Light The Flame

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

 Albert Schweitzer     

In what has become an imapMyTeam® Tuesday Tip Tradition, the Thanksgiving week tip focuses on gratitude.

As we wish you and your coworkers a Thanksgiving filled with abundance and bright moments, it’s fitting to reflect on the things we are most grateful for at work. At the top of the gratitude list are the diverse talents of our coworkers. Each colleague brings something different to help make your team, and ultimately your organization, thrive. Without their passion, strengths and commitment to reach your team’s success you would flounder.

It is in moments of darkness, when our minds or bodies can’t be pushed any further, that our team members light that flame.  Ideas flow again, energy is regained and our work becomes productive.  It is for each other that we should be most grateful.

Use imapMyTeam® to make it easy to find and document positive attributes of your team members. Consider their contributions and how they add to the team’s overall success. Perhaps write down a few notes to solidify your appreciation. The gratitude you offer will benefit you as well as your colleagues.

Studies have established that when people take time to identify specific positive attributes in others or their actions, and take time to acknowledge them in some way, they tend to:

• Have a relative absence of stress and depression
• Make progress toward important personal goals
• Report higher levels of determination and energy

We are grateful for the readers of Tuesday Tips and users of imapMyTeam®; we appreciate each and every one of you – without you there would be no us. We greatly value your trust and confidence and sincerely appreciate your loyalty to our business - you light the flame for us.

We hope you enjoy some time away from the demands of work and your return from the holiday comes with a renewed attitude of gratitude!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Are You Suffering from ‘Change Fatigue’?

A phrase I read recently sticks with me – “businesses are operating in a constant state of whitewater.”

Anyone who has ever shot rapids in serious Class IV water or above can best understand that analogy. It’s experiencing constant and difficult churn, perhaps exciting and exhilarating while you’re in the middle of it, but also personally exhausting to control your raft (business) from danger. 

The need to be continuously evolving is a business necessity.   The need to change can leave your employees feeling ‘bombarded’ with one change after another. Some studies indicate that after extended periods of change employees develop apathy towards change. They lose energy to care; anticipating the next change and the next.

If you change a person's job, you change the department they work in. If you change their department, then you change the organization in which they work. If you change the organization, then the whole organizational culture is shifting and ultimately changed.

As change fatigue grows, the potential for employees to disengage grows. Disengagement is in full bloom when your employees come to work, but their commitment, contribution, and value doesn’t come with them.
An engaged employee asks, “How can I make a difference?  A disengaged employee asks, “Is it time to go home yet?"

Employees need time to get comfortable with change and how it impacts not just their immediate world, but how those changes may ripple into other parts of the organization. Most of all, employees need support all the while the changes are occurring. In a previous Tuesday Tip we likened this to changing trapezes.  It is scary to let go of a trapeze, hanging in the air waiting for the new trapeze to arrive. Don’t leave people hanging.

In imapMyTeam® there are reports to help. One is the Stress of Change report. You should be completely familiar with your own report and if a leader, those of your direct reports. Pay attention to the ‘whitewater’ of change swirling around and, if it is triggering any of these issues, take the prescriptive actions it suggests.

From Player to Coach

"A good coach will make his players see what they can become rather than what they are."                                                                                                             - Unknown It happens every day in companies across America. An all-star performer is promoted from team member or individual contributor to manager of a team. And, nearly every day, new managers struggle. They struggle because the job they are now doing is vastly different from the job they were doing, even though they stayed on the same team. I write about this for the Tuesday Tip because of a lengthy discussion with my son who completes his masters degree in sports management this semester. One person I pointed to during the discussion was Michael Jordan – who is acknowledged to be the greatest basketball player of all time and – would I be too harsh if I said, is largely ineffective as a basketball general manager?! The primary difference between being an outstanding individual contributor and moving to a frontline manager is the difference between personal and organizational productivity. Once a person moves into their new leader role, their primary focus must be squarely on developing expertise in others, not on doing the work yourself. “The most common cause of executive failure is the inability or unwillingness to change with the demands of a new position. Who keeps on doing what he has done successfully before is almost bound to fail.”                                                                                                             -Peter Drucker Your strengths and skills that created success as a team member may not serve you well in the new leadership role where the focus is to get the best out of each individual. In imapMyTeam there is a report to help you and others know where you need coaching. The “Coaching Conversations” report identifies your strongest behaviors – ones often the source of our success, and gives insight as to the possible barriers to success those strengths can present when overused.  Coaching conversations then gives prescriptive guidance to modify that behavior to succeed. Coach yourself, or help your new leaders, and first level managers see what they can become, rather than what they are. Turn those great players into great coaches!

Tired of the Fight?

Conflict has never been more front and center than in our current race to the election finish line.  We are surrounded by disagreement and discord in our schools, neighborhoods, communities and even around the dining room table.  Lots of discourse, not much resolution.

At work, we’ve learned that the strongest teams are diverse in how they approach their work.  The irony is that the diversity that makes a team strong also causes conflict; therefore, a team often is not at its strongest without the accompanying risk of conflict.  We just can’t go anywhere without having to deal with disagreements.

When the tension becomes counterproductive, people experience shifts in behavior that can get in the way of effectively working to resolve the differences.  The results are often hurt feelings, outbursts of anger, open hostility, lack of focus and, ultimately, an inability to work together.

The “Resolving Differences” Report helps us understand why working through those disagreements can be so difficult for us.  It gives practical suggestions that will help you work through any conflict you may be having with your colleagues.  Maybe we need to make it available to our politicians running for office!

Access your Resolving Differences report by going to the center pane of your www.imapmyteam.com ® home page and use the pull down menu of reports just above your name to find it.  This report helps you understand why working through disagreement can be so difficult and provides some helpful suggestions.

Review your report and consider one or two things you can do differently to head off the tension that comes along with conflict.  Do this before it gets in the way of your ability to work with others on your team (or around your dining room table!)