Criticize in Private

Criticizing in private may be one of the skills as a leader that requires the most maturity. You have to learn to hold back your comments to a more appropriate time. Making a public spectacle of someone’s mistake is never going to make things better. Plus how much is he or she going to listen to you when embarrassed in front of others. Take them aside one on one to discuss it calmly and rationally. This is the best way to avoid getting people in defensive positions where they are not going to hear what you have to say anyway. It also shows them that you respect them because you are not going to make a fool out of them in front of their peers. It pays huge dividends to the person that made the mistake and also to the other team members. They know that if they happen to make a mistake they are not going to suffer public humiliation for their behavior because you treated their team member with respect and you will most likely show it to them too.

Just remember that it is not about looking the other way when it comes to mistakes; Rather it is about facing them head on in a mature manner that allows people to learn and to grow.

Think Like a Leader, Not Like a Worker

I came across this situation today in my current consulting role and it prompted me to write today’s entry. We received some less than ideal news from our vendor. The email was sent to me as well as someone else working on my project. The instant I read the email I knew that there were issues that needed to be addressed with the vendor. Since this project is my responsibility I believe in having the answers to the questions and an action plan determined before I inform anyone else on the project. Unfortunately the other person that got the email immediately forwarded it to our VP to keep them in the loop. The result of this was exactly as I could have predicted. She immediately raised questions, the same questions that I knew had to be answered. Instead of looking like the situation was under control and being handled, I had to perform my information gathering after the facts had been forwarded along. I looked as though I was responding to questions rather than initiating action. It also looked like we were simply throwing our hands in the air and reporting bad news rather than investigating and formulating an action plan to handle the situation. We looked like workers who needed help and not leaders.

It is important to keep others informed, but think about your initial reaction when you read an email that you are considering forwarding. If you have questions or concerns, assume it is likely that the person you are sending it to will too. Get the answers to those questions and an action plan in place in a timely manner before passing anything along. Then forward the information and include your additional response. This will keep them in the loop and indicate that you are managing the situation.

It just takes a different way of thinking about it. It takes looking at it from leadership role vs. a worker role. Workers report bad news immediately so that they are keeping everyone informed. They are trained to do this so that information can be processed and plans developed by the leaders. On the other hand, Leaders need to come up with answers and action plans then report news and not look to others to guide them along. The more that you act like a leader the more you will be treated like one.

Praise in Public

I previously wrote about saying, “Thank you,” a lot to people that help you. Taking that one step further beyond acknowledging those that help you, is to remember to offer thanks and praise in public. If you have the opportunity to offer a sincere thank you in front of others it adds more weight to it. Another form of public praise to remember in the workplace is to offer praise to a person’s manager. If a particular person was helpful to you in solving a problem or getting you something that you needed, tell their manager. It is as simple as, “Joe, I was having a problem the other day and Steve from your team went out of his way to provide me with some assistance I needed and it saved me a whole lot of effort.” It is a boost to the person who helped you and to the manager because they like to hear that the people on their team are doing good things. It is even better if you have the opportunity to do it when they are both present. Just don’t skip doing it because you are waiting for some perfect time. The important thing is just offering the praise in a timely fashion and be sure to be sincere about it. Offering thanks and praise in public is an effective form of recognition because people like to hear it and they like to know that others hear it too.

Recognize Others

I remember when I first started working on this software project, the CEO would come once a year to visit our department to see the latest projects. The first year I was there, my boss met with him to show him the projects. I remember feeling left out and at the same time it was understandable since I was just out of college and working at company with over forty thousand employees. My boss hadn’t done much on that project, but he got to be the one to hear the good words that the CEO had to say. The following year I had taken over much more of a leadership role on the project and I was the one to present the software to the CEO when he made his annual visit. I asked him if it was ok to introduce him quickly to each of the team members and he agreed. Then as I hoped, he offered words of appreciation to each of them. It was a small gesture that seemed to make the work more worth while. It meant a lot to all of the team members to hear those words of praise directly from the CEO and to know that he personally had met them and knew who was completing those projects. It was one thing to hear me tell them what the CEO said, but it was another thing to hear it directly from him. Each year after that, I made sure to plan the time during the meeting for the CEO to say hello to the team members. They all looked forward to his visit and I think he understood the impact that spending those few minutes with team had.

I can also remember working at another company where the CEO did not understand the value of taking a few minutes to praise the people who work for the company. In the year that I was there, I only saw the CEO one time. She came to our facility and hid out in a conference room for several hours. This was after our team had just finished a project that was critical to the company’s success. What made it worse was that people thought with the timing that she was there to say something about the project as people had put in tons of overtime and really poured their best efforts into its success. Unfortunately she left without saying a word. She lost a golden opportunity that would have only taken a few minutes. As a leader when you have the opportunity to offer praise and you don’t, it may be remembered for a long time to come. You may not get the same effort out of people that you did the last time. The value of simply recognizing someone’s effort goes a long way.

Whose Team is it? It’s “OUR” Team

When it comes to recognition and rewards in the workplace it is easy for the leader to get all the glory. They are the ones who have been placed in charge of ensuring success. They are the ones whose names get mentioned the most often. As a leader it is critical that the team you lead feels that they are responsible for the success of the team. No one member holds all the keys. Be sure to spread the glory around as well. Mention team members names every chance you get. Always refer to the team as “our” team and not “my” team. It seems like annoying semantics, but to some people it sends a powerful message. Early in my career I didn’t believe that things like this mattered to people, but I actually had a few good people leave because they were tired of me referring to the group as “my” team and they were tired of hearing management call it, “Kristyn’s team.” They wanted to feel like they were critical to the success of the team and could be identified with the team. People want to feel that they are making a contribution and they are valued. They want to feel part of a team that they can identify with. They want to be part of “our” team.

Who Got the Assignment?

How many times have you been in a meeting where issues were discussed and action items handed out to people? This is a common occurrence. Unfortunately what is also common is that the action to be completed is not recorded anywhere for follow-up. It is also probably assigned without a clearly defined timeline for completion. The person who gets the assignment may or may not even write it down. It is up to the leader of the meeting or the project to both record the action item for follow-up and to establish a clear timetable for completion of the item. Without an assigned person, a timeline, and a clearly defined task, there is little hope for the action to be completed. There are some exceptions where people will actually write down the actions they are assigned and complete them in swift manner, but these are few and far between. It usually takes follow-up.

When following up on these action items be sure to allow adequate time between your follow-up and the completion time. It makes no sense to wait to follow-up until there is less time remaining before the deadline than it will take to complete the task. Assume that the assigned person hasn’t done any of the required task and make sure that you follow-up so that they would still have enough time remaining to complete the task. This may seem like we are handling the personal management of tasks for people, and yes as leaders we want to develop people that require little day to day management to complete their tasks, but as a bottom line, we need to make sure that we are getting tasks and projects completed. And to make this happen requires establishing clear expectations and follow-up.

Make Excellence a Habit

I saw a quote this morning that sparked this entry. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Emerson. This is an interesting idea to keep in mind as we go about each day. Achieving true excellence it is not about performing extraordinary tasks on an occasional basis. I suppose that everyone can have a moment of excellence. But it will be just that, a moment in time. What you should strive for is continual excellence, which requires you to go about all that you do thinking in terms of being excellent. (I know that sounds like something from “Bill and Ted’s.” haha) But the point is, if you want to move in the direction of excellence then the key is to continue to practice excellence. You want to grow your ability to be excellent on a regular basis. Make excellence a habit that you do without thinking and it will become who you are.