engagement

Helping People Work Through Disillusionment

/ Ken Blanchard / Leave a comment

As leaders, we’ve all seen it happen: Your direct report starts a new project or task, filled with excitement about what they can achieve. While they may not have all the skills they need, they’re enthusiastic about learning what to do, taking action, and achieving their goal.

A few weeks go by. The next time you check in with your direct report, you discover that their progress on the project has stalled. As the two of you talk, it becomes clear that your direct report is finding the work more difficult than they thought it would be. They are no longer engaged and they’re having a hard time staying committed to the task.

In the language of SLII®, the direct report has become a Disillusioned Learner. This is a predictable passage along the journey from low to high competence. Yet many managers don’t know how to lead people at this stage.

Flex Your Leadership Style

The best leaders know how to flex their leadership style to adapt to the changing needs of their direct reports. Yet our research shows that 54 percent of managers use just one leadership style, regardless of the situation. So, in the case of our Disillusioned Learner, most leaders will default to a supporting leadership style, giving the direct report needed encouragement—but providing little help with working through the roadblocks. Some leaders will default to a directing leadership style, closely supervising every move—and undermining what little confidence the direct report has around that task.

Neither approach will be very effective. What the Disillusioned Learner really needs is a coaching style, delivered through coaching conversations that blend direction and support. Learning to be flexible can be a challenge at first—especially for leaders who have become accustomed to using a “one size fits all” approach.

Have an Alignment Conversation

To help the Disillusioned Learner, the leader’s first step is to partner with their direct report by having an alignment conversation. The purpose of this conversation is to clarify the goal or task, confirm the direct report’s development level on that task, and agree on the best leadership style for the situation. Remember:

Leadership is not something you do to people,

but something you do with people.

To give you an idea of what this looks like in the real world, let’s eavesdrop on a leader talking with a direct report during their regularly scheduled one-on-one meeting. As they talk, it becomes clear that the direct report is having trouble with one of her tasks.

“I’m just not feeling very confident about this,” she says. “To be honest, I’m not sure what to do next.”

The leader recognizes that these are the words of a Disillusioned Learner, someone who may have started the task with enthusiasm but is feeling discouraged after running into obstacles. As I mentioned earlier, a person at this stage needs a coaching leadership style, which is high on direction and support.

Having diagnosed her direct report’s development level, the leader now engages her in an alignment conversation, getting agreement on the coaching leadership style that she will use:

“Since you’re still learning and not feeling confident, would it be helpful if I provide you with direction and support?”

“Sure, I could use the help,” the direct report replies.

First, the leader provides some perspective and encouragement:

“Look how much you’ve already accomplished! You’ve made some good initial progress. I’d like to hear your thoughts and ideas as we work together on this.”

To provide direction, the leader offers continued training, instruction, or assistance in problem solving. Her directive comments might begin:

“Let me show you how to …” or “Here’s how you might want to approach this …” or “Here are some more resources/examples….”

To provide support, the leader asks questions, practices active listening, and offers praise and encouragement to help build the direct report’s commitment and motivation. Her supportive comments might begin:

“I know you can do this …” or “I’m confident you can do this …” or “I know this isn’t easy at first, but it gets better. Hang in there. I’m here to help.”

The goal of these coaching conversations is to build the direct report’s competence on the task and pull her out of her disillusionment.

Development Level Varies from Goal to Goal and Task to Task

It’s important to remember that development level applies to a specific goal or task, not to a person generally. For example, while the direct report in the scenario above may be a Disillusioned Learner on that particular goal, on a different goal she may be an expert—a Self-Reliant Achiever—able to achieve outstanding results without any direction or support whatsoever. At that development level she would need an entirely different leadership style—but that’s a topic for another blog!

If you would like to improve the morale and engagement of your people by learning to adapt your leadership style to their needs, I encourage you to take advantage of the many resources we have on our website. Our goal is to make work more inspiring, motivating, and meaningful for all.

Who Are the Innovators of Today?

/ Ken Blanchard

It’s commonly assumed that the top leaders in organizations are the ones who come up with the best ideas—ideas that lead to positive changes such as new products, bigger profits, better customer service, higher employee engagement, lower turnover, etc. But this is a misconception.

Executives at successful companies know that all the brains are not in the C-suite. These leaders work side by side with their people, empowering them by sharing information about the company, asking for input on important topics, and keeping the lines of communication open. They believe people at every level are capable of innovative thinking—everyone should be included and their thoughts, opinions, and ideas should be considered. Just think: if every leader acted on this belief, what a difference it would make in how people feel about themselves and their work!

You never know when innovation will strike. Back in 1981, Spencer Johnson and I did something a bit innovative. We coauthored a book that was unlike any other at the time—The One Minute Manager. When we met Spencer, my wife, Margie, and I were in the early stages of our leadership training and consulting business. We had been invited to an event for local authors because I had coauthored a college textbook titled Management of Organizational Behavior. Spencer had written a children’s book series and was working with a psychologist on a book for parents titled The One Minute Scolding. Margie met Spencer first, hand-carried him over to me, and said, “You two should write a children’s book for managers—they won’t read anything else.” Soon thereafter, Spencer and I decided to write a short parable about a manager who knew how to get the most out of his people by empowering them and catching them doing things right. Everyone we showed the manuscript to raved about it. We self-published and sold 20,000 copies of The One Minute Manager before meeting with any of the big New York publishers.

Our company has been in the business of empowering people for 45 years. Two of our cofounders, Don Carew and Eunice Parisi-Carew, coined the phrase “No one of us is as smart as all of us” while we were working on the book The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams. In essence, the saying means that no one individual can take the place of a roomful of creative team members trading ideas and working together to find solutions. That’s innovation in action! Being a part of this kind of dynamic connection creates feelings of safety, belonging, and inclusion in every team member.

To get people on board with the idea that every person can be an innovator, leaders must first commit to something rather risky: they must let their people know that it is okay to make mistakes—and it’s okay to fail. If people believe they will get reprimanded (or worse—be out of a job) when they make a mistake, they simply won’t move toward innovation. They will keep their head down and just do their job. It’s up to the leader to bring people together for brainstorming sessions and involve them by not only allowing, but encouraging them to step up and share their ideas with the group. 

My good friend Garry Ridge, CEO Emeritus of WD-40 Company and my coauthor on Helping People Win at Work, wanted to create a safe culture where people knew they wouldn’t be punished if they made a mistake. He said when he took the reins at WD-40, “I had to redefine the concept of ‘mistakes.’ I needed to teach people to not be afraid to fail.” Lots of leaders who promote innovation in the workplace feel the same way. They treat mistakes and failures as important data—Garry Ridge calls them “learning moments”—because they often can lead to breakthroughs.

Organizations that rely only on designers and senior leaders to come up with all the innovative ideas for positive change are underestimating the rest of their workforce. Everyone can contribute to a culture of innovation.

When the Thrill Is Gone: Dealing with Decommitted People

/ Ken Blanchard

One of the biggest challenges managers face is how to respond when they notice a direct report has decreased motivation or confidence to do a job. We call this decommitment.

For the most part, leaders avoid dealing with decommitment, largely because it is such an emotionally charged issue and they don’t know how. When they do address it, they often make matters worse: They turn the not-engaged into the actively disengaged! It doesn’t occur to many leaders that something they or their organization is doing or failing to do may be the cause of the eroded commitment. Yet evidence suggests that’s often the case.

Lack of feedback, lack of recognition, lack of clear performance expectations, unfair standards, broken promises, being yelled at or blamed, and being overworked and stressed out are just a few reasons people lose their motivation and commitment.

So how do you, an enlightened leader, deal with a decommitted direct report without making matters worse? The most effective way is to catch decommitment early—the first time you see it—before it gets out of control and festers. Then take the following steps to get back on track.

Step 1: Prepare Before You Meet

Before meeting with your direct report, clarify the specific performance or behavior that you want to discuss. Do not attempt to address multiple issues at once. Gather all the facts that support the existence of the decommitment. If it’s a performance issue, quantify the decline in performance. If it’s a behavior issue, limit your observations to what you have seen. Don’t make assumptions or bring in the perceptions of others—these are sure ways to generate defensiveness.

Now identify anything you or the organization might have done to contribute to the decommitment. Have you ever talked to the person about their performance or behavior? Have you made performance expectations clear? Does the person know what a good job looks like? Have you been using the right leadership style? Is the person being rewarded for inappropriate performance or behavior? (Poor behavior in organizations is often rewarded—that is, nobody says anything.) Is the person being punished for good performance or behavior? (People often are punished for good behavior—that is, they do well and someone else gets the credit.) Do policies support the desired performance? For example, is training or time made available to learn needed skills?

Once you have done a thorough job of preparing, you’re ready for Step 2.

Step 2: Schedule a Meeting, State the Meeting’s Purpose, and Set Ground Rules

Scheduling a meeting is vital. It’s important to begin the meeting by stating the meeting’s purpose and setting ground rules to ensure that both of you will be heard in a way that doesn’t arouse defensiveness. For example, you might open the meeting with something like this:

“I want to talk about what I see as a serious issue with your responsiveness to information inquiries. I’d like to set some ground rules about how our discussion proceeds, so that we can both fully share our perspectives. By working together to identify and agree on the issue and its causes, we can set a goal and develop an action plan to resolve it.

“First, I’d like to share my perceptions of the issue—what I’m noticing and what I think may have caused it. I want you to listen but not to respond to what I say, except to ask questions for clarification. Then I want you to restate what I said, so that I know you understand my perspective. When I’m finished, I’d like to hear your side of the story, with the same ground rules. I’ll restate what you said until you know I understand your point of view. Does this seem like a reasonable way to get started?”

Using these ground rules, you should begin to understand each other’s point of view on the issue. Making sure that both of you have been heard is a wonderful way to reduce defensiveness and move toward resolution.

Once you have set ground rules for your meeting, you are ready for Step 3.

Step 3: Work Toward Mutual Agreement and Commit to a Plan

The next step is to identify where there is agreement and disagreement on both the issue and its causes. Your job is to see if enough of a mutual understanding can be reached so that mutual problem solving can go forward. Both of you probably won’t agree on everything—but see if there is enough common ground to work toward a resolution. If not, revisit those things that are getting in the way, and restate your positions to see if understanding and agreement can be reached.

When you think it is possible to go forward, ask, “Are you willing to work with me to get this resolved?”

If you still can’t get a commitment to go forward, you need to use a directing leadership style. Set clear performance expectations and a time frame for achieving them; set clear, specific performance standards and a schedule for tracking performance progress; and state consequences for nonperformance. Understand that this is a last-resort strategy that may resolve the performance issue but not the commitment issue.

When you get a commitment to work together to resolve the issue, it is normal to feel great relief and assume that the issue is resolved. Not so fast.

If you have contributed to the cause of the problem, you need to take steps to correct what has been done. But you may not be in a position to patch things up if it was the organization that created the problem. In this case, a simple acknowledgment of how your direct report has been impacted may be enough to release the negative energy and regain the person’s commitment.

Once you finally get a commitment to work together to resolve the issue, you can go to Step 4 and partner for performance.

Step 4: Partner for Performance

Now you and the direct report need to have a partnering for performance discussion in which you jointly decide the leadership style you will use to provide work direction or coaching. You should set a goal, establish an action plan, and schedule a progress-check meeting. This last step is crucial!

Resolving decommitment issues requires sophisticated interpersonal and performance management skills. Your first try at one of these conversations is not likely to be as productive as you would like. However, if you conduct the conversation in honest good faith, it will reduce the impact of less-than-perfect interpersonal skills and set the foundation for a productive relationship built on commitment and trust.

Changing Your Focus Will Change Your Energy

/ Ken Blanchard

Last week Margie and I spent a few days down in the Bahamas. During a conversation with the general manager of the hotel, we learned their buildings had sustained quite a lot of damage as a result of Hurricane Irma in 2017. His story of how the staff and management worked together to get things back to normal and how they helped each other get through that tough time was inspiring.

Right now they are in another tough situation—they have learned the hotel may be sold but they know nothing about the buyers or whether their jobs will still be there. Once more they’re all facing the unknown together. Margie suggested to the manager that I could hold a session for them all the next day and the manager enthusiastically agreed.

When I was getting myself ready to speak to the hotel staff, I thought about how it might be uplifting for them to have an outsider—someone who isn’t emotionally involved—come in and give them a little boost with some humor and encouragement. So, I started off with an exercise I learned from Tony Robbins that our trainers sometimes use as an ice breaker.

I had everyone in the room stand up. I said, “I want you to walk around and greet as many people as possible as if you were looking for somebody much more important to talk to.” I gave them all a minute or two. The sound in the room was a low rumble of mostly quiet voices. Then I got their attention and said, “Now I want you to go around and greet as many people as possible as if they were a long-term friend that you were excited to see.” The energy level in the room suddenly shot up and the sound was deafening! The mood had instantly shifted from somber to exuberant.

The point is this: when the thing we are focusing on changes, our energy changes. We can sit around and worry about a bad situation that might (or might not) get worse—or we can focus on what we can accomplish when we work together toward the same goal. I pointed out to this group that they had already proven they could accomplish anything, and that they can do it again. They know their strengths and they can encourage each other, empower each other, and lead each other through tough times. My message lifted their spirits.

By changing your focus from negative to positive, you can do the same. When have you changed your focus and allowed your energy to help you through a tough time? I’d love to read your response in the comments below.

Have a great week!

Make it a Summer of Learning

/ Ken Blanchard / 1 Comment

If you want to be a great leader, you must make personal growth a conscious choice and a continuous journey. In the book I wrote with Mark Miller, Great Leaders Grow, we say that growing to a leader is like oxygen to a deep sea diver: without it, you die. Not a physical death, of course—but if you stop growing, your influence will erode and, ultimately, you may lose the opportunity to lead at all.

Simply knowing how to do your job today doesn’t secure your success tomorrow. It’s important to keep up with today’s rapidly changing work environment so that you can offer new ideas to keep your organization successful in the future.  Make time to read books and articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts or audio books. Talk with peers or work with a mentor outside your normal work circle. Sign up for an online course or a workshop at your company. Join an association or a special interest group. The learning opportunities are endless—however, the time to invest in these activities is not.

Many organizations enjoy a slower pace during the summer. Or maybe you take your vacation during the summer. Either way, why not utilize some of that time and make this your summer of learning!

My wife, Margie, loves listening to audio books. She listens to business books, books that support her photography hobby, mystery novels, and a lot more. The great thing about this is she can do it sitting on a plane, riding in a car, or taking a walk—just about any time. I encourage you to do the same. Use some of your downtime to invest in your own knowledge. Take a book or article you’ve been meaning to read on that long flight or even to the beach. Listen to a podcast while you are exercising or sitting somewhere quietly enjoying the view. Get up a little earlier than usual and watch a TED talk online.

Keep in mind that your learning doesn’t have to be focused on your work. Trying new hobbies is a learning experience and exploring new interests stimulates your thinking in general. You might think of a great idea for a home improvement project while you are practicing your golf swing. And that yoga class you’ve been promising to try for the past few months might provide the relaxation and focus you need to come up with an original recipe for dinner that uses healthy ingredients your family enjoys.

Be creative and open to life’s opportunities—because when you stop learning, you stop leading!