Trust at a Distance

Do you really understand the person on the other side of the WebEx, Skype, conference call, webcam who you don’t spend much face time with? In today’s increasingly global, virtual work environment we work more and more with people not physically located with us.

We all make judgments, evaluations and assumptions about the situations around us and the actions of others. We put what we see or hear through our own mental and perceptual filters and make decisions. And those decisions lead us to trust (or not trust) others.

That can be really difficult without the benefit of spending time with a person to know and understand them. If your organization is doing more than ever with less, time is a precious resource – so as a result we often assemble teams or swap out team members and put them to work straightaway.

Whoops. We forgot to take some time [there is that word again] to glue everyone together, so to speak. Trust is the glue. Trust typically takes time.

Trust is important in organizations. Few factors can change so many things toward the positive or negative as much as or as quickly as the presence, or absence, of trust.  Our trust encounters are not just limited to direct, face to face encounters –remember it is determined at a distance as well.

imapMyTeam is a great tool to build trust in critical relationships. In fact, there is a series of three trust reports available and they make a great starting point to understand how you build trust, what you need to maintain it, and what happens if trust is fractured. Login at www.imapMyTeam.com  and look for these three reports in the ‘Reports about You’ section of the center pane

Everyone wins as trust grows.

 Be more than 54%

According to a recent study done by The Ken Blanchard Company 54% of managers use just one style to direct and support their employees.

The amount of direction and support people receive directly impacts the efficiency and quality of their work. Because we know that relationships are critical to success and that people have very different motivational needs 54% just will not get you to the success you require.

It is important to recognize your own default settings. If you have been using imapMyTeam effectively you will be aware that you have a ‘default’ setting when it comes to leadership. You are also aware that you can make a decision to do things differently than that default mode. However, when the pressure to perform is elevated the way you relate, communicate, direct, delegate, coach, support, etc. can easily return to the default mode because it feels natural and comes easily to you.

Any style is great if it is a match for what a direct report needs. Each is also a hindrance if it is the wrong style for the situation.

What to do?

Stretch your boundaries expand your repertoire, learn to develop and use strengths that are ‘uncomfortable’ but effective because they support someone on the team. Review the Coaching report in imapMyTeam for each of your direct reports. Better yet, schedule a meeting with each of your directs to discuss the coaching page. Do you provide this type of support? Is it natural or is it a stretch for your default behavior? If it is a stretch, practice it and it will not feel as hard the next time – and it will make you and your direct report more effective.

Your goal is to do better than the 54% who can only do it one way!

Are you Meeting the Needs of the Meeting?

Almost everyone has a complaint about meetings.

Some are legitimate, some are not. Meetings are important, but it IS hard to plan and conduct them in a manner that meets all of the participant’s expectations. Go too ‘fast’ – some people will think you are not giving important topics the time they require. Go too ‘slow’ – some people think you are wasting time that could be used elsewhere.

What is the balance?

Popular opinion is that meetings are one of the least productive business activities . But if you are running an effective meeting and you are keeping each of the participants fully involved and engaged you can have a very positive impact on what gets done – that just might trickle down to your bottom line.

The first step in improving the efficiency of your meetings is to recognize that meetings are a collaborative effort and all of the attendees come to the meeting with certain expectations. When those expectations are consistently unmet the attendee will begin to slip into unproductive behaviors and disrupt the meeting.

You can consider this behavior to be a warning shot to get your attention – and a chance to course correct. As you already understand from other imapMyTeam reports there is a direct correlation between unmet needs and the resulting reactive behavior. If you see any of the behaviors described in the Slow Down the Meeting report – there is a reason why and a chance to fix it before your meeting is the topic of the next ‘water cooler meeting’.

In Relationships 10=45

Yes you read that title correctly, our math is not off at all; in fact it is spot on.

There is a mathematical formula to determine the exact number of unique relationships in a group [or family, etc.]  When you plug 10 into that equation you get 45. Plug 15 in and you get 105. The higher the number, the greater your chances of getting it wrong with somebody!

So if you are on a team of 10 people it takes a lot of time – which remains a constant and is often scarce in our hectic business lives- to sort through all of that complexity and nuance.

imapMyTeam is a time saver. Whether you need tips to communicate, influence, motivate, inspire, coach or just plain understand what might be going on with someone there is no faster way to get there.

 Do yourself a favor, put a post it note on your laptop, tablet, screen and on it write “remember, IMT will save me time” and when you are ‘too busy’ or ‘too stressed’ or whatever ‘too’ you might be, and that ‘too’ involves a critical relationship, use that post-it as a reminder to open up imapMyTeam at www.imapMyTeam.com, log-in and get the answers you’re looking for.

We think whatever ‘too’ affliction you had previously will be converted to a ‘too bad’ I didn’t use this resource sooner – I could have saved a lot of time. Time remains the same; 60 minutes to the hour; imapMyTeam helps you to use it wisely.

Align your ‘Stars’

Teams have a mission and purpose that is well defined and each individual on the team has a role designed to contribute to that purpose.

 However the pace of change that most teams experience is accelerating and whether you are the team lead or an individual contributor, it is good to make time to access how well you and/or the team is standing up to the changes that impact mission and purpose.

www.imapMyTeam.com  will help you understand the unique characteristics of your team that contribute to individual and team success.  Take a minute to access your team grid found in the upper right area of your ImapMyTeam home page.

If you are a leader and responsible for others, look at the placement of your team for each of the symbols and consider:

• Interests:  Do the roles and responsibilities assigned to individuals on my team seem to be a good fit? What can I do to ensure assignments are appealing and met with enthusiasm?
• Strengths:  Does my team have the diversity of strengths needed to achieve our goals?
• Needs:  Am I providing the support the team needs to do their best work?
• Stress:  Do I recognize and respond effectively when my team is under stress?

As a team member, look at where your symbols are positioned on the grid for perspective on how you best work and interact with others on the team and consider:

• Interests:  Do my work assignments easily hold my interest and inspire me?
• Strengths:  What strengths might I work to add to be more effective, in more situations?
• Needs:  How can I ensure the support I need to do my best work is available to me when I need it most?
• Stress:  When I sense I’m losing control under stress, am I able to recognize it and self-manage myself out of it?

Revisiting and answering these questions will help put the team in great position to align its ‘stars’ and meet your ongoing business challenges