During the past year, I have been consumed with developing a new service with and for my corporate clients involving the professional development of their executives and promising employees.

Beta testing is complete. I’m eager to fill you in and want to get your frank assessment of the offering. I’m so excited about this program that I would like to give you a free test drive of one of the components.

“Our company’s most important assets walk out the door every night.”

That is the credo of an executive and client of my corporate consulting company. He believes he will excel if he can help those that work for him excel. And he thinks that to excel they must be aware of their talents and weaknesses and build on their strengths. He asked me, his process optimization consultant, if I had done any work developing professional talent.

I shared with him my new coaching program, designed for executives and promising managers that combines the “hard” process efficiency tools training my consulting company uses with ”soft” professional self-development techniques.

Executive Coaching for Current and Future Executives:

Refining this coaching method has been my passion for the past year. Most rewarding has been seeing the results of the program – results from people who have changed their approaches, thought processes and reactions due to feedback received and increased self-insight. Ultimate outcomes of these internal changes have included promotions to new positions, finding a new job that uses the person’s strengths, and turn-arounds of failing teams.

Successful personal and professional development always starts with greater self-knowledge and self-awareness.

This month, I offer you a short article on the value of self-knowledge and self-awareness.

All the best,

Kristin Robertson

The recent problems at HP tells us that winning corporate strategies require the same foundation of self-knowledge (though we use different terminology in corporate consulting).  As you know, the giant of Silicon Valley recent went into a tailspin and fired its CEO.  Critics said HP lost its way.  It forgot what its strengths were and how to leverage them in a brutal, competitive environment.  Not to take sides in the Apple vs PC fight, but Apple seems to know and be quite comfortable with who it is.

Like corporations, if we want to succeed we need to regularly re-evaluate what we are about and gear our assets to the changing world around us.

The Psychology Behind the Theory

In Mastering Self-Leadership, Charles Manz and Christopher Neck say, “If we ever hope to be effective leaders of others, we need first to be able to lead ourselves effectively.”¹ In order to lead yourself well, you must have a high degree of both self-knowledge and self-awareness. Self-knowledge refers to the accuracy of your understanding of both your strengths and leadership limitations. Self-awareness is your ability to reflect on your thoughts, feelings and behaviors as they happen. The distinction may seem fuzzy, so we will focus on self-knowledge in this article.

A useful structure for understanding what you know and don’t know about yourself is the Johari Window, named after its creators, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It’s a great tool for mapping personal awareness:

 
The matrix shows how aspects of yourself – your personality traits, experiences, thoughts, feelings, reactions, mental models², etc – are either known or unknown to both you and others. Notice that each of the quadrants in the window has a descriptive name for that area of the self: Open Self, Blindspots, Hidden Self and Unknown Self. Each of these “windows” represents parts of you.

What You Don’t Know Can Kill You

Highway accident statistics say that there are approximately 840,000 side-to-side blind spot collisions with 300 fatalities every year in the United States.  Likewise being unaware of what you are and how you are perceived can kill your chances to advance and succeed in your career and life.

Executive coaching helps people move the things from the right, harmful side of their matrix (what they do not know about themselves), to the left side, where knowledge can become power – power to build on strengths and overcome weaknesses.

The scariest and perhaps most damaging quadrant on the right side of the matrix is aptly called Blind Spots.  It is what others see in you that you do not see in yourself.  To remove Blind Spots, executive coaching teaches clients proven methods for soliciting  feedback from others.  Using personality and personal strength assessments coaches can help the client create a context for interpreting and acting on the information they gather.  Likewise coaching helps clients examine their career and life experiences to key in on their Blind Spots.

The other problematic quadrant in the matrix is the lower right and called “Unknown Self”.  While it sounds a little spooky, this part of you that you and others do not see can in fact be a land of great opportunity.

A great football coach once said that greatness is not taught, it is revealed.  The goal of coaching in this quadrant is to reveal  and exploit strengths and potential that were previously unknown or unappreciated.  In addition to some of the tools used to attack Blind Spots, coaches often help clients select challenging assignments that take them out of their comfort zone and then interpret and leverage what they learn.

This true story illustrates Blindspots problems and how they can to be addressed:

A talented young woman had risen quickly to a management position in a company.  Her promotions were based on her great subject knowledge and hard work but her advancement suddenly stalled.  She could not understand why.  A coach was called in who prescribed a 360^O assessment.

The woman was shocked by the results; while respected for her smarts, colleagues roundly criticized her leadership skills.  The coach helped her work through the feedback and had her complete several personality indicators to reveal strengths she could be exploit to improve her performance.   Through the sometimes painful process she removed many of her Blind Spots and with her coach’s help modified her thought patterns and behaviors and revamped her approach to leadership.  Her team is back on track and she plans to do a follow-up 360 to test results.

And here’s an example of someone who decreased his Unknown Self:  This young man was afraid of flying.  He had never flown anywhere in his life.  When offered the opportunity early in his career to make a presentation in Seattle, which was 3,000 miles away, he reluctantly accepted.  He learned to manage his fear of flying and is now an enthusiastic world traveler.  No one, especially himself, could have predicted that he would grow to love traveling.  That aspect of himself, the avid world traveler, was transformed from an aspect of his Unknown Self into an area of his Open Self by saying yes to this challenging assignment.

The benefits of increased self-knowledge are many. Leaders who have deep self-knowledge operate at the highest levels of effectiveness. They understand what motivates them, they know what triggers negative emotions or reactions in themselves, and they are aware of their strengths. They act authentically in ways that align with both their values and their personality. They are wise enough to neutralize their weaknesses by admitting them and delegating to others the tasks pertaining to their weaknesses. They seek to develop themselves in ways that build on their strengths and challenge them to become the best they can be. And, because they know themselves so well, they are able to motivate others and create highly productive, happy teams.

Want some yeast in your professional development? Try self-knowledge. Enhancing your self-knowledge and awareness is one of the best ways to raise your effectiveness.

1. Charles Manz and Chris Neck, Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (5th Edition), Prentice Hall, 2009

2. Mental models are patterns of thought and reaction that are formed in childhood and youth by your life experiences. These thought patterns are strongly wired into the brain and must be examined in order to heighten self-knowledge and design new thought patterns and behaviors.

My observations support my long-held mantra:  As an executive, you deserve the “A” team.

I’m making a sports analogy, which is unusual given that I joke that all my sports knowledge is held in my husband’s brain.  Despite that, I have enough sports savvy to know that the analogy works – you need the best and the brightest managers around your table to produce superior results and to make yourself look good.  You can’t do that with “B” or “C” players. 

Again, as an executive, you deserve the “A” team.  And you must strive to get it.

Don’t be dragged down by hubris, as I once was in my career.  It is hubris is to think, “I can work with whomever is assigned to me and I can mold them into awesome players.”  Yes, you can work with players who have potential, but you can’t mold others into something they can’t do or don’t want to do.   As an executive coach, I hold the opinion that everyone can improve their game and maximize their potential, but everyone has to be in the right game for their unique talents and strengths.  The wise manager will recognize when someone is in the wrong game and find them a position better suited to their strengths.

I’ve recently run across two references that support my maxim that you deserve the “A” team.  One is from the book, The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins.  He suggests that in the first 90 days of your new leadership position, you should have a plan for who you will keep and who you will manage out.  By the end of 6 months, you should be actively working that plan; otherwise, they are considered “your” people and their performance will be equated to your performance. 

The other is an interview of Caryl M. Stern, president and chief executive of the U.S. Fund for Unicef, conducted  by Adam Bryant of the New York Times.  Ms. Stern tells the story of how, in the first several months of her new position at Unicef, she interviewed each of her senior staff members, asking them for a list of “your brightest and your best” employees.  She challenged each manager to, within a year, have a staff of only the brightest and best because that is the path to achieving the organization’s lofty goals.  In addition, she wanted the agency to to be an employer of choice that attracts the best new hires.

My challenge to you is: Do you have the “A” team? If yes, you are to be congratulated.  If not, how can you get the team you deserve?

Understanding this is essential to delivering world-class customer service. You can learn a gazillion techniques to deliver excellent service, but if you perform them with an air of negativity, boredom or a lack of caring, the attitude is communicated most strongly and the techniques are ineffective. Your customers will perceive you as phony or fake as you go through the motions of providing great service by rote.

Developing a positive attitude affects other aspects of your life. When you are optimistic, good things tend to happen to you. The creative power of your mind draws similar experiences to you – positive draws positive, negative draws negative. When you focus on the negative, you notice unpleasant things. You interpret events with a pessimistic twist.

Choosing a positive outlook has the opposite effect – you begin to notice the pleasantries of the day and view events with optimism and hope. Your attitude determines whether you will have a happy or a miserable day.

What really is a positive attitude? Like many things, you know it when you see it. It is an optimistic outlook on life. It is an appreciative approach to your co-workers and clients. It is being grateful for the present moment. It is feeling like life is full of promise and there are good people everywhere.

Some people are innately positive and they don’t need to work at it. They just skip through life with a smile on their face, knowing that the glass is always half full. Other people are not naturally so cheerful and need reminders to choose a positive attitude. The best way to develop a positive attitude is to create structures or habits that support optimism.

The morning is a good time for most people to practice a positive attitude habit. You might consider any of the following suggestions to set your intention for a positive attitude that lingers the whole day:

1. Take some quiet time in the morning to read, meditate, pray, write in a journal, ponder life over a cup of coffee or sit outside for a few minutes. Some people find reading poetry, spiritual writings or a self-help book puts them in a positive frame of mind for the rest of the day.
2. Sing along with the music on the car radio on your way to work. Sing only happy tunes.
3. As you walk into the office, remember all the things you appreciate about your customers, your co-workers, your boss and your company.
4. Count your blessings on the way to work. Make it a habit to acknowledge new things everyday – not just the same old refrain of “I’m grateful for my spouse, my kids, my car, my home, etc.” In looking for something new to appreciate, you will be forced to notice the small moments in daily life that are truly gifts of happiness. Examples of small gifts of happiness include the smile you get from the barista at Starbucks, the kind email you receive from a co-worker, the compliment on your presentation you get from your boss, the appreciation your clients give you when you solve a problem for them, the wisdom that comes from a young child.

During the day, you can practice these suggestions to maintain your positive attitude:

1. Remember to smile often, even when you are grumpy. Smiling tricks the body into thinking that it is happy and counter-acts the fight-or-flight reaction that you have when you are stressed. Try it – it’s amazingly effective. If you talk to customers on the phone, get into a habit of smiling before answering the telephone. Your smile is heard in your voice and sets the tone for the entire conversation.
2. Take breaks in your day to practice self care: Take a walk outside, eat your lunch away from your desk, remember to take a deep breathe when stressed. Meditate, pray, or do yoga in a quiet corner (sometimes the restroom is the only private place I can find in a busy day at the office). Dr. Herbert Benson, in the “Relaxation Response” calls these moments “mini-relaxation responses” or just mini’s – short moments when you relax by breathing deeply and meditatively calm your mind.
3. Focus on your heart. Your heart is a stronger oscillating power than your brain, as measured by each organ’s electromagnetic force. When you entrain your brain waves and heart waves to oscillate together, you reduce your stress and enhance your decision-making capacities. Focusing on your heart will draw your over-tired brain into coherence with your heart and enable you to renew your positive attitude. Focus on your heart by putting your hand on your heart, listening to your heartbeat and imagine that you are breathing from that space. Think of something that invokes an appreciative feeling for you, such as your pet, someone who loves you unconditionally (people often think of grandparents) or just sitting in nature.

These practices help you achieve and maintain a positive approach to life. In following these suggestions, you will find your day goes smoother and your relations are more harmonious, both at the office and at home.

You can choose your reaction to whatever experience you have, and in that lies the secret to happiness. Your attitude affects everything you do, say and experience – with special emphasis on everything!

This summer, I am on a speaking tour for a large corporation’s US regional conferences to present the topic of using emotional intelligence to deliver world-class service. One of the topics in my presentation is the power of a positive attitude. Think of some of the customer service interactions you’ve experienced lately – you can always tell if the service provider has a loving, caring attitude toward you, can’t you?

I hope you enjoy this month’s featured article on how to sustain a positive attitude and its benefits to you, your clients, coworkers, families and friends.

All the best,
Kristin

“I think that mental rehearsal is every bit as important as physical rehearsal,” he said. He explained that as he was in the hospital at his wife’s side, he would take time during quiet moments to rehearse his shots – to visualize perfect shots in his mind’s eye. Not only did he come back strongly, but only nine months later, he won the Masters.

It is well-known that many top sports competitors use the power of visualization and mental rehearsal to master their game. How can you use that technique in business?

Mental rehearsal is a wonderful technique to enhance your emotional intelligence or EQ. Visualizing an appropriate response to a common business situation helps you practice a new skill in the safest possible setting – your mind.

Here’s why a mental rehearsal works so well. The human brain cannot differentiate between what it imagines and what is actually happening. That explains why you get a lump in your throat when you remember a tragic situation in your past, or how you can increase your blood pressure by just thinking about a colleague who has cheated or lied to you. It is your memory of an incident – or perhaps your anticipation of an incident – that elicits the physical and emotional response in your body. Your mind and body react the same, whether the situation is remembered, imagined or real.

So how can you harness the power of your brain to help you learn new ways to react to situations that in the past would evoke an ineffective response?

As an executive coach, I suggest the following steps to my clients to mentally rehearse a new emotional skill:

1. Think of a recent event in which your response to a situation wasn’t appropriate or optimal. For example, your boss may have criticized your work last week and your response was an angry remark. Or in a meeting you got defensive when a colleague criticized your idea. List as many trigger situations you can think of. Then identify how your body registered a warning signal. It might have been your heart pounding, or sweaty palms. These physical feelings can help you recognize when you are similarly triggered in the future. You might complete a grid that looks like this:

2. Next, visualize pulling down a blank white movie screen in front of your mind’s eye, and playing a movie in which you are the star. The movie is of one scenario from the list you just made – perhaps of the boss criticizing your work. Unlike a movie, you have the power to invoke all your senses:

What does the situation look like, feel like, smell like, taste like and sound like? Imagine, in the greatest detail, what you can do in the future to select a more effective response.

What do you do with your body, say with your words, inflect with your tone of voice?

• Note: A good rule of thumb is to imagine taking a deep breath and smiling before responding. The deep breath oxygenates the brain and gives you a momentary relief of the flight or fight response that you experience. Smiling interrupts your involuntary emotional reaction by tricking the body into thinking it is happy.
• If you are in a private place, you can add to your mental rehearsal by physically taking a deep breath, smiling, and saying the words that you select as a better response.

3. It’s like washing your hair: Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat this exercise at your next opportunity: in the car commuting, in the shower or during a quiet moment. The more you rehearse in your mind, the better the outcome.

Will this technique guarantee immediate perfection in your responses and behavior? Of course not, but combined with experience and feedback from a trusted friend or colleague, this approach will help you become adept over time in responding more maturely to situations that, in the past, would have given you trouble. Did Phil Mickelson expect miracles from just mental rehearsal? No, he said that mental rehearsal is “every bit as important as physical rehearsal.”

In other words, mental rehearsal is not a substitute for actual training and playing the game of golf. The same can be observed in business – there is no substitute for experience and the school of hard knocks when it comes to improving your emotional response to situations. However, over time, you can improve your emotional responses just like Mickelson did his golf game. You, too, can win the equivalent of a Masters Tournament in your career with the help of mental rehearsals.

That’s the power I am describing in this month’s featured article about mental rehearsals. I hope you enjoy it and are able to put it to use in your daily life.

All the best,
Kristin

If you know others who are interested in incorporating values such as integrity, respect, courage, compassion, forgiveness and creativity in the workplace, please forward this newsletter to them.

Companies that are values-driven (those that live by their higher-level values) have more engaged workers, higher productivity, increased creativity and greater longevity than companies that are not concerned with values. Who does not want to proclaim that honesty, respect, integrity, excellence and customer service, for example, are the core values of their company? Put them on your website, make posters to hang in the cafeteria, even print the core values on mouse pads and provide them to all your employees.

That should do it, and then you can forget about corporate values, right?

No, you can not forget about corporate values. Not even for one day. It is when the chips are down – such as in a recession – that all eyes are on the leadership of the company to see if their behavior upholds the core values.

How can you, as a leader, walk the talk of your organizational values? Here are five ways to ensure that your core values are not only espoused, but embedded in the culture of your organization.

1. Define behaviors that exemplify each core value
If actions speak louder than words, why not proactively identify the actions that will enliven each core value? Some companies do this by identifying specific behaviors and actions that correspond to each value. For example, actions that uphold a core value of customer service might be:

• Choose specific individual actions or department decisions that positively impact the customer
• Respond quickly to customer’s needs
• Partner with other departments in the company to create customer-centric processes and services

Some organizations ask each department to define the behaviors and actions that exemplify each of the core values. Once created, they are presented to upper management or a cross-functional Culture Committee for approval and buy-in. This way, all the organizational functions have proactively defined the behaviors necessary to live in alignment with the stated values. It is like rehearsing a scene from a play – you have practiced your lines and your gestures ahead of time so you are ready to perform when the curtain rises. In this case, the performance is daily organizational life.

2. Hire for values
In many instances that I have observed, a newly hired or newly promoted manager fails not because of incompetence but because of a personal misalignment with prevailing company values. Losing a highly-compensated worker is expensive to the company and is obviously hard on the employee. At all levels of the company, it is important to hire with an eye towards values alignment. Jim Collins, in his book entitled Good to Great, calls this “getting the right people on the bus.”

To assess values alignment of job applicants, choose the core values and their defined behaviors that correspond most closely with the position’s requirements. Then devise behaviorally-based interview questions that explore the candidate’s past actions regarding that value. Rate each candidate on those criteria. For example, if one of your core values is Customer Service and a pre-defined behavior for that value is to choose actions that positively impact the customer, ask candidates to share a story about a time that they chose an action or made a decision that impacted a customer. Listen intently to the stories the candidates tell you – did their actions positively impact the customer? Did they have a hard time thinking of a story? Listen to their past experiences to learn what their personal core values might be. Try to envision them operating effectively in your environment.

Before offering a candidate a job, review the core values of the organization and ask them to think about whether they can uphold them or not. The more you talk about your values, the more alive they become. Talking about values with a potential new hire is not too early – in fact, it may make the candidate more eager to accept your job.

3. Tell stories to bring values to life
Leaders of an organization should be storytellers. Stories are a powerful way to communicate cultural norms. To tell a compelling story, leaders should be continually on the look-out for examples of their people doing something right and acting in alignment with the corporate values. Then, tell those stories whenever possible – in the company newsletter, in meetings, in informal conversation.

At a recent all-hands meeting, I observed an executive tell a story about great customer service (a corporate value) provided by an individual within the department. The technician was escorted to a major metropolitan airport by the state police – to fix a problem with the company’s software installed at the airport. Then the executive awarded the technician a prize. The technician exemplified the behaviors associated with great customer service, and the story is now enshrined in the collective memory of that group. The group clearly understands the behaviors that this executive expects and rewards within the group. They also understand how each individual can uphold the corporate values.

4. Model correct decision-making behavior using values as litmus test for action:
The leader casts a long shadow. That means that leaders have a disproportional influence on the behaviors of the group, setting the pace for the entire group. Effective leaders will consciously make decisions according to the corporate values, even when times are tough. Nothing will demoralize a workforce faster than decisions that are contrary to the espoused values of the corporation. Case in point: In the ninth week of the quarter, the CEO sees that sales are lagging for the quarter. Will the CEO exhort the sales force to “Do whatever it takes to get the sale!” or will she return to corporate values and encourage the sales force to see the big picture and sell according to the values of the company? When the chips are down, it is the leader’s actions that will make or break the corporate culture.

5. Evaluate and reward employees according to corporate values
Do both your performance evaluation system and compensation structure align with the values of your organization? If they do not, you cannot expect to lead a values-driven organization. For example, if you say that you value work/life balance, but your professional service consultant s bonus payment kicks in only after they bill an unreasonable number of days per month, you are motivating behavior that is out of alignment with your stated values. Instruct your HR people to create compensation structures that motivate values-driven behavior. Give them a copy of the values statements and the defined behaviors and request updated compensation programs.

In addition, make sure that your performance evaluation process enhances values-driven behavior. Include the core values on the performance evaluation form and have each manager rate their employees on their ability to perform accordingly.

Many companies use 360o feedback instruments to help their executives improve their performance. These assessments seek input from the executives’ direct reports, peers and boss (hence the 360o title). Instead of using boilerplate feedback questions, customize the questionnaires to include values-based questions that determine how closely the leaders’ actions track with corporate values. In all our executive coaching programs, Brio Leadership uses an interview-based 360o feedback instrument that can be customized to reflect corporate values. These interviews produce highly actionable data that leaders can use to improve their performance.

Walk the talk – make sure your corporate values are embedded in the culture of your organization. The result will be evident in the engagement, loyalty and productivity or your workforce.

Brio Leadership offers a Cultural Values Assessment that measures the operational and desired values in the organization. This assessment illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and can be a catalyst for positive change. For more information, contact us at 817-577-7030.

As I coach and mentor job seekers and corporate executives, I realize again the power of thoughts and intentions. It is true that what you think about, comes about! I hope you enjoy this month’s interview with a successful job seeker.

If you know others who are interested in incorporating values such as integrity, respect, courage, compassion, forgiveness and creativity in the workplace, please share this website with them!