A Strong Finish for Conversations

It seems like there is always a high profile court case in the news. During the course of the trial there is of course witness testimony, evidence entered, arguments of counsel and rulings by the presiding judge. All of these pieces are critical to the case and part of “due process.” However, often the success or failure of the case hinges on the strength of the closing arguments. In jury trials, finishing strong and leaving a favorable impression with the jury is critical.

In order to be successful, we often need to engage with others every day. Our conversations are not always critical, but how we close them may represent opportunities for us to leave a favorable impression. Here are some simple closing phrases you can use to let others know they are important and you are engaged:

• Do you have anything else we should discuss today?
• Is there a good time for us to talk again soon?
• Thanks for sharing these issues/thoughts/concerns/perspectives with me
• What else can I do to support you?
• Thanks for your patience.
• I appreciate your attention to detail.
• I’m glad we had a chance to meet/talk.

Clearly these phrases are not new to anyone, but we often don’t take time to finish our conversations well. imapMyTeam ® is designed to remind us when we consciously manage our approach, it improves communication, strengthens relationships and helps us be more effective. Look to the reports in imapMyTeam® to gain valuable insights to those you may be having conversations with this week.

Take the time to create a strong finish to your conversations in order to leave a favorable impression, encourage others and contribute to your overall success.

Assess Your Business Relationships

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people” Theodore Roosevelt

Relationships matter.  Let’s take a minute to remember why. 

We know from research and experience that getting relationships right builds trust, a key ingredient to successful endeavors. Also the quality of relationships has a direct correlation to the ability of individuals and teams to perform. Finally we know when times are tough; relationships are often the glue that holds us together.

In a high-speed, immediate response, 24-7 business world it could be very easy to begin to take your relationships for granted – but if you do – you do so at your own peril. The truth is great relationships take care and feeding. Given the previous statements on the importance of solid business relationships it may be helpful to occasionally assess our most important relationships.

It may be called imapMyTeam®, but it also could be called imapMyRelationships.

It is specifically designed to give you the perspective you need to quickly evaluate your approach to building and maintaining relationships and to ensure you are connecting with others in a way that promotes authenticity, trust and durability.

 

Take advantage of the ‘Building Relationships Snapshot’ report.  It is a two page report that captures:  

1)      On the first page the way you interact one to one with others; how you interact in groups and teams and how you demonstrate your care to others. 

2)      On the second page is what is essential for you to get from others in those same three areas.

Sometimes the way we interact (first page) is different than what we expect (second page). Sometimes it is exactly the same. imapMyTeam® sorts that out for you.

What to do next.

Print this report and ask one or more of your key colleagues to do the same then schedule a few minutes for all of you to talk about it. This investment of a few minutes of your time goes a long way to building that ‘formula of success’ that Theodore Roosevelt spoke of.

Keeping People Safe in Feedback Mode

Feedback. Many people dread giving or receiving feedback because they have had so many bad experiences over the course of their careers. When feedback goes badly, people draw the wrong lessons from the experience. We can’t be open to things that we anticipate will cause some level of pain.

Yet, I recall the famous quote by Ken Blanchard “feedback is the breakfast of champions”.

How then do we reconcile the need to give and receive constant feedback and keep it safe? And to turn that feedback into our breakfast so we can succeed and become ‘champions’?

The bottom line is feedback is going to hurt when you do not frame it in a way that matches the receivers’ internal motivational expectations. So the predictor of the misery is not in the message itself, but how you deliver the message and how that message is filtered by the receivers’ unique expectations.

For example some people just need you to be as candid and direct as possible. Any attempts by you at subtlety or nibbling at the edges of the matter rather than getting to the heart of the issue are going to miss the mark and the message will fail to register.

Conversely, another person may need you to patiently listen and understand why they did what they did and needs to know that in this whole process that you continue to respect them despite these differences. They often need criticism balanced with praise, and subtlety works with them. They can read between the lines and get your message.

Can you give feedback both ways? Do you know who needs the first example and who needs the second? Do you know who needs a balance of the two perhaps? When you do it makes it safe for the other person – they can better accept the content of the feedback.

It is important for you to get this right – if you get it wrong, people will focus on the intent of your feedback rather than the content of the feedback.

Reading others ‘How to Talk To’ and ‘What to Avoid’ reports in imapMyTeam® is a failsafe way for you to prepare to give any sort of feedback to others. It will help you frame these important discussions in a way to make them succeed, makes the other person capable of receiving the message and keeping them safe in the process.

Coming Soon:
A new report to imapMyTeam® currently titled ‘Performance Conversations’ will be released soon. That report will give you even more comprehensive insight to the process of giving performance related feedback. 

Building Trust is Job #1

I just came across a short history of slogans used by the American auto industry. When I read the very popular Ford Motor Company slogan that was launched in the early 1980’s - “Quality is Job 1” – I was inspired to write this Tuesday Tip. For 17 years Ford used Quality is Job 1 to counter the perceived gap in quality between Japanese and American (Ford) made cars.

That slogan made me think about how I would adopt it for today’s business where relationships are so essential to success.  Building Trust is Job 1 is what I came up with.

The very first job of a leader is to inspire and build trust.

Trust is the single most essential element to our ability to deliver results. Certainly nothing extraordinary gets accomplished without trust.  Trust is integral to building high-performance because it enables people and the organization to work with the necessary energy to achieve great things.

If you believe in the old adage that a ‘good defense is the best offense’ then it is trust that is a defense against dysfunctional relationships and teams.

To continuously improve your leadership, you must continuously improve trust.

imapMyTeam has a report titled Trust Requirements to help you understand what you need to do to build trust with another person.  

Run that report today. Get people together to talk about what that report means to them and then make sure you as a leader of a team, or you as a teammate, pay attention to what others say is most important to them from the report. Act on it and you will be rewarded.