. It is a groove, a deep groove of habits of thought and actions, made deep by our going over the same ground again and again.

The best way to get out of the box is a reality check. A real-ity check: a return to the world prior to, and impervious to, our assumptions and prejudices.

This is why even a cursory understanding of the laws of thermodynamics or probability trumps ‘common sense’. This is why learning to read a statement of cash flows is more valuable than reading one more woowoo pop psychology The Secret of Blah Blah Blah Success book. This is why understanding that you multiply two unrelated probabilities (for example the probability that you will have an opening for an employee next month, and the probability that some great talent will walk through your door looking for a job), that you don’t add them, is more valuable than clinging to the law of attraction. It is why understanding the Pareto distribution is more powerful and freeing than $1000′s in inspirational speakers.

The next time someone says: “we need think outside the box,” notice what happens next. If it is some kind of pseudo-brainstorm group-think  exercise, or even worse, the not-laws of The Secret, then all you are going to get is new layers of crud built on old layers of crud. In a weird MC Escher-like journey you will think you are making forward progress, when you will only find yourself exactly back where you started… less the energy you had when you started (check out the laws of thermodynamics for why that happens).

On the other hand, if the “getting out of the box” exercise begins with someone reaching for a giant scraper, to scrape away the layers of unexamined assumptions and habits, while saying something like “Let’s get back to fundamentals and rebuild,” then you know you have a hope of getting out of that box.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality . . . → Read More: Play it Again. And Again. And Again.]]> Share/Bookmark

Ideas are easy. Consistency is hard.

I think that one of the reasons I return to that epigram so often is because of my music training. The business world has much to learn from the musical world.

In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality matters, but at least in the worlds of jazz and classical music, you won’t get a lick if you can’t perform.

I heard an interview with Paul Simon a few weeks ago. Simon made a comment about having some great material in his head for another recording, but he had put it all on hold because he was on tour now. The interviewer asked, clearly perplexed, if that meant he just stopped writing, if he just put his creativity on hold. Simon response was that he was a professional. He didn’t sit around waiting for inspiration. He had a job to do, and when it came time to write, he would write.

Paul Simon has, among a crazy wealth of other abilities, solid writing chops. It is his craft, and he practices it.

That’s the way it is. So close your copy of 10 New Laws of Success I Just Discovered or any book with the words new, secret, laws, or success in the title, and start acting like a musician.

Practice your Craft

Business is an art and a craft. Practice it. Learn the fundamental rules of finance, social sciences/psychology, operations & logistics, communication and information theory. Understand the real laws of cause and effect that are the constants of your world much as the laws of acoustics, theory, and rhythm are the constants of a musician’s world. Study, study, study.

Then then practice. Practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts, no magical ‘laws’, no real silver bullets. The 10,000 hours that Gladwell writes about in Outliers won’t be ignored. Honour them or you will get nowhere.

Do you have to love what you do? Of course. Who wants to do something for ten thousand hours that they don’t love? But if you want to excel at it, if you want to make a living at it, it becomes a labour of love. The love must come first, but the system, the labour, the practice cannot be ignored. And if you want to be successful as a business owner, it is the practice of business that you must focus on. Not what got you into the business: baking or sales or mechanics or construction. The business itself is now your craft.

In music school, I spent 1,000’s of hours in study cubicles and Wenger practice studios. In the cubicles we were mastering the theoretical fundamentals of our art. In the tiny practice modules we were all practicing the performance of that art. And in the middle of all those hours, what struck me was not how hard I was working, it was what I heard when I took a break in the common area: the sounds of pianos, voices, trombones, trumpets, violins, double basses, percussion… heard faintly through the almost-soundproof doors of the other Wenger studios. The same scales, the same passages, the same failures and triumphs over and over and over again. The relentless patterns of the search for mastery.

I just don’t hear enough of that in the world of business.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

When was the last time you put off eating that ice cream because it was too much bother? How about finding all kinds of excuses not to cash in that cheque for 10K.

No?

How many of us pack the car in a flurry to hit the road and get to that fishing or camping spot before everyone else? Gardeners getting lost for hours in their gardens? Those of us who love to cook, unwinding in our kitchens, cooking 4-course meals?

Where are the procrastinators?

Every time I work . . . → Read More: There are No Procrastinators]]> Share/Bookmark

We all procrastinate. But most of us are not procrastinators.

When was the last time you put off eating that ice cream because it was too much bother? How about finding all kinds of excuses not to cash in that cheque for 10K.

No?

How many of us pack the car in a flurry to hit the road and get to that fishing or camping spot before everyone else? Gardeners getting lost for hours in their gardens? Those of us who love to cook, unwinding in our kitchens, cooking 4-course meals?

Where are the procrastinators?

Every time I work with a client to find out why they consistently avoid certain tasks, we dig through a layer of self-accusations about laziness and procrastination. But as I point out to them, that makes no sense. They are working 10 hour days, 6 days a week. They have built a business and put kids through college. Where does the lazy fit in?

No, it’s not about lazy. It’s about avoiding stuff you are not good at, and not meant to do.

One of the most important jobs you have as a business owner is to work your way out of your business one unpleasant task at a time. From bookkeeping to answering the phones, from sales to hand-holding employees. There are a myriad of things in a small business that must be done, but you may not like doing them. And when we don’t like what we are doing, we don’t do the job as well as someone who loves it.

If building a great team is the #1 critical success factor, then the list of things you hate to do can form a checklist of whom to hire first.

Growing a business is not just about increasing revenues and profits, or about bragging rights, or security (though all 3 of those things are fun or valuable), it is also about getting it to that place where you don’t have a single day of procrastination.

Many of us started our businesses because we loved doing one thing: painting, wrenching, baking, building, helping, healing… Then we realized that running a business doing those things involved doing so many other things we weren’t good at and didn’t like. So we need to grow to get back to that place. Not the same activity necessarily (I know lots of business owners who started a business for one reason, but fell in love with a different aspect of it later) but back to that place of loving what you do every day.

You are not a procrastinator, you are just ignoring reminders to keep growing back to that place where every morning, work can’t start soon enough.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Don’t want to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

I hate the term time management.

You can’t manage time. The word manage has the Latin word for hand (manus) buried in it. So you get the sense of something you can get you hands on, manipulate, adjust, turn, alter, carve, or julienne. And you can’t do a single one of those things with time.

We all get a chunk of it doled out in the light, and a chunk in the dark. Some of us use clocks that divide those experiences into hours. 24 of them. And we all get the same chunks. Depending . . . → Read More: Why Time Management Is a Phrase That Should Burn]]> Share/Bookmark

<Start Devil’s Advocacy>Caveat lector.

I hate the term time management.

You can’t manage time. The word manage has the Latin word for hand (manus) buried in it. So you get the sense of something you can get you hands on, manipulate, adjust, turn, alter, carve, or julienne. And you can’t do a single one of those things with time.

We all get a chunk of it doled out in the light, and a chunk in the dark. Some of us use clocks that divide those experiences into hours. 24 of them. And we all get the same chunks. Depending on which shiny object you track in the sky you get 12 or 13 annual cycles of time. Everyone get’s the same.  You can wave your hands around all you want, you aren’t going to get any more.

When people say they don’t have time, that really isn’t true. You don’t have less time, you are choosing to stuff more (or other) things into that time. Or you are using time as a scapegoat in your mitigated speech that disguises that what I am asking you to do is not as important to you as other things you would like to do in that time.  Of course you have the time. What you don’t have is the desire to do the thing asked of you!</end Devil’s Advocacy>

So what this is really all about is priority management. I like priority management. Your priorities, your lists, your sticky notes, chores and pleasure, those you can manipulate and manage. Priorities are ruthlessly honest. Real priority lists follow the rule that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time (in a Newtonian world anyway). So one has to come before another. So stop blaming time, and start owning up to your choices.

So let’s be honest and stop blaming time for its lack. Let’s stop playing with illusions about what it is we can really control. Lets be honest that we are making choices, good ones and bad ones, in each passing moment.

Each moment you have a choice how to conduct yourself. You can bring presence, focus, intention, and commitment to each one of those moments, or you can  drift. And sometimes even drifting is a good thing. The point is, they are priorities for you to manage, and for you to be honest about.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Don’t want to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too.

So really, are we too busy? Too distracted? Have we lost something important that we once had?

Reading What Happened To Downtime? The Extinction Of . . . → Read More: Give it a Rest. Downtime and Productivity]]> Share/Bookmark

It has become a truism that many of us are too busy.

My trouble is that every time I hear a pronouncement like that I feel my feet cleaving and two little bumps pushing through my skull just at the hairline. The urge to advocate for the devil becomes strong.  For example, when I hear someone say we should all be seeking balance in our lives I get like that… but that’s another article.

So really, are we too busy? Too distracted? Have we lost something important that we once had?

Reading What Happened To Downtime? The Extinction Of Deep Thinking And Sacred Space on Fast Company reminded me of this important question.

In this case the answer (unlike the persistent question about balance) is yes. We are losing something. The loss is measurable, as are the impacts.

Especially as managers and leaders we need time to think. And not just any time. Time where we are free for an uninterrupted period of time to think without a particular goal or objective.

Reflections on Thinking Time

• Interruptions cost. There is a growing body of evidence that shows that every time we are interrupted in a task, the brain requires 10 to 20 times the length of the interruption to recover. So when someone bugs you for “just a minute” they are actually costing you at least 10 minutes of productive time. And that multiplier gets larger as we get older.
• The more you direct your brain, the less real problem solving it can do. The best way to approach a complex problem is to spend a significant amount of time studying it and then walking away. I would say “put it out of your mind” but that is actually the opposite of what really happens. When we really focus on a problem we are using certain parts of our brain. When you let go of the problem, it doesn’t go out of your mind at all; it sinks deeper. Now the rest of the brain can do its job without you micromanaging it. Sleep on it, go for a run, take a long shower, meditate, do something where your mind can wander. There is a famous story of August Kekulé and his discovery of structure of the benzene molecule. After enormous amounts of research and thought, the solution occurred to Kekulé as he was daydreaming. The image of a snake with its tail in its mouth passed through Kekulé’s mind and he realized in that moment that the solution he had been seeking was a ring structure. Kekulé was not in his lab when this solution occurred to him, he was riding a horse-drawn omnibus.
• You really can’t be on all the time. Not only is it not a good idea, you literally can’t. There is a lot of evidence that shows that the brain, especially in its executive functioning (that’s the decision-making stuff that goes on largely at the front of the brain), has limited resources. The longer you hammer away at a problem, the more you reduce your brain’s capacity to solve any problem at all. That is not to say that extended periods of focused thinking is not productive. Given enough rest (including mental rest, or as we like to call it ‘spacing out’) we can work at a problem for quite a long time. But if you try to do that for one problem after another, making tough decisions all day long, the quality of those decisions will deteriorate. Throw in fatigue and interruptions, and you can see where this is going.

Find Space to Think

As a leader or a manager, you owe it to your organization and your team to make the best decisions you can. How do you do that? Here are six tips:

1. Set aside time each day to think. Put it right in your calendar. This is not a ‘left over’ activity to cram in spaces after other things are done. Even 20 minutes a day can make a difference. Go for a walk. Close the door to your office. Head to a local coffee shop. Put your work down, and get out of your normal work space.
2. Turn off digital distractions. You can’t always stop people from interrupting you. But email inbox bells, smartphone bleeps, social media alerts… all of those can be turned off.
3. Sleep. Get as close to eight hours as you can. Don’t be afraid to nap when the opportunity presents itself.
4. Drive in silence. I love listening to the CBC or to audio books on my longer drives to meet with clients. But I also enjoy driving in silence. Often I will even turn my Bluetooth earpiece off.  Some of my best thinking time happens in the car when nothing can distract me.
5. Walk or run. Centuries of common practice, especially in monastic traditions, have taught the value of walking meditation or walking prayer. There is something about the rhythm, the passing landscape, the absence of interruptions, that engenders that deep, undirected and creative thinking like nothing else. Of the three places I think the best: shower, car, and walks or runs, it is the latter that are the best. My only challenge sometimes, is to retain a good idea until I get home!
6. Sometimes technology helps.While one of the biggest culprits in the creation of “thought, interrupted” is digital technology, I sometimes find it a great ally. I use the voice recorder on my phone a lot. I have written before that my favourite tool to use in recording ideas and conversations is my Moleskine notebook.  But when you are stopped at a stoplight or walking through the city, you can’t always take out your notebook and write down an idea. I push a button, record my idea, and let it go. Not only does this help me capture the ideas that might otherwise evaporate, it allows my mind to keep wandering because I am not stressing about forgetting the thought I just had.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

What engagement does means:

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence . . . → Read More: Tell Me I Matter & We Both Win]]> Share/Bookmark

Engagement has become one of those nod your head buzzwords. We all suspect it’s a good thing, but most of us have no concrete understanding of what it means.

What engagement does means:

1. The feeling that we matter at work; that the unique skills and experience we bring to the team are valued, and would be missed if we weren’t there
2. The deliberate act of engaging with employees to share their input and feedback to improve the organization. Done right, this leads back to #1!

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence of engagement is corrosive and a top contributor to turn-over, slumping productivity, and out-of-control labour costs.

Did you know that for years Gallup has had a gold standard for employee engagement? A ratio of 10:1 (engaged to disengaged employees) describes a world-class organization. How do you think your organization does?

The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food

In an article that will make my Best of 2011 list, Tony Schwartz provides a very compelling perspective on employee engagement:

To feel valued (and valuable) is almost as compelling a need as food. The more our value feels at risk, the more preoccupied we become with defending and restoring it, and the less value we’re capable of creating in the world.

In the article, The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food, Schwartz tells the story of Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant, and his relentless drive to take his organization from what was once the worst engagement level among all S&P 500 clients (2:1) to the current 17:1(!). Now Conant is leaving Campbell Soup. It will be interesting to see if his successor is able to maintain that truly remarkable level of employee engagement.

What can you do to increase the level of engagement in your organization? Here are 5 ideas:

1. Keep the right perspective. The title of this article notwithstanding, you can’t actually ‘make’ someone matter any more than you can empower them (contrary to a lot of popular writing). Only we can generate the feeling of mattering internally. This means that even if you do everything right as a leader, there will still be team members who will not engage. Keep in mind that even after Conant’s remarkable efforts, the results are not 100% engagement.
2. Focus on strengths. Like a laser beam. Get to know your direct reports personally. When you have figured out what each team member brings to the table as their primary strength, you can begin the work of connecting those strengths with roles and positions in the organization where they will add the most horsepower. As with so many good things, it all starts with listening.
3. Get personal. While no one else can ‘make’ us matter, having direct and personal feedback that we are making a difference tells us that you think we matter. And that is the difference-maker. Rare souls like the Dali Lama may have the ability to draw that sense of value and worth entirely from within, the rest of us require feedback from our environment that what we are doing matters. Take a page from Conant’s book: he spends at least an hour a day writing hand-written notes to people throughout the organization, welcoming them, thanking them, and providing specific positive feedback.
4. Act. While not every suggestion is feasible, and even the good ones can take time to implement, at some point you must act on the feedback you receive. Saying “Thank you for your input,” and then doing nothing, only goes so far. And as Gallup’s research shows, it also just stupid and has consequences for the bottom line. Many of the suggestions that front-line employees (those who are engaged in the primary activity of the business) have significant productivity and cost savings implications.
5. Reward. The most important part of creating true engagement is simply communicating (through your words and the actions you take) that an employee is valued and valuable. But tangible rewards help! A first class local example is British Columbia’s Great Little Box Company. This company has been written up in business journals and business schools for its best-in-class practices as an employer. Not only does The Great Little Box Company provide a generous profit sharing program for everyone, they also provide specific cash rewards for any suggestion that measurably improves production or reduces costs.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

Recently I was with a small business client who prided himself on his ability to “pick ‘em” when it came to employees. The client told me that a new employee was having some difficulties performing, but that she would come around. “I’ve got great people instincts, and I think this one is going to work out great.” Sigh. We’ve been here before.

“No.” I said. “You don’t…” And proceeded to remind him of . . . → Read More: Where are Your Blind Spots?]]> Share/Bookmark

One of the joys (and challenges) of being a business coach is that I get paid to tell the truth, especially when no one else will.

Recently I was with a small business client who prided himself on his ability to “pick ‘em” when it came to employees. The client told me that a new employee was having some difficulties performing, but that she would come around. “I’ve got great people instincts, and I think this one is going to work out great.” Sigh. We’ve been here before.

“No.” I said. “You don’t…” And proceeded to remind him of the crazy track record he had of hiring too quickly and then taking forever to let people go, allowing and making excuses for damage caused along the way. He blinked a couple of times, and then agreed: this new employee had to go before her 90-day probationary period was up.

The client and I have enough history to cut to the chase like this.

“Sir, we are going to crash.”

What does it take to bring that kind of honesty into your workplace when you are not a coach? What can you do, whether you are the employee or the employer, to ensure the quality of communication is high enough to ensure no one is driving off a cliff unaware?

1. Give permission. The pre-condition for honesty on a team is explicit and implicit permission. It is the role of the employer to set this tone by stating clearly that honesty is desired. It is then the employer’s role to back that up that talk with the right walk. As the employer, when you receive news you don’t want to hear, keep your body language neutral, and say “thank you.” Almost anything else you say, especially anything that smacks of excuses or blame, will undermine your call for honest feedback.
2. Act. Again as the employer, when you receive critical/negative feedback, you must act, even if you choose to stay with the status quo. If you do nothing, the implicit message is that employees are wasting their time (and risking their credibility) by drawing challenges to your attention. If you are not going to change what has been brought up, taking the time in to formally explain your decision to stay with the status quo qualifies as action. Take the feedback seriously, and be seen to take the feedback seriously.
3. Shoot straight. As the employee or peer, don’t second-guess intentions or try to outguess outcomes. The mental chess we play with ourselves “If I say this, then this might happen,” is paralyzing. If you have permission to provide feedback, accept that at face value. If you get shot down because the employer or team member turned out to be insincere in their request, then don’t do it again! You have the right now.
4. Respect the context. Follow this rule: “celebrate publically, and criticize privately” If you think someone did a great job, let the world know. If someone made a mistake, find a moment or place to provide that feedback in private. Few things will make people pull out the defensive weaponry faster than being criticized or challenged in front of others.
5. Respect the context (II). As the person seeking feedback, ensure that you are not putting the other person in an awkward position by ‘asking for it’ publically. If you really think there may be a serious problem with a decision you have made, do not ask for feedback in the middle of the shop floor. Honest feedback at a staff meeting requires a high level of trust. If there isn’t, you will get either vague and insincere “Looks good to me” kind of comments, or a polarizing situation because people feel like they have to form up ‘sides’ to support a negative opinion.
6. Keep it personal. For goodness sake don’t ever use email or anything except face-to-face conversation for tough questions or feedback. Don’t solicit potentially critical feedback by email, and don’t provide it that way either. Good feedback is framed in dialogue. It requires the ability to read every signal a person is putting out, including body language and tone of voice.

These thoughts were inspired by an excellent article by Barbara Pachter on the HBR Blog Network. Her article How to Tell the Boss His Fly Is Down is an excellent essay on the why’s and how’s of feedback. She makes some very strong points, including:

1. Without honest feedback you run the risk of obliviously continuing behaviours that are damaging your career and business.
2. The best way to get feedback in a challenging situation is from a coach. That can be anyone over whom you have no direct authority, and who has the responsibility to be honest with you.

Pachter’s article is a must-read for anyone in a leadership position.

Related articles:

Want the Truth? Permission and Gratitude Will Get It

The physics of Failure

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through social media strategies and management-level workshops. Check out these opportunities to work with me online, from anywhere in the world:  Effective Online Coaching Programs.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).