One type of detractor you might have on your team is a square peg. Square pegs have the willingness to do well, but they lack the skills to perform effectively.
One type of detractor you might deal with is a square peg. They’re going to be in the lower left corner of the leadership matrix. You’re investing a lot of time and energy into them, but not getting a lot back in terms of results.
Square pegs have the willingness to do well, but they lack the skills to perform effectively. Sometimes it’s due to being placed in a new role. Other times it’s a function of them not having the training or resources they need. You’ll spend a lot of leadership capital on a square peg because you need to help them develop and grow. You’ll also spend that time and energy on fixing work they’re not doing correctly. Leaders have to figure out the root of the performance gap and help that square peg build the skills they need to perform effectively.
You might have a square peg on your hands if they regularly need rework. They may ask for time extensions. And their work needs to be repaired a lot of times. They’re unable to perform core tasks up to your expectations. Sometimes they even repeat the same errors. Other people tend to work around them. These square pegs are often mentioned as a source of other people’s problems. Sometimes a square peg might be territorial. They may come across as insecure or highly stressed. Sometimes these people are very hard to help.
I had one square peg on one of my consulting teams. Coming into the consulting engagement, I knew he was lacking some skills. That was the good news. The bad news was I had to invest a lot of time and energy helping him build those skills. He did analysis; a lot of times, it was wrong. I’d have to sit down with him, work through the model, and show him how to build it correctly. His presentation pages didn’t look that great. I was not going to put his pages in front of the client. A lot of times, I redid the pages myself. It took a lot of time and energy on my part.
The good news is he was aware of his skill gaps coming into the engagement. He was also very motivated to fix those gaps. When I would sit down with him to go over his analysis or his pages, he was all ears. He was taking notes and trying to improve. It made it a lot easier to work with him. Over the course of the four months we worked together, I did see his skills improve dramatically.
If you have a square peg on your team, they’re going to be pretty easy to spot. Their work isn’t up to standard and you’re going to spend a lot of time helping them build skills and bring their work to a level of quality that’s acceptable to you.
Want to learn more about developing your team? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your strategic plans. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230104-Blocks.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2023-01-04 07:00:242023-01-04 04:23:26Do You Have a Square Peg on Your Team?
The key to weaning squeaky wheels is to boost their confidence and make them more independent.
Your high-cost producers are in the upper-left corner of the leadership matrix. They deliver great results, but they consume a lot of your time and energy. The squeaky wheel is the epitome of a high-cost producer. They need to be weaned off of taking up all of your time.
Your goal with a squeaky wheel is to make them more independent. Make their check-ins less frequent. Limit their ability to just drop in and talk. Provide them boundaries within which they’re expected to make decisions on their own. Try boosting their confidence in their abilities so they’ll be more independent.
To improve a squeaky wheel’s performance, leaders must take control of their interactions with them. Put structure to those interactions. Reduce the likelihood that they overuse informal channels with you, like sending you emails or just picking up the phone and calling. Give them clear parameters where they should act autonomously, and reward or praise them when they do.
I had one squeaky wheel on my team who was constantly in my office, and I would always talk with him because he was delivering great results and working on cool projects. Eventually I figured out how much of my time he was consuming, and I decided to make a change. I went to him and said, “Hey, from now on, any decision that’s below $50,000 you need to make it. Just tell me after you’ve made it. I trust that you’re gonna make the right call. When it’s above $50,000, make sure you involve me earlier.”
What happened was all those small decisions were no longer coming across my desk. All that time I had previously been spending on $5,000 or $10,000 decisions became my time again that I could spend somewhere else. The benefit of more effectively leading a squeaky wheel and weaning them off of the need to see you and talk with you all the time is that you reclaim your leadership capital. You can invest that leadership capital in other team members who need it more. You’re also building this individual’s self-sufficiency. You set them up for success and encourage them to be a higher performer on their own.
With a squeaky wheel, the sooner you can pull back from the amount of time and energy you invest in them, the faster you’ll be able to reinvest that time and energy in other members of your team.
Want to learn more about developing your team? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your strategic plans. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221228-Blue-Grocery-Carts.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=114401920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-12-28 07:00:532022-12-28 00:54:14How to Wean Squeaky Wheels on Your Team
When you have a squeaky wheel on your team, your biggest challenge as a leader is going to be pulling back on the investment you’re making in them.
One type of high-cost producer you might deal with is a squeaky wheel. They’re in the upper left corner of the Leadership Matrix because they deliver great results, but they take up a lot of your time and energy.
Squeaky wheels are very effective at getting their work done. They just consume a lot of a leader’s time in the process of completing their work. Many times they’re consuming this energy because of their own lack of confidence. They come to their leader frequently with questions they can answer for themselves. They go to the leader for decisions that they’re capable of making on their own. They drive great results, but they demand a lot of leadership capital because of their constant interruptions or because they’re outsourcing decisions to their leader.
Here are some easy ways to spot a squeaky wheel. First, they have strong skills and they produce great results, but they can seem to lack confidence. A lot of times they’re asking for help too frequently. They may come to you for permission on a decision that they can make. They may make decisions and ask for your affirmation of the choice they made. They frequently drop by or send you emails or requests for immediate help. They seek out a lot of time with you in terms of meetings or other interactions.
I had one squeaky wheel on my team who I loved to work with. He was high-energy and drove awesome results. He was also in my office all the time. He was always popping by and saying, “Hey, boss man, I have a question for you.” And I’d let him in and I’d talk to him because he was seeking my advice and guidance, which felt good for me. But I didn’t realize I was making an investment of time and energy that I shouldn’t have been making.
When you have a squeaky wheel on your team, your biggest challenge as a leader is going to be pulling back on the investment you’re making in them.
Want to learn more about developing your team? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your strategic plans. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221221-Grocery-Carts-Red.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-12-21 07:00:062022-12-21 05:03:00How to Identify Squeaky Wheels on Your Team
The Leadership Driven Method to Performance Management can help senior leaders in the public and not-for-profit sectors make informed decisions and meet their strategic goals.
While many articles and approaches focus on the science of Performance Measurement, meaning the step-by-step methodology, and the business processes required to analyze, interpret, report, and the quality of performance measures, this article will focus on the human side or the art of performance measurement.
What are the requirements for employees to fully participate and effectively use the PM System?
The first requirement is to understand the context of performance measurement. In other words what is a Business Plan and why is it important to performance measurement. Well, the answer is easy. The Business Plan provides the strategic direction of the organization in terms of its vision, mission, and objectives. It also provides a framework for decision making so that all decisions support the achievement of the strategic direction of the organization. But, in order to be effective each employee needs to know where they fit and how they contribute to the organization in terms of their function and daily work. Also, the Business Plan provides the standards against which the performance is measured. Without understanding the purpose and their fit within the business plan, the staff member has no context to understand the need or benefits of PM.
So, what is PM?
The next requirement is to understand performance measurement. The most frequent misunderstanding is that it is performance appraisal. It is Not. Many people confuse performance appraisal at the individual level with performance measurement at the organizational level. These are distinct concepts. A collection of individuals working as a group in an organization can achieve dramatic results. But no one person at any level, is responsible for overall organizational performance in isolation from their peers. Dispelling this myth makes performance measurement an innovative and positive force for creativity and achievement.
For our purposes we will define Performance Measurement as a management system – an ongoing process that provides a balanced, methodical attempt to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s operations from multiple vantage points – financial, client satisfaction, internal business and innovation/learning. It is used to provide feedback at all levels – strategic, tactical or operational – on how well strategies and plans are being met. This performance information is necessary to improve decision making within the organization, to enable proactive problem correction and to promote continuous improvement.
Why bother with Performance Measurement?
Performance measurement provides a framework for decision making to:
improve resource utilization,
demonstrate accountability,
facilitate excellent programs/services,
ensure motivated and productive employees,
enable a high level of employee client cooperation and coordination,
allow for the use of innovative best practices, and
provide the ability to deal with unexpected challenges or emergencies.
In short, it is a navigation system that helps management and staff adapt their operations to meet the goals of the organization while adjusting processes to the ever changing requirements in finances, programs, client needs, etc.
Organizations are constantly bombarded with ongoing changes to their finances, personnel, strategies and initiatives. Their external environments, especially client requirements and economic and political changes, are also in constant evolution.
So how does an organization move towards its strategic direction as outlined in its business plan when the foundation upon which it was built keeps shifting. The answer is the PM System. It acts as a navigation System allowing the organization to steer around the changing shoals of business.
How to break down resistances to a threatening project?
A performance measurement system can be perceived as very threatening to staff. In order to break down resistances, a process-oriented approach should be used. This process-oriented approach to developing and implementing a PM system ensures its acceptance through a gradual process of change in organizational culture. Stakeholders begin to understand that the focus is on identifying and dealing with issues that are interfering with attainment of the organizational mission, linking business plans with operational decision making, and on identifying and rewarding achievement within the organization.
As the development process continues, stakeholders in the organization shift their attitudes from awareness to understanding and from acceptance to use of the PM system. Over time this approach allows the development of an organizational culture that values and supports balanced and comprehensive feedback as an essential element in both rewarding achievement and providing the information necessary for effective business and operational decision making.
Is there a code of conduct used to develop and operate the PM System?
Organizations often make decisions based upon an implied set of values. The challenge of this approach is that implied values or principles can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. The LDM (Leadership Driven Method) approach to performance measurement requires that principles be defined, stated and communicated to the entire organization. These principles provide a code of conduct that govern behaviour for the development, implementation and operation of the PM system.
There are numerous techniques that gradually reduce/eliminate resistances and increase ownership of the PM system, the most important being ongoing leadership. Senior management must be directly involved and charged with communication to promote understanding and acceptance and provide financial support. These interventions create a climate of acceptance within the organization by stressing the importance of performance measurement and the need for staff to participate and cooperate fully in this endeavour.
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To grow your team’s rising stars, make sure you step back, give them room to grow, and reward their performance accordingly.
Your rising stars are in that upper right quadrant of the leadership matrix. You don’t put in a lot of time and energy, but you get great results out of them. The issue with rising stars is they want to advance and they can get bored along the way if they don’t have opportunities to grow.
Growing rising stars means promoting them internally. Keep them in your organization, even if it means losing them as a member of your team to go work for another team in your company. Give your rising stars increasing levels of responsibility. Provide them visibility opportunities across the organization and be sure to reward their outstanding performance accordingly.
I was managing a rising star a while back and it was very clear that he was going to do great work. From day one I gave him full responsibility for the profit and loss of his organization. I got him publicity across the entire organization for some great work he did on an internal audit. I also made sure he got the highest rating possible at the end of the year and a raise and a bonus to go along with it. I wanted to keep him in the organization really badly and I made sure that he knew how valuable he was.
Some of the benefits of effectively leading a rising star include getting credit for retaining those people in your organization and building your reputation as someone who develops their people. You have an easier time attracting other rising stars to your team to develop them because people know you’re going to give them the room to grow. And, your rising stars who leave your team can become valuable connections down the road elsewhere in the organization.
The bottom line with developing a rising star is to step back, give them the room to grow, and reward their performance accordingly.
Want to learn more about developing your team? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your strategic plans. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221214-Present-with-Stars.jpg?fit=1920%2C1278&ssl=112781920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-12-14 07:00:052022-12-14 02:43:43How to Grow Your Team’s Rising Stars
Rising stars are quick to understand their roles, they deliver outstanding results, and they require very little guidance.
Your team members who are in the upper right quadrant of the leadership matrix are your exemplars. One type of exemplar is your rising star. Rising stars are your future leaders. They’re eventually going to be taking over your role. These people require very little leadership capital investment, and they deliver great results. They’re typically quick to understand their roles, they deliver outstanding results, and they require very little guidance or assistance from you as they do their work. They actively seek out new growth opportunities.
There are some pretty easy ways to spot a rising star. First, they make a strong early impression. You put them in the role and they’re on their way. They’re dedicated, they have a strong sense of pride of ownership in their work. They quickly master their role and deliver high-quality results. They’re always seeking out new ways to improve their role, as well as pursuing growth opportunities to improve themselves. They volunteer and help out other people, and a lot of times people from other organizations are going to try and recruit these people away from your team.
I was very fortunate to have a rising star on my team at one point. I brought him in to run one of my business units. One of the first things he did was say, “Mike, give me a couple of weeks. I’m going to come back to you with the strategic plan.” Two weeks later, he came back with a very buttoned-up strategic plan that laid out the next three years, the major initiatives he was going to pursue, and the resource allocation for how he was going to get it done. He then went on to build very strong relationships with every member of his team, as well as the external business partners he worked with. I knew for this individual I could step back, not put in a lot of time and energy, and just get out of his way and let him deliver those outstanding results.
If you have a rising star on your team, make sure you spot them early and give them the space to grow and deliver the results that you expect.
Want to learn more about developing your team? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your strategic plans. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
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We took a recent survey of 1,000 employees and compiled the top behaviors that hybrid managers can improve (and avoid) to keep their team engaged and productive.
Today’s post is by Alyssa Mertes, Lead Copywriter at Quality Logo Products
Managers face unique challenges leading hybrid teams across multiple work environments. The good news is that many hybrid managers appear to excel at it. A new Quality Logo Products survey on boss habits reveals that over half (51%) of hybrid employees think their bosses manage employees “very well.” On this measure, hybrid managers outperformed both their remote (45%) and on-site (39%) counterparts.
In today’s challenging employment landscape, however, businesses need to do all they can to retain and engage quality employees. This often starts with improving relationships and satisfaction in the workplace. In fact, around 64% of employees surveyed said that their relationship with their boss is their most important one at work.
In this article, we’ll discuss five managerial behaviors to improve and five to avoid to keep your hybrid team happy and productive.
The Top 5 Managerial Behaviors to Improve
Communicate well
If you want to improve your workplace leadership in a hurry, your communication skills make a great place to start. While nearly half (48%) of employees say that hybrid bosses communicate “very well,” it’s hard to overestimate the importance of this skill. In fact, employees ranked interpersonal communication style as the second most important management quality in a boss.
Your team members need useful information that helps them understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. Good communication requires both clarity and transparency, whether that means explaining your expectations well, providing the necessary context for projects, or owning up to your own mistakes as a manager.
Listen thoughtfully
Good communication starts with careful listening. If you’ve always thought that strong leadership means doing most of the talking, try to flip the script and spend more time listening. Keeping your ear on the ground not only generates goodwill with your employees, but can also lead to improvements in team productivity and maybe even some innovative ideas for the company.
Respect your team’s opinion
Make your listening even more meaningful by valuing what team members bring to the table. An overwhelming 83% of employees said that respecting others’ opinions is a key attribute of a good boss. Employees who feel valued are more likely to respond in kind by respecting others, exhibiting honesty, and maybe even going the extra mile for you.
Treat employees fairly
Full-time employees spend around one-third of their waking hours at work. So, feeling that their boss treats them fairly can make a huge difference in overall satisfaction—in fact, 91% of employees say they want fairness from their boss. Try to delegate tasks equitably, give credit where it’s due, and present any negative feedback privately rather than calling out employees in front of others.
Give feedback often and positively
Nearly half (46%) of hybrid employees think their bosses give feedback “very well,” but that means over half think otherwise. No one likes to work in a vacuum, but the dangers of disconnection rise for employees working remotely.
Take steps to raise your visibility by regularly acknowledging your employees, encouraging informal check-ins, and letting them know they can contact you with questions or feedback. Always remember to keep it positive: providing actionable feedback in a constructive rather than destructive style can make the difference between demoralizing team members and inspiring them to do their best.
The Top 5 Managerial Habits to Avoid
Talking down to employees
More than any other attribute, employees dislike condescension in their boss. Around 78% of professionals indicated this as a mark of a bad manager. When a boss exhibits arrogance—whether by acting superior, talking down to employees, or simply wasting people’s time in meetings—workplace morale can suffer.
Creating a negative work environment
Striving for a competitive edge in business does not mean that your business’s work environment needs to feel competitive. Nearly three-quarters of employees surveyed named “creating a hostile or competitive work environment” as a major negative in a boss.
Just like in sports or any other team environment, infighting weakens the group rather than strengthens it. A great leader knows how to make a team competitive without pitting its members against each other in a negative way.
Micromanaging your employees
If you think that micromanaging poses less of an issue for remote employees, you are right—but that doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, hybrid bosses may rate more highly with employees because they don’t stand over them telling them what to do. Micromanaging ranked as the number three characteristic of the worst bosses, with 75% of employees saying they dislike it in a manager.
Appearing out of touch
When describing a bad boss, one of the worst characteristics that employees chose was “out of touch.” Even more than “pushy,” “annoying,” or “inept” bosses, employees don’t like leaders who don’t seem to understand the realities of what they do every day. Listening thoughtfully and respecting your team’s opinion will help you stay in touch with their needs.
Blaming employees when things go wrong
Good managers give credit to their team. Great managers never take credit themselves, unless they’re taking credit for failures. While it may not always seem fair, part of being a leader is having extra responsibility. Your job involves figuring out how to get the best out of your employees, not blaming them when things go wrong.
Conclusion
If you manage a hybrid team, take heart that hybrid employees are generally more satisfied with their bosses than their remote or in-person counterparts. To make sure your team members feel the same, keep raising your own personal bar with some of the tips suggested in this article. Your employees will appreciate it—and hopefully stick around for the long haul!
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Defining your organization’s vision and mission helps you focus on work that is consistent with your purpose.
A vision and mission define your purpose and your destination. While the mission and vision are usually written for top-level organizations, these tools can be used at a departmental level and even at a personal level. They help you focus on work that is consistent with your purpose and that takes you closer to achieving your goals.
The mission is why your organization exists. It specifies the business you’re in, who you serve, and your impact on the world around you. It’s the road you’re on. I run a leadership training firm. My firm’s mission is to advance the art of business leadership through hands-on training and coaching led by dynamic business people. It’s clear what business we’re in: business leadership training. It’s clear who we work with: people in large and small organizations who are their leaders. And the impact on the world is helping people improve their skills in this arena.
The vision is a midterm objective of what you’ll achieve three to five years out. It’s a waypoint along the road you’re on. My firm’s vision, right now, is to be a global firm of uniquely skilled executives who teach managers around the world how to be great leaders. This lays out my expectations for the type of work we’re going to do and when I’ll consider us to be successful. This global element is something that’s new in the past few years, and it’s really getting us to focus on other countries.
The mission and vision are linked. They can be created for any organization. They’ll set direction and help determine the work you will or won’t do. For my firm, our vision and mission do exactly that. We routinely say no to consulting work. It’s not part of our mission and it doesn’t help us achieve our vision. When you lay out your mission and vision for your organization, it’s going to set that direction that will enable you to know which types of work matter and which types of work are off your path.
Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220915-Writing-at-Laptop.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-09-15 06:30:262022-09-15 04:57:42Defining Your Organization’s Vision and Mission
Market and organizational changes can require you to shift your strategic focus. Being explicit about the details of the shift will help you and your team adjust to these changes.
Market and organizational changes can require you to shift your focus. This can mean temporarily pausing some work to accelerate or add new projects. Remember that your team’s time and energy is a fixed asset. Shifting focus doesn’t mean adding new things to focus on. Unless you add resources, you have to make trade-offs on where people spend their time. This enables you to complete more projects faster because your team is focused on them. During a shift in focus, draft a plan and communicate it. This plan should include:
What’s causing us to shift focus?
What’s our desired outcome once we get through the change?
What’s our strategy for navigating the change?
What old work will we stop doing to free up resources?
What new work will we be focusing on?
When I worked at a financial services firm, we had a major event that caused us to shift focus. The regulators came in and took a look at our processes. They didn’t like what they saw. They said we needed to rectify a whole list of issues. We put together and communicated a plan. What was causing us to shift focus? The regulators identified these 10 issues. What’s our desired outcome once we get through it? Well, those issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the regulators. What’s our strategy for navigating the change? Well, we’re going to stop doing some of our technology projects and move all our resources to the regulatory issues. What old work were we going to stop? Well, here are the five projects that are now on hold. What new work will we be focusing on? Here are the 10 ideas, and here’s how we’re going to allocate resources against them.
By being explicit about the shift and moving the resources to it, we got through those regulatory issues pretty quickly. When we finished, we picked up the technology projects and moved forward. If you shift focus without communicating the new end state and explicitly saying what work is in or out of focus, you risk people taking on new work but not feeling like they can stop doing the old work to take on the new. You risk burning out the team. When you have one these major shifts, be deliberate about putting a plan in place and communicating it to the organization.
Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Resist the urge to pursue every new opportunity. Invest your resources in the ones that align with your overall strategy.
New ideas and opportunities come along all the time. Resist the urge to jump on the next new thing. Rely on your prioritization process to assess all new ideas. Remember, if you add something new to your list, you either need to add resources to work on it or you have to stop working on something else, or finish something that’s a higher priority before you start working on the new task. Failure to do this leads to the inevitable burnout of your team.
In high growth organizations, periods of hyper growth can be really dangerous. During that time, everything’s interesting and exciting. The team has the energy to pursue a lot of ideas. But eventually, they run out of steam. Initiatives fail. Morale drops and performance suffers. Maintain a rigorous approach to drawing the line, and only pursue initiatives when you have the resources available to pursue them properly.
What I mean by drawing the line is, think of your initiative list. Start at the top of the list with your highest priority initiatives and then list every single idea and project you’re working on. Then, once you have that complete list, figure out what resources you have available to do the work. That may be people, time, or money.
Start at the top of your list and work your way down that list, figuring out how many resources that project is going to consume. When you run out of resources, draw a line on your prioritization list. Don’t work on anything below that line until you have additional resources or you finish a project above the line.
Enforce the discipline of assessing all new initiatives through your strategic filters. The filters let you know how closely aligned an idea is with your overall strategy. When you find something that’s off-strategy, there’s a rationale for saying no to it and staying focused on the most important ideas.
Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/20220831-Doors.jpg?fit=1920%2C1024&ssl=110241920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-09-01 06:30:492022-09-01 00:26:44How to Evaluate New Opportunities
Understanding the concept of opportunity cost will help you prioritize your team’s most important tasks. Learn to say no to low-value work.
Do you know what your team’s time is worth? Lack of focus consumes time. That’s the one resource you can never get back. When you look at activities in terms of their time cost, it becomes easier to say no to distractions.
Don’t just ask, “What task am I going to do next?” Instead, ask, “What task am I not going to do so I can work on the new request?” When requests come in to your team, assess what other work isn’t going to get done by the team if you take on the new request. If you can explain the tradeoff to the person who’s asking you to do the work, they’re probably going to be more open to you saying no and deprioritizing that new task if it’s not as important as other work you should be working on.
I work with one attorney at a large corporation who has a team of lawyers. People come to his team all the time and ask for legal work to be done even if his team shouldn’t be doing that work. He always says yes even though it’s not necessarily something an attorney has to look at. He was complaining one day about how much work was on his team’s plate. I asked him, “Hey, would you pay an outside attorney 400 dollars an hour to work on that new project that just came in?” His eyes got big and he said, “Absolutely not.” That’s when the lightbulb went off for him. He realized by taking on that project, it meant his team wasn’t working on higher priority work. He was sending that high-priority work to outside counsel and paying 400 dollars an hour. The thing is, taking on the low-value work was essentially costing him that 400 dollars. That’s when he started saying no to those distractions so his team could focus on the most important work.
When you understand these tradeoffs in terms of time cost, it’s easier to say no to low-priority or low-value work. This is going to make the work your team does the highest priority work that’s on their plate.
Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Strategic focus often involves saying no to intriguing project requests.
One of the shortest words you can say is also the most important. Saying no is about choice. Shifting your mindset from “I have to” to “I choose to” requires saying no to tasks and activities that are off track.
There are many reasons why saying no is hard. You might not want to miss an opportunity. You might feel like you’re not being a team player. It may feel like you’re not getting to work on something fun and interesting. To achieve focus though, saying no is required. It can be hard to say no to someone’s idea or a group’s request of your team. When you say no, it feels like you’re not helping somebody out.
Try saying, “yes if,” instead. Essentially, what you’re doing is putting conditions around that yes. Those conditions can include things like, “You have to give me budget, you have to give me time, or you have to give me people to get this idea done.”
I had a boss who was full of ideas. He was always coming to me with new project requests. A lot of them were off strategy. They were distractions. I used to say no to all of them because to me it was clear that they weren’t strategic. After a few months, I started getting some negative feedback from him. He said, “All you do is say no, Mike. Nothing is ever positive with you.”
At that point, I shifted to the behavior of saying, “Yes if.” Whenever he came to me with a new project, I said, “That’s a really great idea. I’m happy to do it if you give me this much budget or this much time or if you give me that team member from that team to come work on the project.” A lot of times he would say, “Well no, I’m not giving you that budget or time or people.” And I said, “Well, then I can’t pursue the idea.”
Essentially, I was making him say no to the idea because it was clear that the idea wasn’t big enough or on-strategy enough to prioritize it properly. By getting the requester to focus, I was being positive and contributing to the team but also maintaining focus.
Saying no keeps your team members focused on their core responsibilities. When you do say no, you might have to back them up and say no for them. The point is, that short little word is the key to keeping your team focused on its strategic priorities.
Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning about strategic focus. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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