3 Payoffs of "No-Excuses" Leadership

Too many leaders are quick to make excuses for why their companies aren’t performing to expectations by blaming others or circumstances outside themselves when things don’t go as planned.  However, if you are a true leader, you make no excuses and accept the responsibility for the results you get. By honing your own ability to lead, you will experience three payoffs that lead to success:

Payoff #1: You Know Yourself. As a leader, you have a life-sized laboratory or playground for exploring who you are, what you really want in life, and what you do to get what you want. As you become a more intentional leader, you shift to more deliberate, conscious choices and see more alignment between your intentions and impact. With this level of intentionality, you get the results you intended and don’t make excuses for the results you get.

Feedback is a primary way to get you to a place where you know yourself better, whether this feedback comes from assessments, other people, or the results you get from your actions. The trick is to be able to reflect on this feedback and to integrate it with your experiences. This allows you to know yourself better, which puts you well on your way to becoming a no-excuses leader.

Payoff #2: Align Your Business. Once you are more deliberate in the personal impact you intend, it follows that you would create that same alignment in your business. This alignment is about using your company’s intention (its mission, vision, goals, and values) to craft plans, procedures, processes, and systems that guide your employees to “walk the talk” regularly.

Creating and using a living, breathing strategic plan and current company goals, you and your leadership team ensure that daily work aligns with the company’s most important priorities. Every action taken, every promise made and acted upon reflects what you intended and wrote in the mission statement, your vision statement, and the strategic plan. You cultivate this same alignment with individual employees and teams throughout the company. With the business aligned, you decrease the need to make excuses for the outcomes you get.

Payoff #3: Express Yourself Clearly and Powerfully. The final payoff as a no-excuses leader is clear and powerful communication.  To achieve this, you see communication as a powerful, unifying process throughout your company. You check your own actions and words as well as your company’s systems to ensure the important communications employees need to hear are sent without mixed messages.

As a no-excuses leader you use a mix of stories, facts, and images to engage employees’ hearts and minds. You also learn to use influence more often than coercion to get stakeholders to join with you to accomplish you most important goals.

Socrates is attributed with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Are you ready to examine your leadership to become a no-excuses leader?

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE?

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Beth Strathman works with leaders who are willing and courageous enough to shake up business as usual by understanding themselves, aligning their businesses, and expressing ideas clearly. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: firebrandconsultingllc.com.

6 Behaviors That Move You from "Pretender" to "Leader"

It’s very easy to go along, get along, with the fear that if you really showed others who you are and what you really believed about your company’s current strategy and tactics, others would question your loyalty or competence. To be grounded and sure of yourself, however, you need to be authentic about who you are. Here are six behaviors that will move you from being an inauthentic “pretender” to a true leader:

Know Your Motives for Leading. There are many reasons for taking on a leadership position. What are yours? Reflect on the underlying fears and/or aspirations that drove you to accept a leadership role. Look at how these underlying (and even hidden) motivations have shaped the difference you strive to make as a leader. Being aware of your personal leadership “why” will serve as a compass to guide you when the going gets tough.

Give Constructive Feedback. Without being a jerk, a true leader is expected to give feedback that serves the good of the company by providing opportunities to improve. At times, however, you might find yourself withholding constructive feedback from a colleague or direct report simply to avoid an uncomfortable situation. Remember: there is no movement without friction. Go back to your leadership “why” and see whether remaining silent serves the company and everyone else involved.

Engage in Disagreement. As with giving feedback, you may be able to help resolve an issue but are avoiding it. If you find yourself avoiding a situation, examine your reasons for steering clear of the potential conflict. If you determine the avoidance isn’t serving you or the company in the long run, determine the most appropriate and respectful way to address it. Also help co-workers and team members who don’t work well together move through past issues or conflicts.

Share an Alternate Opinion. A true leader speaks up when concerned about the direction the company is going. When you think it’s heading in the wrong direction, you must express your point of view as effectively as possible. Whether or not, the company alters its path based on your opinion is not the point. It’s the fact that you didn’t act like a sheep and spoke up when you believed it was warranted.

Bolster Professional Relationships with Authenticity. The higher up the corporate ladder you are, the more important building and maintaining relationships becomes. Often relationships are weak because you have not been open and honest about the way the relationship is working (more conflict avoidance). Find ways to strengthen those relationships by revealing your real assumptions and beliefs about important issues that come up.

Amplify Misaligned Mission and Company Action. When your company doesn’t walk its collective talk about its mission and values, weigh the cost of going along, rather than highlighting the disconnects. Determine what you can do to encourage your company to bring its “walk” and “talk” into alignment.

You’re a “leader” not an “avoider”. Stop pretending to agree and step forward into the uncomfortable space where motives, thoughts, and opinions differ. Lead out to acknowledge and resolve issues for the good of your company.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE?

You can, as long as you include this information with it:

Beth Strathman works with leaders who are willing and courageous enough to shake up business as usual by understanding themselves, aligning their businesses, and expressing ideas clearly. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: firebrandconsultingllc.com.

What to Do When Someone Speaks Their Truth to Your Power

Speaking truth to power is something Americans believe in whole-heartedly. We love historical examples of the Founding Fathers sending a message to King George and of reformers like Martin Luther King, Jr., standing up to leaders in cities, counties, states, and in Washington, D.C. Americans revel in the stories of investigative journalists and whistleblowers who uncover the hidden misdeeds of corporations and governments.

However, what do you do when you are the person in power on the receiving end of someone else’s truth? It’s not easy to hear a customer, employee or board member’s negative opinion of a decision you made or an action you took. However, you are not an absolute ruler. With leadership comes the responsibility to account for your decisions and actions and to deepen relationships by being trustworthy.

With that, here are some things to keep in mind for times when someone speaks their truth to your power:

1.    Put your ego aside. Most of your actions and decisions aren’t about you personally anyway; they are or should be done for the good of your organization.  For this reason avoid getting defensive because you took criticism personally. Sometimes, another’s critique is more about himself than it is about the action you took. One way to avoid getting defensive is to . . .

2.    Listen for commitment. Be respectful, humble and vulnerable enough to hold the space for the other person to say what they have to say.  And as they speak, give them the benefit of the doubt by listening for what positive principles or values they are committed to in the end. By focusing intently for the core idea the other is communicating to you, it’s very possible you will be able to identify common ground.

3.    As an on-going process, consider creating the position of “fool” or “devil’s advocate”. Those who report to you know where their bread is buttered. This can create a situation where they don’t speak up when they smell a rat for fear of losing your favor or their jobs. It is interesting that many native cultures have the role of the sacred clown, and in medieval times, the royal courts had court jesters or fools. It was their job to entertain and to enforce the rules of the group by highlighting what was proper and what was not, even by sometimes poking fun at others, including a King or Queen. 

Alternatively, you can invite an outside observer, like a coach or consultant, to get a bead on the inconsistencies others notice but don’t voice aloud.

4.    Create a process that allows observations to move from the front line to leadership levels. Front line employees are often the first to see the disconnect between the company’s “walk” and its “talk”. A process that allows issues and opinions to bubble up and to be addressed could be as general as a survey, or it could include periodic forums where employees interface with leadership to discuss the impact leadership decisions make in practical terms.

Hearing the “truth” that someone else is living need not feel like an attack. Instead, it can be a great opportunity to find out how your intentions are translating into others’ reality.


WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE?
You can, as long as you include this information with it:

Beth Strathman works with executives who are willing and courageous enough to shake up business as usual. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: bethstrathman.com.

Unwrap the Gifts of Leadership

The workplace is like a playground where we get to play with ideas and try out new roles and identities every day. If you approach work with an attitude of having fun and are open to learning new things about yourself and others, you will receive many valuable gifts of leadership. Each leadership gift presents a conundrum, which only you can “unwrap” for yourself. To do so, consider your unique values, strengths, tolerances, and circumstances.

Below are a few leadership gifts that are waiting to be unwrapped by you. Use the questions provided to tear away the gift wrap, revealing a gift that is chosen uniquely for you:

Ego Equilibrium
Definition: The ability to balance service to others and the group while honoring your own vision and values.

Reflection:
• How do you lead without being the focus of attention?
• How do you move an agenda forward without thinking you must do the work yourself or your way?
• How can you be authentic while playing the multiple roles required of a leader?
• How do you commit to your organization without compromising core personal beliefs?
• How can you maintain leader status without losing accessibility?



Flexibility
Definition: The ability to modify, yield, or adapt plans to relevant changes in circumstances.

Reflection:
• How do you position your employees and your company to pivot when circumstances change?
• How do you regularly challenge your own assumptions about what is true?
• When is it more important to forego adapting in favor or stability?
• When is it more important to forego stability in favor or adaptation or change?
• What are your non-negotiables in any given situation?



Humility
Definition: The ability to maintain a modest perception of one’s own importance

Reflection:
• How can you remain confident in your decisions and abilities and legitimately seek feedback from others?
• How do you accept and incorporate personal feedback and remain confident?
• How do you seek input from others and remain decisive?
• Admit mistakes and misjudgments while inspiring confidence?
• How do you ensure others understand your vision without dictating the details for how it should be carried out?



Resilience
Definition: The ability to recover or bounce back from adverse circumstances

Reflection:
• How do you remain optimistic and realistic at the same time?
• How do you reframe specific setbacks as opportunities?



Innovation
Definition: Seeking or introducing new or different ideas and methodologies

Reflection:
• How do you maintain solid operational processes or corporate identity while encouraging “no limits” creativity and innovation?
• How do you accept both success and failure?
• How do you avoid “throwing the baby out with the bath water”?
• How do you avoid compromising for mediocrity?


Throughout this winter season, unwrap at least one leadership gift for yourself and enjoy.

5 Steps to Masterful Confrontation

Handled appropriately, confrontation done well allows you and your team to consider differing opinions, ideas, and assumptions with passive aggressive or victim-y behavior less likely to come into play. This, in turn, leads to greater buy-in and accountability.

Still, you are so trained to avoid confrontation that you probably haven’t taken many chances to practice it.  If you’re rusty on your confrontation skills, here’s how to confront issues and assert yourself without completely alienating everyone:

1. Be humble enough to know that you only have part of the story. When you decide to confront an issue, realize you may not have all the information and that you will learn more as you talk to the other person(s).  While the information you have may be troubling or disappointing, remember that you have interpreted the information you gathered and created a narrative in your head that is consistent with the way only you see the world.  There may be missing pieces that add a completely different spin on the issue.

If the information you have initially makes your blood boil, take at least a day to cool off and focus on the actual facts you have with the idea that the purpose for confronting this issue is to make sure you are seeing the issue from angles other than your perspective to round out the story.

2. Open with the facts.  As you start the confrontation, and after the usual “thanks for meeting with me today”, open with the facts.  These facts may come from your own observations, collected data, or from others’ reports or complaints.

Facts are different from your interpretation and include who, what, when, where, and how.  Starting with facts will help you set forth the context the issue surrounding the issue, the words and deeds of those involved, and the resulting impact those words and deeds had on the company, the team, customers, or others.

When you open with the facts, you need only recite what has transpired. This simple starting point helps you get over the awkward speed bump of what to say first and is grounded in concrete information that isn’t merely your opinion or hyperbole. Also, the facts focus the other party’s attention on exactly the issue at hand, which tends to cut off his/her options for deflecting blame.

3. Test the facts. After putting forth the facts you have, turn over the conversation to the other person with a question, like “Do I have this right?” or “What was going on?” or “Did this situation go as planned?”  This allows the other person to agree with the facts you have, add more, or tell you they experienced the situation differently.

4. Listen for others’ reactions.  As the other person talks, instead of listening for how you can argue back, listen for what’s at stake for him or her or any commitment that comes through. You may find that what you thought was a big issue, isn’t. Or if there is indeed an issue to address, you can then use the information provided to help paint a bigger picture for the other person, so you can both get on the same page. From here you can renew or establish commitments to each other.

5. Agree on a plan of action and follow up. Before you leave the confrontation, schedule a future meeting to follow up on the issue and any commitments you made to each other.

Confrontation does not need to be an angry exchange.  Healthy confrontation helps clear up misunderstandings or misinterpretations and get those involved back on track.  When you master confrontation, you increase understanding among co-workers, which increases the ability to work together productively.

Why Confrontation is the Secret Ingredient of Success

You dream of working easily and seamlessly with colleagues with little or no contention.  Who really wants to work in a contentious environment? Surprisingly, little or no disagreement/conflict is a sign that your group is not as good as you think.  When there is little if any open disagreement about matters of importance (mission, values, projects, and goals), your nice and easy culture is in trouble of complacency and of becoming irrelevant.  The group becomes vulnerable to “group think” without the ability to thoroughly vet ideas and does not adapt quickly and strategically to changing conditions nor does it evolve rapidly enough to face handled new challenges. And you know without little outward disagreement your colleagues are expressing disagreement and discontent out of the light of day among themselves.

“Easy” working relationships and interactions tend to be superficial, Stepford-type communications that present a good face while hiding what you and your colleagues really think and feel. When you don’t express your real thoughts and concerns, interactions in the workplace are coated with the waxy build-up of unvoiced concerns, resentments, passive-aggressive behavior, disengaged employees, gossip, and scapegoating others.  This sets you up for poor decisions based on untested beliefs and untried assumptions, which in turn increases stress, smothers innovation, derails growth, and allows incompetence to go unaddressed.

The result is a toxic culture with low trust even though you and your colleagues are outwardly nice to each other while putting down each other behind your backs.

The secret to turning this around? Confrontation.

Whoa!  You have been raised to be non-confrontational.  How can confrontation be good?  Confrontation can be done in a respectful way where the emphasis is on really digging into the content of what others are proposing rather than attacking others personally.

Confrontation doesn’t need to be loud and forceful. It isn’t about making someone else wrong while you are right nor is it about winning.  Instead, confrontation done right is about using the data that is known to question a process, a decision, an opinion, performance or behavior. Confrontation done right highlights other possible perspectives or interpretations without demeaning others. By confronting the completeness and interpretation of existing data, you stand a greater chance of having deeper, more meaningful discussions while de-personalizing the issue at hand.

Disagreement is natural when interacting with others because we don’t all think, believe, or act the same.  Sadly, whether you’re trying to be PC or whether boat-rocking in general makes you queasy, the idea of confrontation gets a bad rap, mostly because you have seen it done badly for so long.  The typical scene that pops into your head when hearing the word “confrontation” probably involves someone losing her cool by yelling, pounding a fist on a table, and/or even throwing something. That’s not the type of confrontation that is productive.

Handled appropriately, confrontation done right allows a department, work group, business unit, or team to vet differing opinions, ideas, and assumptions, which leads to greater clarity before a course of action is chosen.  The result?  A collegial climate in which you feel you can be transparent and vulnerable because the focus is on the good of the group rather than on protecting your ego by looking like a hero. Healthy confrontation creates an atmosphere where people are willing to forego the short-term relief of staying in a familiar rut in favor of long-term, meaningful impacts that will enable your company to adapt and thrive.

And that is why confrontation is the secret to your success.



WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is the advisor for senior leaders who get an edge on the competition by staying sharp and adaptable to increase productivity and profitability. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: bethstrathman.com.

How to Protect and Maximize Your Time

What is your most precious asset as an executive?

Some say money and investments. Others believe their professional relationships and networks top the list. Still others put personal health, vitality, and energy as number one.

However, there is one asset that is not renewable and that makes it more precious than any other:  Your time. Every second you use up is a second you cannot get back.

While money, relationships, and health are valuable and even precious, they are all renewable to some extent. For instance, you can earn back lost money and can find new opportunities and investments to replace others that went south. You can renew relationships by repairing strained ones and by meeting new people to bolster your network. Additionally, you can make healthy choices regarding diet and exercise and can manage stress to enhance or maintain your health, vitality, and energy.

You know time is precious. Yet, at work, you act as though you have all the time in the world. You insert yourself in situations that are more suitable for or best left to others. You waste time doing things that are not essential to further your career or to achieve your company’s strategic priorities. You spend time handling tasks that are not the most important things for your particular leadership role.

The results? You feel overwhelmed. You lose focus. You fail to move the important or high-impact items forward. Consequently, your other assets suffer as well. The stress of too much to do causes a corresponding loss of energy and vitality. You do not relate as well with others because you are distracted and cannot give your full attention. Ultimately, you are apt to make poor decisions that cost money.

Time is indeed your most precious asset. To protect it, treat it as respectfully as you would your money, relationships, and health by doing the following:

1. Measure how you use it. You routinely use data when analyzing the performance of your company, your employees, and yourself.  In the same way, gather data to measure how strategically you spend your time. Two or three weeks’ worth of data is usually enough to get an idea of the types of activities you pay attention to. Go longer to get a fuller picture. You may be surprised at what you think you spend time on versus what you do in practice.
2. Analyze your decisions regarding how you use it. Based on your company’s strategic priorities, are you spending time on role-related tasks that move those priorities forward? Chances are you could create better alignment.
3. Make more strategic choices going forward. Adjust the use of your time to reflect the things that are most important for your life, your role, your career, your company at present. This might mean you decide to delegate tasks to an administrative assistant or other direct report. It might mean you intentionally schedule appointments with yourself in your calendar to define and protect the time necessary to attend to priorities that are important for you.
4. Do what it takes to set boundaries to execute those choices. Some of the biggest time wasters are interruptions, “emergencies” (usually not yours), poorly run or otherwise unproductive meetings, poor work processes, and hours spent perfecting your work product, such as memos or other reports that don’t need to be perfect.  Also set boundaries by signaling your unavailability when you need time to concentrate by shutting your door or by using your administrative assistant as a gatekeeper.

In the case of time, sunk costs are truly sunk forever. For more impact, maximize the time you spend at work. You will be surprised at how your personal productivity increases.


WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is an executive coach for senior leaders who want to get clear and focused and see better results in productivity and profitability in their organizations. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: bethstrathman.com.

3 Reasons Your Strategic Plan Could Be a Waste of Time and Money

Most people agree that having a plan for the future is a good thing. That's why most leadership teams do spend time and money discussing and creating a strategic plan. Yet most leadership teams do little or nothing with the plans they create other than referring to them from time to time as they gather dust on the shelf. Why?

Simply stated, the plan they created was incomplete.

There are huge costs associated with an incomplete planning process:

• Losing market leader status and falling behind;
• Getting poor or lackluster financial and operational results;
• Wasting time, money, and resources on a strategic plan that went nowhere; and
• Losing credibility as a leadership team.

Useful strategic plans include three components.

If your leadership team omits or fails to execute one of these 3 key components, you won't get the results you planned on. In the end, your strategic plan will be one big, costly "fail".

One: The plan answers the "big" strategic planning questions in plain language - without using jargon from an overly expensive consultant. These "big" questions include:

• What legacy do we want to leave when all is said and done?
• Who are our customers and how can we better serve them?
• Who are our competitors and how can we beat them or do what they're not doing?
• What do we do best and how can we build on that edge?
• What opportunities can we seize?
• How will we recognize and respond to potential setbacks?
• What are potential scenarios that we need to consider for the future, and how will we prepare for them?

Unfortunately, many leadership teams get mired down in philosophical discussions about these issues. Others come up with brilliant answers to these questions, but can't quite bring their ideas into reality with clear, concrete, actionable initiatives that get done.

These big strategic planning questions are worthless if they don't result in a few clear, compelling strategic initiatives to move the company forward.

Two: The plan must set a few clear priorities and an overall strategic theme. A critical outcome of the beginning stages of the strategic planning process is to determine the most important priorities for the organization. After generating what might be a very long list of potential priorities, your leadership team must determine the relative value of each and hone in on only a few key priorities. The discussion that pares down the list of possible priorities can lead to greater clarity about the big strategic planning questions, especially about what the organization actually does best.

Once a list of no more than two or three priorities is agreed upon, the leadership team can come up with a unifying strategic theme. This is a one-line statement that conveys the overall strategic push for the organization, such as: "Beat ABC Corp.!" "Expand to India." "0% medical errors." "Become a magnet for talent."

Here is one big mistake to avoid during this phase of planning: Trying to please everyone by settling on a long list of priorities. While a long list of "priorities" makes everyone feel included and valued, it makes it highly unlikely that you will get anything done completely if at all. Be a leader and make strategic choices.

Three: Have the guts to implement it. The biggest complaint I hear about strategic plans is that they never seem to get executed. There are a few reasons why:

The leadership team . . .

• Neglected to commit essential resources to the plan, including capital, training, technology, and people.
• Failed to take things off the plates of busy employees, and instead just stacked more work on them.
• Lacked the will to call a halt to old initiatives that compete with the new.
• Failed to set clear roles, responsibilities, accountability, and rewards systems in line with the plan.
• Wimped out after a few setbacks or initial resistance.
• A sound strategic planning process spends as much time on implementation planning as it does on the more lofty work of answering the key strategic questions and setting priorities. Otherwise, the plan stays in your head and never becomes real work with measurable results. 

Some leadership teams are great at asking the big picture questions, but fail to follow up. Some set too many priorities, and can't say "no" to good ideas, despite limited resources. Others are strong at executing, but lack the vision to develop compelling strategic initiatives.

Which of the above areas is weakest for you and your leadership team?

Click here to get my FREE Strategic Assessment.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is a leadership coach who works with executives who want to increase their influence for greater confidence, influence, and enhanced leadership presence. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: bethstrathman.com.

How to Scale Your Own Leadership “Dawn Walls”

“I don’t know if it’s possible; I’m just going to keep working on it.” --- Tommy Caldwell,  El Capitan Dawn Wall Climber

In recent weeks, I marveled at the tenacity and audacity of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they free-climbed the Dawn Wall of El Capitan, following their 3-week, 3000-foot climb up the mountain’s sheer granite face.  What we didn’t see was the behind the scenes hard work that made the end result possible: the 7 years of planning, the obstacles identified and analyzed, the attempts to climb daunting patches of the wall over and over again. Imagine the focus and attention Caldwell and Jorgeson had to use each second of the climb!

To me, this Dawn Wall climb serves as a larger than life reminder of the approach to take when confronting personal and professional challenges – small and large.

Most of us go to work each day, subconsciously replicating the same experiences for ourselves and our employees without really being present and using the conscious attention and focus that could take things to another level.  The Caldwell/Jorgeson climb serves as a reminder of the conscious reflection, planning and attention required to become great at anything, including leadership.

Here’s how we can scale the Dawn Wall of our own leadership, using experiences to evolve ourselves with each challenge that presents itself to us:

• Reflect on where you’ve been and how far you’ve come along as a leader.  No matter where you are as a leader, if you look back on your development, are you making progress toward a better version of your leader-self? As with Caldwell and Jorgeson, how well have you planned and executed your development? What obstacles, challenges, and setbacks have you run into? What did you do to overcome or adjust in response? Did you have to back-track and find a new way to get where you are now? In what ways have you become clearer about your leadership style and capacities? How has your perspective changed regarding what leadership is for you?

• Identify your next challenge (aka “Dawn Wall”).  There is always a challenge to overcome, whether it’s a new market to explore, a new alliance to form, a new way of interfacing with direct reports, or a new definition of your work as you enter a different phase of your career or life.  These challenges provide the impetus for making changes in the way you lead and relate to others. What’s the challenge in front of you now that you will commit to take on?

• Identify new capacities you need to be able to scale this newest challenge. Often, we are more concerned with the new capacities employees need for business endeavors to be successful, and we forget that each new challenge will require us as leaders to raise our competencies as well. Failing to grow along with a challenge is usually an invitation to be passed up and passed over as change occurs around us.  Constantly evolving into a better and better version of you not only keeps you relevant and competitive, but it makes you personally more adaptable and capable and more valuable because of that.  Think of the challenges that come your way as tailor-made growth opportunities. 

These growth opportunities may come in the form of eliminating behaviors and/or beliefs that are no longer serving you, capitalizing on an existing strength and taking it to a new level, or developing a new skill, like the ability influence others who don’t report to you. Whatever your current challenge is asking of you, whatever your potential areas for growth are, be open to them. You’ll evolve while serving as a role model for the importance of on-going personal and professional growth.

• Create your professional development plan. Yes, you need a professional development plan, too. And as with other employees, it’s really effective if it’s strategically tied in some way to your organization’s strategic goals and those current challenges.  What new experiences do you need to grow? What existing strengths can you build on? What knowledge and skills do you need to gain? What attitudes do you need to change or let go of?  And what’s the action plan to accomplish the areas for growth you’ve identified?

Whichever challenge comes your way, working on it can pay off big for your business and evolve your leadership capacity.  You’ll be better than you were before and ready for the next challenge.



WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is the advisor for senior leaders who seek to evolve their leadership capacity by solving current business challenges for better productivity and profitability. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting LLC at: bethstrathman.com.

How to Be a Credible Leader

In last month’s blog I wrote about four areas for leadership focus.  This month I zoom in on establishing your credibility.

Over the past century or two, the expectations of what a leader is and does has shifted and that applies to how leaders established credibility.  Used to be that a leader was credible if he was “large and in charge” as set forth in the Great Man Theory.  To establish credibility in previous centuries, an individual (usually male) needed to dynamically leave his mark on the world through personal power, charisma, intelligence, and wisdom.  From the top, down, he directed, commanded, provided answers, intimidated, kicked butt and took names, and was always deferred to by everyone else.  In short, the leader sat atop the pyramid in a hierarchical paradigm borrowed from the military.

Today, a shift has and is still occurring that is questioning the heavy reliance not only on top-down hierarchy but also the traditional tough-guy leadership traits that established a leader’s credibility.  Sure. In a crisis, expediency pays.  You absolutely want a leader who can take control of the situation and go into command and control mode to alleviate a big threat quickly.  Yet on a day-to-day, non-crisis basis, the credible leader of the 21st century is one who entices others to follow through competence, transparency, inspiration, and being forward-looking.

Are you reflecting these 21st century aspects of credibility?

Competence.  In the past and for today’s leader, a large component of credibility comes from being competent. Competence is being qualified for the job.  It comes from knowing your stuff and being intelligent enough to ask the right questions if you don’t.  Increasingly, the competent 21st century leader is also emotionally competent, meaning he is aware of his emotions, can regulate them, and is aware of how others are feeling.

Being competent does not mean the individual is an expert in all things related to the business or of managing his emotions; rather, it means the individual is adequately knowledgeable and skilled and has a basic knowledge and ability with most things that come his way.  Competence is often an issue when someone is hired or promoted through political wrangling, nepotism, or favoritism.

Transparency.  People don’t like being manipulated or lied to.  That’s why leaders who are open and honest with their employees earn high marks.  Openness and honesty keeps everyone together as a unit, sharing the same experience.  It also, provides the leader an opportunity to teach employees about his thought process, including underlying assumptions.  In addition to being instructive, transparency can invite the sharing of alternate viewpoints.  The back and forth exchange of ideas that comes from such openness helps forge a stronger bond amongst the group and furthers the leader’s believability and credibility.

Inspiration.  To be inspiring, you don’t have to be Martin Luther King, Jr.  It does, however, mean that you can help others see that they are part of something bigger and can accomplish great things in concert with others.  This is about helping employees see the “big picture” and their place in helping the grand plan come to fruition.  Neurologically, by way of mirror neurons, followers’ brains light up in many different areas when they interact with a leader who can enthusiastically connect them with the big picture.  This increases the chance that employees will be open to new ideas and new emotions as they scan the business environment for options to attain a corporate goal or vision.  And that is exactly what a leader wants to inspire employees to do.

Forward-looking.  Finally, today’s leader must have the ability to scan for future trends, opportunities, and threats.  The marketplace changes so quickly that leaders must have an eye on what is coming down the pike – good, bad, different and indifferent.  This gives the organization advanced notice allowing it to adapt and stay relevant and in business. The leader who is uncomfortable with change or unaware of trends will react slowly if at all, failing to catch the next wave that will keep the business afloat.  Because followers rely on the continuation of the organization, the credible leader is in tune with what’s happening now as well as with what is likely coming in the future to ensure the longevity of the organization.

Are you credible enough to lead?  Take our assessment to find out today.


WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it:

Beth Strathman is the Executive Coach for senior leaders who want to get focused and get results. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting at: www.bethstrathman.com.

4 Leadership Focal Points to Guide the Way

I haven’t met a leader yet whose day is not full of information, fast-paced action and distractions.  At any given moment, you are bombarded with input from multiple directions. To appear “in control” and competent, you feel you have no other choice than to react to the situation demanding you immediate attention.  Now!  Yet, when you reflect on your day, you don’t seem to have gotten anything done.   You are exhausted.  How can this be?

The problem is failing to focus on what’s important.

Here are four tips for keeping your leadership eyes focused in the right direction:

1. Focus on making a difference with your employees.  Employees admire leaders who have a positive impact on others.  It shows that you understand that you are not the center of the universe and that you are here to serve others.  So, maximize the impact of you have on others by shedding your Superman cape.  Instead of you taking responsibility to react and solve the problem or provide an answer, coach those around you to think through possible answers or responses to the issue.  It not only shows your employees that you care enough to take the time to include them in the solution, but it builds capacity in those around you and relieves you of shouldering all responsibility.

2. Focus on being credible.  According to Kouzes and Posner, the one characteristic employees look for in their leaders is credibility.  You don’t have to be perfect, but to build and keep credibility, you must demonstrate competence, meaning you can cogently converse about what’s going on in your organization and industry and deliver on what you say.  You must be forward-looking to help your organization adapt to changing market conditions.  You must be transparent and honest, so others will believe what you say over time. Finally, you must be inspiring, meaning that you can communicate to others how they are part of something bigger than themselves and can achieve great things.

3. Focus on a common vision.  Crafting a vision for your organization takes work.  The REAL work starts when you start making that vision a reality.  Communicating the vision in ways others can relate to and support takes constant effort and stewardship.  Keeping the vision in focus for others is a daily task that leaders must do.  You must “walk the talk” and live the vision by being an example and use that vision to constantly frame the work done in your organization -- everything from how a receptionist greets visitors to the principles used to make big decisions about products and services.

4. Focus on learning.  Be open to looking at things in new ways.  Be curious as you approach new technologies or even problems. Ask questions.  Always seek to improve yourself by getting feedback on how you’re doing.  And view the workplace as one, big scrimmage field where people can take chances, practice and fail, and learn from their mistakes.

So, at the end of the day, ask yourself:
• Did I make a positive difference with at least one employee today?
• Was I credible?
• Did I further our mission and vision?
• Did I learn something new today?



WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is the Executive Coach for senior leaders who want to get focused and get results. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting at: http://www.bethstrathman.com.

The Secret to Staying on Track with your Goals

As another year comes to a close, it's a good time to reflect on what you have accomplished for the year and at this point in your career/business.  We don't often take time to reflect, yet it is the secret to staying on course to achieve your goals (business or personal).

Reflection helps to put your experiences, accomplishments, and setbacks in perspective, then allows you to put them in context and interpret their deeper meaning.  A deeper understanding of where you've been and where you are now can help you to create, in a more meaningful way, where you go next -- both personally and professionally.

Joseph Campbell, renowned scholar and author on cultural mythology, identified a common cycle of events in heroic myths that exists across cultures.  Campbell's hero typically follows this pattern:

• departs from his ordinary world in search of something or is enticed away from his comfort zone
• encounters tests through adversity or temptation
• meets various archetypal characters along the way who help or hinder him
• finds what he set out for (and sometimes almost loses it
• returns to the ordinary world with a new thing or idea for himself psychologically or that will change mankind.

Sound familiar?  Hollywood loves this formula, and George Lucas intentionally used the work of Joseph Campbell when he wrote Star Wars.  You may not see yourself as the "Luke Skywalker" type, yet each person experiences this cycle throughout their lives and even multiple cycles over time.

So, take time to intentionally think about the people, gains/losses, and work events that happened over the past year.  Each of these can carry a deeper meaning upon reflection that can guide you forward.

  

Over the past year, what did you notice about your interactions with certain employees, colleagues, clients, or competitors?  For example, was there someone you met who provided sage advice from which you benefited? Was there someone at work who seemed to constantly prod you or test you?  Or was there a competitor you saw as being against you who, underneath it all, might be teaching you something about yourself or your business?  Reflect on what you learned from them all, especially as it relates to the trajectory of your professional and business goals.

Reflect on gains or losses over the past year.  What were you striving towards and why? Did you experience great success with a business product or service only to discover that it backfired a bit because your team didn't handle the increased demand as deftly as they could have?  Did you work hard to land a new client only to find out that it wasn't a good working relationship in the end?  Were you able to find a the right product/market fit after struggling for a time to find your niche?  Did you hit the jackpot in some way?

What does the gains/losses you experienced tell you about you or your business?  That is, in the pursuit of a gain or avoidance of pain, were there instances where you were tempted by greed, stuck in a rut with fear, or chose duty over something else?  In the face of loss, did you find strength you didn't know you had? Or learn something extraordinary about yourself or others that will guide your pursuits going forward?

Look at the events you were a part of this year.  Did a project or idea catch your attention in a big way? Did you enter an entirely new career or lifestyle? Did you experience a rocky patch in your work, relationships, health, or other aspect of your life, whether or not by choice?  Are you close to a break though that will be a game changer for your work?  How do work events over the past year fit within the context of your life in a broader sense?

Now, upon reflection, are you on track with your intended work outcomes?  Where do you go next?

I wish you Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year.

  

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: 

Beth Strathman is the Executive Coach for senior leaders who want to challenge themselves to get focused and get results. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting at: 

http://www.firebrandconsulting.blogspot.com.

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Is Your Team Culture "Incognito"?

 Incognito:  with your true identity kept secret.

Merriam-Webster.com

With the recent allegations of bullying regarding Richie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins, I started to think about the team’s leadership and its role in creating and reinforcing the team’s culture through its standards of conduct.  What would you do as a leader to define and enforce proper conduct on the job when the industry demands unrelenting, hard-hitting mental and physical toughness and violence?  What is acceptable conduct toward teammates or even opponents?  Are teammates able to navigate the contexts for when hurtful or violent behavior is OK (on the field) and when it is not (with teammates)?  Did the formal leaders (coaches) abrogate their roles by asking one teammate to develop another?

It’s a leader’s responsibility to define, model, enact and reinforce company and team culture.  Culture is the set of shared norms, experiences, and beliefs that distinguish one organization from another.  It defines what is acceptable and not acceptable within the group.   And underlying the culture are shared assumptions about the way the world works.  In some sports organizations, is there an assumption that to be physically tough on the field you have to be physically tough off the field as well?

Leaders, whether formal or informal, reinforce and redefine cultural norms based on how they act, what they pay attention to, what they praise and reinforce in others, and how they react when challenges occur. Richie Incognito is a member of the Dolphins' player council.  So, whether or not the allegations are found to be true, Incognito’s conduct – whatever it really was -- most likely has carried weight with the team to this point.  Arguably, other team members looked to him for how to behave.

In additional to leaders, superstar performers on your team must be held to the same standards as everyone else; otherwise, a mixed message is received by your employees, muddying the waters about what is expected.  Such a mixed message can signal employees that it’s everyone for himself, leading to a lack of trust and a team that doesn’t work together toward a common goal.

Are your team leaders and superstars consistently displaying the kind of behavior that reinforces your team culture?  If not, what are you prepared to do about it?

We don’t know what Richie Incognito’s behavior was at this point.  He could have conducted himself in a very appropriate manner, or he could have crossed the line with his behavior toward his teammate.  Either way, was the Miami Dolphins’ team culture evident in his behavior . . . or was it “incognito”?

Three Leadership Behaviors That Increase Employees’ Happiness (and Productivity) at Work

A happy employee is a productive employee.  Studies have shown that happy people are more successful generally, experience increased employee satisfaction, earn higher pay throughout a career, and exhibit enhanced job performance. 

Specifically, research shows that compared to unhappy employees, those who are happy at work are:

·         Twice as productive;

·         Stay 5 times longer with an employer;

·         Are 6 times more energized;

·         Use 10 times less sick leave;

·         Are helpful to colleagues 33% more of the time;

·         Achieving 31% more of their goals;

·         Are 36% more motivated than their colleagues; and

·         Raise performance issues 46% more often.

Sounds like a manager’s dream!  So, what must leaders do to create “happier” (and more productive) workplaces?  The answers are simple and not necessarily easy.

1.            Help Employees Use Their Strengths; Don’t Focus on Weaknesses.

To create happier places for employees, help them focus on their strengths.  (This is good advice for yourself, too.)  Now, this seems a bit odd, since you’ve probably believed that bolstering weaknesses would make people “better”.  Although it might be counterintuitive, the research is clear. 

In a psychological study, bowlers were divided into groups.  After receiving instructions, the groups practiced bowling. Some groups were videotaped; others were not.  Of those videotaped, one group saw only positive things they did, and the other group saw only the negative.  Those who saw only the positive improved significantly over the rest of the bowlers (videotaped and not).  Among the most unskilled bowlers, those who saw only the positive videotapes improved significantly more than anyone (Cooperrider, 1990).  (Having second thoughts on how your company does performance evaluations and give feedback in general?)

What do I mean by a “strength”?  I don’t mean simply the activities and skills employees are good at, although that’s a start.  Marcus Buckingham takes “strengths” a step further when he says that strengths are the things that you are good at AND in which you lose yourself while doing them AND that energize you.

Have you ever been working on a project at home or work and looked up to see that much more time had passed than you realized?  Maybe you spent an evening dancing with friends, writing, painting, listening to others tell their stories . . . if the time passed quickly and you felt energized after doing it, you were in what is known as “flow”, and that activity could be a strength for you.

You can facilitate the process of employees discovering their strengths with resources, including Strengths Finder, Strengths Based Leadership and Buckingham’s own Stand Out.

Once an employee determines her strengths, help her find ways to do more work activities that them.  Build more of activities that use her strengths into the job or encourage an employee to apply for another job in your company that could incorporate more of her strengths.

So, while maintaining an adequate level of competence at something that isn’t a strength is usually required on the job, employees are better served (and by extrapolation so is the company) if they can do more work activities that showcase their strengths and get more feedback about how they are doing with respect to their strengths.

2.            Create a Sense of Belonging and Contribution

So, what type of work environment leads to happiness at work?  According to the iOpener Institute for People and Performance, happy employees reported a stronger correlation with the 5 C’s:

Contribution – feeling your efforts make a difference

Conviction – short-term motivation

Culture – feeling you “fit in” at work                                                                     

Commitment – long-term engagement

Confidence – belief in your own abilities

Thus, if employees do not perceive they are making a difference, fit in, or are having impact, chances are they are not happy.  And if they are not happy, they are not as productive as they could be.  These themes are echoed in the Gallup Organization’s Q12.

One way to increase employees’ sense of belonging and contribution is to allow them to use their strengths as noted above, which allows employees the opportunity to do what they do best, let’s employees know you care about them as a person, gives you the opportunity to talk about their progress at work, and lets them know you care about their skill and career development.

3.            Cross the Losada Line

The final tip to creating more happiness at work rests squarely on the shoulders of those in charge.  To increase happiness and productivity at work, count the ratio of positive to negative interaction you have with your employees.  According to research by Marcial Losada, supervisors need to have more positive interactions than negative ones with their employees.   Specifically, a phenomenon known as the “Losada Line” says you must have 2.9013 positive interactions to every negative interaction you’re your employees to make your team moderately successful.  To lead teams to their very best work, you need to raise that ratio to 6 to 1! (Losada, 1999).  How many positive interactions or communications have you given your employees or received from your manager lately?  See.  Not as easy as it sounds . . . especially if your motto has been “no news is good news”.

What small thing can you start doing today that will increase your employees’ happiness at work?

The Personally Productive Leader

You’re smart.  You’re hard-working.  You have a good business model.  You have the necessary resources and good employees.  Yet, you feel as though you get nothing done during the day.  Most of the time, you feel off balance and pulled in a hundred different directions.   Your business isn’t necessarily in trouble, yet you spend more time than you’re comfortable with, feeling unfocused and wondering if you will get everything done.

When looking to increase business productivity, many leaders often look at the structure of their business, employee performance and engagement, and work processes.   And these are excellent places to tweak to make sure the business is hitting on all cylinders.  However, an often-overlooked productivity leak can be the leader’s own personal productivity. You typically aren’t taught that in school.

Leaders underestimate the impact they have on their employees, not realizing that their personalities, habits, values, and focus radiate throughout their businesses or areas of responsibility.  For this reason, any productivity gains from improving company-wide work processes and employee performance can be hampered by a leader who hasn’t examined his own ability to be more personally productive.

Being personally productive doesn’t mean you need to be pitching in and doing the work that is assigned to and more appropriately done by others.  Rather, it requires you to do your own work as leader effectively.  To maximize your personal leadership productivity, start with these three ideas:

1.            Design your calendar to reflect business priorities.  Your business purpose and current goals should be reflected in the strategic plan.  In turn, the strategic goals and priorities must be intentionally reflected in your weekly calendar.  If your company is aiming to increase revenues by 10% over at 24-month period, you must schedule appropriate weekly activities for yourself to make sure you are doing your part to achieve that goal.  Do you need to recognize employees who are going the extra mile toward the company goals?  Do you need to meet with management to monitor progress toward the overall goal?  Do you need to work with a team to help them determine how work processes can be improved to help achieve the goal? 

It seems such a simple concept.  Yet most leaders get caught up in the daily swirl of “administrivia”, losing track of the next steps they must do or follow up on to keep the larger goals and initiatives moving forward.

Be sure to consciously carve out 10-12 hours per week for activities that further important business goals.  The remaining hours of your weekly calendar will reflect the routine activities that normally consume your time – meetings, phone calls, email, keeping up on industry trends, reviewing financials, board business, meeting with key customers, processing through the information that lands in your office, etc.

2.            Create a personal workflow system.  Consciously and intentionally dedicate time everyday to process through the information coming into your office via your physical inbox and email.  Prioritize items to do, again, based on your strategic plan. 

3.            Delegate more.  Many leaders fail to fully utilize their administrative assistants and other professionals in their businesses.  Delegating to others will free up time for you and give those who have the skills and expertise opportunities to take on work that can help them develop.  Delegate it’s not critical that you do it and if it’s appropriate work and responsibility level for the position you want to delegate it to.

Many leaders find that putting these simple steps in place keeps their minds clearer and more focused and reduces stress by creating a support structure that helps them keep their most important work activities in perspective.

The Bumpy Road of Managing People

So.  You went for that management job or started your own business, eh?  Guess what?  You are no longer the focus of your work life -- other people are.  Are you sure you wanna do this?

You probably didn’t plan your career this way – at least not consciously so.  If you had wanted to “work with people” and make THEM the focus of your career, you would have chosen a “helping” profession like social worker, teacher, or nurse or doctor.

But you weren’t necessarily people focused to begin with.

Instead, you started out in engineering, business operations, marketing, carpentry, accounting, forestry, horticulture, engine repair, the culinary arts . . . . something focused on an interest, talent, or skill that was easy for or of interest to you.  While it’s true that people use the products and services provided by these occupations, these jobs aren’t really known as “people-oriented”, are they?

Now, you find yourself in a position to manage people, not because you necessarily enjoy dealing with the challenge of getting the best out of those you now supervise, but because of any number of other reasons, like power, status, money, prestige, recognition, or because there isn’t any other way for your career to progress as it is “supposed” to.

You are badly in need of some guidance, my friend.  So, take a deep breath and read on for navigation tips:

First, learn to check your ego at the door.  When supervising others, you must consciously shift your focus from yourself to those you supervise.  Up to this point, your career has been focused on you – what YOU think, what YOU can do, who YOU know.  That ends right now.  Your thoughts, your needs, your concerns, your technical ability . . . they are not your number one concern anymore.  Instead, your world now centers on the thoughts, needs, concerns and technical ability of your employees.  Your management brilliance will be measured by how well you elicit the best work from these people, who may be nothing like you, and to do that you have to focus on what makes THEM tick.

Second, learn to listen . . . a lot.  Before, you simply had to understand the task, and then carry it out to the best of your ability.  Now, you must engage your employees in what needs to be done to improve in the department or the company.  They will have much to say whether they tell you out right or not.  When in doubt, close your mouth and listen (without that ego that you just checked at the door).  Your employees will come to you with complaints about the company, you, and each other . . . and with excuses for why the work is not done or not done well, and your initial reaction will be to shield yourself from blame.

You’ve been a master at doing the work.  You’ll want to justify everything you’ve done and to correct their facts and interpretations.  Don’t.  Listen for the emotion behind their words, and validate what they are experiencing.  Then, redirect them by asking questions about what they have experienced.  Eventually, you’ll get to the real reason they came to talk to you, and through that conversation you will prove to be someone whom they can trust because you kept the focus on them and listened.

And third, the last big tip is to learn to manage your negative emotions.  You’re human, so there will be times where you lose your cool.  But as much as possible, stay as cool, calm and collected as you can.

The biological reason for doing so is that when your emotions kick in, you don’t think as clearly as you normally would because the body is taking energy from the logical prefrontal cortex and sending it to the emotional limbic system, which is the seat of emotion response.  The professional reason for staying collected is that blowing up in anger or being overly excitable signals your employees that you are not the controlled leader they are looking to for guidance.  Your employees need you to be a stabilizing presence, which in turn, increases your trustworthiness.

When you’re angered or irritated, take a deep breath while counting to 10 before responding to give your emotions time to pass, so your logical brain can have time to kick in again.  Then realize, whatever happened is not the end of the world.  Your response can then be focused on how to move forward to get things back on track.

Supervising a group of people who produce fantastic results is truly a rewarding experience.  And the road to getting there will teach you more about yourself than almost any other life experience.  Enjoy.

Employee Recognition for the "No Nonsense" Boss

You know who you are.  You grew up in a family where no news was good news.  When your parents had a conversation with you, it meant you had screwed up.  You’re focused on work, not that you don’t like people. You do.   You just like them better when they are working.  While you make pleasant conversation with others from time to time, it drives you nuts or at least makes you a bit antsy, and you feel it’s a waste of your time if the chit chat goes beyond 5 minutes.

Now, you’re in charge of others.  Maybe you have your own company, you’re a CEO of a large company, or you’re in charge of a department or a small work crew.  Doesn’t matter.  You’re now faced with getting the most out of others, and the concept of employee recognition or appreciation comes up.  The idea alone makes you crazy.  Employee appreciation.  After all, employees are getting paid to do their jobs.  You think, “Why should you have to gush all over them?  Geez.  Grow up, employees.  This is the adult world.  Not everyone gets a trophy for showing up to work.”

Granted, it would be a lot easier if everyone could simply show up, hit their marks, and know in their heart of hearts that they did a good job . . . unless you say something to them.  But that’s not the way the world works.  Employees’ need to belong and to feel good about themselves and that means they need you to recognize their efforts from time to time.

Yes, some recognition programs miss the mark.  They put too much emphasis on the token given to the employee (a watch, a trophy, a bonus, etc.) than on the meaning and sentiment behind the token.  (How many of you have commemorative service pins that you don’t want and don’t know what to do with?)  If a program stresses form (getting something) over function (appreciation), then the recognition program is the problem and needs to be revamped or dismantled altogether.

Here’s what we know about employee appreciation:

1.            Performance is higher in groups where the leader shows more encouragement.  In fact, a survey showed that 95% of those survey agreed with the statement, “I get a lot of satisfaction knowing I've done a good job.”  Kepner-Tregoe (1995)

This indicates that to get the best performance out of employees, employees want and need to hear that you recognize their efforts and to know that you were pleased with their work.  It doesn’t mean you have to throw a party or buy them expensive presents each time they do something right.  It simply means you need to acknowledge the efforts.  How about a simple thank you?

2.            Teams with managers who were encouraging and offered praise performed 31% better than teams that did not.  Greenberg, M. H., & Arakawa, D. (2006).

Again, recognizing efforts and telling employees that they are doing well and that you appreciate their efforts is all that is needed.  The research doesn’t say you need to spend a ton of money making a big deal out of every success or breakthrough.

3.            Deliberate and specific recognition/praise is more motivating than money. Deci, E. L. (1996)

When you show your appreciation, be deliberate in recognizing employees and be specific about what it was they did so well and why it mattered to the company.  Don't say only, “Thank you.”  Instead say, “Thanks for the long hours and hard work you put into the ABC project.  Because of your efforts, we landed the account.”

So, as much as it irks you to recognize when employees get it right, it can pay off big for them individually.  Consequently, sincerely saying a specific “thank you” will pay off big for your company, department, or work crew.  It’s not the fancy recognition program you design or the stuff you give people; it’s the recognition and appreciation, stupid.