Levelling the Playing Field

     As business life becomes more competitive so more demands to increase performance are being placed on business managers. The working environment, though, is also changing. School leavers over the last decade or so have and are joining the workforce with different expectations and values than those who were brought up and educated in the sixties and seventies.  The so called 'generation y' expect more reward for simply turning up. They have been encouraged to speak their minds and expect to be heard.  
     Those managers brought up in a more conservative era are often confused by these changes. They can feel threatened by dialogue which they perceive as argument. Additionally, modern managers  are expected to be more empathetic.  They are required to create a safe, non-threatening environment yet have no training or support to do so.
     The result is often conflict and tension that arises out of a difference in values and beliefs. People may have different values regarding punctuality and reliability.  They may give tasks different priorities. People can feel resentful about doing tasks they feel do not reflect their status; their sense of identity.
   The difficulty in recognising conflicting values and beliefs or sense of identity is that, more often than not, the problem is only apparent in a person's behaviour or results.
     Our values and beliefs are one of a complex but understandable hierarchy of factors.  Those factors are stacked at various levels within each of us.They are logical because we can rationally understand how each level interacts with the other. Hence logical levels. Logical levels are mainly used in coaching to enable individuals or organisations to align their environment and behaviour to their particular values and beliefs. If necessary, values and beliefs can be changed in order to align with an individual's or organisation's sense of who or what they are - their sense of self.
     In managing conflict the logical levels allow you to identify the level at which a person's issue is positioned. Knowing that level, you can intervene at the right level in order to bring about a positive outcome brought about by a change in behaviour - which, after all, is what conflict management is about.  The levels stack up like this:

                Purpose                        Something else?
                Identity                          Who?
               Values and Beliefs         Why?
               Capabilities                    How?
               Behaviour                      What?
               Environment                 Where/When?

     Now, Einstein said you cannot resolve problems at the level the problem exists. In managing conflict, therefore, we must resolve issues at a higher level than the level that produced the issue. That happens because each level depends upon the level above it. If we, as individual, are entirely aligned, or congruent, then our sense of who we are is defined by what we perceive to be our mission or purpose in life. Our values and beliefs are set by our sense of who we are; and so on down the levels.
     When people are in conflict the issue comes about by a person behaving in a certain manner.  They do, or do not, take certain actions. In business people may not pay a bill; a contractor may refuse to make good poor quality workmanship. An employee may refuse a task they consider beneath them or miss a deadline they don't consider important. It is thus in a person's behaviour that the dispute shows itself. And it is at the behavioural level that many managers try and resolve the issues.
     So, if a problem is with someone's behaviour, first check to see if they are capable of changing. Do they value and believe in the required outcome as much as everyone else? Is the required behaviour or outcome in line with their sense of identity?
    The questions in italics next to each of the levels above are a guide to the type of question that can be asked at each level. Be careful with Why? 'Why' can often sound judgemental or aggressive and often needs a softer tone.
     By being aware of people's thinking and perceptions at each of the levels, you, as a manager and leader, can question and challenge at the appropriate level in order to target the real issues; and you can do it with surgical accuracy. 

                              
                                       

                           

    

     

Creating creativity – implementing innovation.

 I am finding more often at the moment that many businesses have reached the limit of what they can do and are still struggling to compete. They have run out of time and resources to cope with new challenges. Most are clinging on to their present state in the belief that they can do no more. Many are pushing themselves to the limits of their endurance in their efforts to work harder.

           

The real challenge, though, is not to work harder but to think differently. We don’t discover new things by digging the same hole deeper but by digging in a different place. So if have already exhausted your ideas try simply redirecting the talents you have.

For example: Think of a situation last week that did not work out as you had hoped. You might have been depressed for a period of time, compromised one of your values, got involved when you should have delegated, procrastinated when you should have taken action. Make a list of your own.

Now, given that behind every action is a resource that can be used positively in other areas, take one of the actions from your own list and consider the skill you used for that result. If you were fed-up all week you were skilled in maintaining a consistent state. If you procrastinated, you were using your skill of resisting pressure to take premature action. If you compromised a value you were being flexible.

What skill did you unconsciously use for the behaviour you demonstrated? How did you do it? What did you imagine? What did you say to yourself? What were you feeling?

Having identified those factors, how can you use them for more positive results? If you maintained a steady emotional state, you might choose to remain calm or positive when things get tough. If you compromised a value, you might choose to be flexible in negotiations with customers or suppliers.

What other area in your life can you apply this skill to achieve a more beneficial result? Think about how things would be. How are you feeling when things are as you would wish? What are people saying? What are you and they doing? How does applying the skill in this way benefit other people in your workplace?  As you read this column now, be aware that you can create that positive situation if you choose to do so.

Charles Darwin did not say that only the fittest survive. He said the species with the most adaptability will survive.  Flexibility equals choices and the more choices we have the more empowered we are. Given that the coming year is likely to be as challenging as the last, businesses must be prepared to experiment, copy, adapt and learn in order to do things differently rather than doing the same things better. 

Best of Times or Worst of Times?

                As this recession continues to bite harder so people are beginning to realise the need to take control of their situation themselves.  Nobody is going to wave a magic wand to make things better.  Our political leaders do not have any other ideas than the current ‘Plan A’ - “there is no ‘Plan B”. 

                 It is generally excepted that it is the small business that will lead the country out of recession. And that is you and me. So we have a choice.  We can carry on doing what we always did and wait for things to get better; or we can take responsibility and make things happen.

Personally, I don’t believe things will ever be quite the same again and that we must change in order to grow and prosper.

But change can be scary and exciting.  Fortunately one of the talents we were born with is the ability to manage both.

One of the results of fear is clinging on to how things are: Because we are warm and cosy in our particular cowpat.  We are proud of our results, we accept we are as good as we will ever become and we know that if we just hold on then things

will get better.

   The problem, though, is that we become wedded to the attachment and not the things or circumstances  themselves.  For example, in our private lives, we can become committed to a relationship rather than the person or thing to which we want to relate.  In business, we become entrenched in the way we do things. The way you  market and advertise, the way you treat customers and suppliers, the way you relate to your staff, are all examples of you believing that the way is currently more important that the what.

Before 2008 I would have agreed.  The way or how you do things are often a demonstration of who you are, particularly for small business owners whose values and beliefs are reflected in the business.

But things have now changed and all change means we must let go of attachments. If we don’t there is no room for more learning or experience.  Yet growth is achieved by an exchange for an old for the new, the good for the better.  

It is important here to understand the difference between letting something go and throwing it away.  I have often heard those business leaders who started the business saying they had taken years to grow the business and they weren’t going to “throw it all away now.”  The implication being that throwing away is devaluing and dishonouring everything that went before. That somehow everything that has  been achieved is now worthless.

Letting go, on the other hand, allows you to move ahead while acknowledging and honouring everything that has been achieved so far.  There may be a period of adjustment as you adapt to the new circumstances or way of being.  But in taking the positive elements with you the foundations of everything you have achieved are available for future growth. 

As a business leader, then, you must now be  ready to motivate and inspire yourself, your employees and your other stakeholders in the business.  There are 4 ways of doing so:

· Create a vision for the future of the business that is congruent with your own and business values.

· Involve other people in indentifying ways of achieving that vision.  The more people are involved the more of a sense of ownership they have.

· Support and encourage your people in achieving the vision through positive feedback, coaching and mentoring.

· Publicly recognise and reward each successful step or journey goal.

As businesses become more entrenched in their current position so it becomes more difficult to create a climate or trust and change.  Moving the business forward in these times involves mobilising people to bring about the change and to let go of the status quo.  For businesses with a management structure change leadership has to be shared and multiplied for change to be successful and the vision realised.  This is not the time for you to be carrying the responsibility alone.

Valuing support, supporting values

As things become more uncertain I am noticing there is a greater need for positive leadership in the business world.  The World War II leader Viscount General Slim once said that discipline means that every person knows who to turn to for further direction when things pass beyond their own authority or initiative.  I believe that Slim had that a little wrong.  I think that is a perfect definition of leadership– military, political, social, religious or business.  In this recession the right kind of leadership means that people turn for that guidance confident that they will get sensible and effective direction..  And that leadership is based on three pillars:

· Spiritual  The first pillar because in times of stress and uncertainty only spiritual foundations can cope with real strain. And here spiritual is not necessarily meant in the religious sense but as a belief in a cause or outcome.

· Intellectual.  Because people are motivated by reason as well as feeling.  This is the logical, sensible part of running the business.  Decisions and actions have to be seen to be based on common-sense and sound business principles.

· Material.  People must be given the best equipment and conditions available.  And available includes affordable-the best the company can afford.  Often, the equipment and conditions  supplied to the workforce are a direct reflection of how much the business leaders value their employees.

     Taking each of these pillars in turn in order to have a spiritual foundation the business must have a greater cause or mission.  One of greater and wider appeal than merely increasing shareholder value.  People must feel that what they are doing is important and that their contribution is vital.  That is often straightforward in a business that is meeting a customer’s needs.  Trickier though in those companies that satisfy a customer’s wants.  A useful exercise is to ask what customer need is that want meeting.  Is it to increase their sense of worth? To communicate a particular message they need to send?  To be more efficient through a need for  a better work/life balance?  By looking at your customers’ requirements at a high level it is possible to find the need your business is satisfying.

     People do not like working for a lost cause. The aim or mission of the business then must be achievable.  People must also see that the organisation they are serving is an efficient one; that there efforts are not being wasted or squandered.  Employees must have confidence in their business leaders.  That no matter how tough things become, their leaders are working hard to keep the business moving and that solutions can and will be found.  To achieve that, leaders must know what they are talking about and, more importantly, they must believe it themselves.

     A business can have lofty and ideal values and beliefs but if they are not demonstrated in everyday actions they  become meaningless and devalued.  The provision of a safe, non-threatening working environment is a matter of law. The amount and quality of equipment and conditions over and above the legal requirement is a matter of choice. The leader’s choice.  There is a little point in valuing your employees if there is no  tangible evidence of that value in the workplace.

So, how are you currently supporting your employees?  While it is true that some people come to work purely for the money, most come for a sense of identity themselves, for companionship, for a sense of belonging and to contribute to something greater than themselves.  By actively paying attention to these 3 pillars you, as a business leader, are investing energy and commitment in your  people. And you can expect the same in return.

Congruent Consistency-Converging Clarity

      The way we say things often has a greater effect on the listener than the actual words we use.  And in the majority of cases that effect is not the result we wanted.  One of the main reasons  we miscommunicate is that each individual person has their own unique map of reality.  This means that a map is merely the cartographer’s interpretation of the actual terrain.  As different cartographers depict different features depending upon the map’s use, so we all interpret the reality of a situation depending upon what it is we want (or don’t want) from the situation. This is where two people interpret the same words differently. We assume that if we make our point clearly then the other person will understand our meaning. But we distort our thoughts through our own filters and behaviour. That changed message is then distorted further by the senses and filters of the other person. They then respond to what they think was said or intended.  By accepting this presupposition as true, we can take responsibility for the fact that we are being misunderstood and change HOW we phrase our message accordingly.

              So, what we communicate is often more about style than content. All business leaders will have their own unique method of making their message known. And the Way the business leader communicates will have an impact on how effective their message is. There is a language that each leader has. It is a language with which they manage their own inner state and also indicates How they influence.

     Given that ambiguity exists anyway in the way we communicate, introducing further differences by inconsistent messages or styles leads to greater confusion. Some like to gather people together and address them all collectively.  For others, public speaking should be avoided like to plague while others prefer small talk at networking events. 

     Whichever style suits though, business leaders should be consistent both in their message and its method of delivery.  The meaning of communication is the effect and the responsibility for that effect lies with the person doing the talking. You!

Action is the antidote

We know that the only limits to our full potential, business and personal, are our imagination and our commitment.  As we struggle through this recession good business leaders ( and readers of this blog!) will have been engaging their own and their employee’s imagination and creativity in order to brainstorm new products or services; or simply to do the same thing differently.

During the brainstorming phase the options would have been loosely defined as the aim was to generate as many courses of action as possible and imagination was more important than knowledge.

However, brainstorming is only as effective as the decisions and actions that arise from it. Thus after the options stage comes the decision.  What WILL   be done; not could, might, should etc. The decision phase is a call to arms but what separates it from other decisions is the will or commitment that is integral to that decision. Without commitment a decision is merely the selection of a  choice and has no more meaning than choosing one particular chocolate from a box.

The decision phase, then, does not stop once the choice is made. Indeed the decision is often just the beginning. Implementing the decision is often the hardest part as it is here the identified course of action is de-railed, stonewalled or sabotaged by those with other interests and agendas. It is at this stage that a person’s or organisation’s commitment to that course of action is vital to its successful implementation and achievement. By definition, the term commitment means being bound by a course of action to bring about desired results.  In other words, commitment is more about the actual actions rather than the intended actions and it is the actions we take that move us towards our goals. And in a recession, action is the antidote to dispair.