“If you do not manage culture,” said Edgar Schein, MIT Sloan School of Management professor, ” it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening.” Culture has a significant impact on a company’s long-term economic well-being: research has shown that it can account for nearly a third of financial performance. This is too high an impact to ignore.
An encrusted culture can sometimes impede a company’s adaptability and prevent it from changing course in order to capitalize on new opportunities or changes in the market place. When asked why a small start-up could build Instagram while Kodak, which now filed for bankruptcy protection could not, Kodak board member Michael Hawley said: “Cultural patterns are pretty hard to escape once you get sucked into them.”
What type of culture is right for the operational climate in your company? Let’s look at how many cultures there are. The Competing Values Framework, considered one of the fifty most important models in business, identified four types of organizational culture: hierarchy (or controlling;) market (or competitive;) adhocracy (or creative;) and clan (or collaborative.)
Hierarchy (“Do things right.”)
The hierarchy culture is concerned with stability, predictability, and efficiency. Clear lines of decision-making authority, standardized rules and procedures, and control are the way things are done here. This is an ideal culture if you are in a business where uniformity of products is expected and where the staff may be predominantly young with limited work experience. An example would be a fast-food restaurant.
Adhocracy (“Do things first.”)
Is innovation a major part of your company strategy? Are you running a company where having unique products and services is paramount, e.g. a software development company, or a consulting practice? Then an adhocracy (or creative) culture is essential. This is a place where you need to allow people to safely stick their necks out and take risks, where experimentation is encouraged and mistakes are not punished.
Market (“Do things fast.”)
Is your predominant goal to earn profits through market competition? This is a sales-driven, competitive culture that needs to focus on producing maximum value for the customer—where the customer needs to come first. Does your vision and mission stress this? Do your employees fully understand the challenges and needs of your customers? Do you have programs in place to reward employee behaviors that are aligned with putting the customer first?
Clan (“Do things together.”)
The clan culture stresses shared values, loyalty and high commitment. Teamwork, participation and consensus are of paramount importance. Every company benefits from promoting a collaborative spirit. The days of the lone genius are gone. As Shawn Callaghan states in Building a Collaborative Workplace, “Innovation demands collaboration. So does production. . . Today, we all need to be collaboration superstars.” This includes collaboration amongst teams, the community and networks.
Here are a few tips to help you as you grapple with culture issues:
All of the four culture styles are positive and there is no good or bad. In Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture Based On the Competing Framework, Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn explain that “each organization must determine for itself the degree of cultural strength required to be successful in its environment.” Some companies may require a more balanced culture rather than aiming for a dominant culture. If your goal is to drive innovation, for example, you may need a hybrid of all four cultures, as shown in Jeff DeGraff’s: The Competing Values Framework video.
The key to using culture to enhance your company’s performance lies in matching desired attributes to organizational goals.
Clarify what cultural change needs to take place.
If you determine that the culture needs to change, clarify for everyone involved what characteristics should dominate the new culture. What attributes need to be abandoned? Clarity is your ally.
Keep an open mind.
Regardless of what culture is the desired one, guard against being rigid. Consider that company culture, no matter how hard you try to change it, is rarely homogenous. Different subcultures manifest themselves and evolve over time. Edgar Schein notes that this is not necessarily dysfunctional, “rather it allows the company to perform effectively in different environments based on function, product, market, location etc.”
Encourage intelligent disobedience.
Even if your preferred culture is hierarchal, encourage your people to practice intelligent disobedience. Intelligent disobedience is about allowing people to use their judgment to decide when, for example, an established company rule actually hinders the organization, rather than helps it. The people closest to the customer are most often the ones who know what is best for the customer. If Delta Airlines had a culture that encouraged intelligent disobedience, for example, it would have avoided the unfortunate incident where returning troops were charged a $2,800 baggage fee. More on intelligent disobedience here.
Culture is everything. But changing cultures is not an easy undertaking. In Peter Drucker’s words, “company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.” Perhaps the smartest thing to do when working with culture is to ask yourself: What needs to be preserved? As experts recommend, don’t abandon core aspects of what makes your company unique, while some aspects need to be transformed. Tempering zeal with caution is a wise move.
Concern with etiquette may appear to be a preoccupation with the trivial: knowing which eating utensil to use or mastering the correct way to hold chopsticks. Instead, etiquette is about developing a sensitive awareness of those around us and being cognizant of the effect that our behaviors have on others. As Emily Post once said: “Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It’s ethics. It’s honor.”
In today’s harried, fast-paced world, it is easy to think that we can ignore the small niceties in our every day encounters. However, it is especially because we live fast-paced, charged lives, that we need to be mindful of issues of etiquette. Ignoring conventional rules of civility can have a negative impact on our workplace relationships. Here are a few tips to help you in this regard:
Develop executive presence.
Executive presence is often misconstrued as having a commanding appearance and dominating a room. True executive presence entails an awareness of how others feel about themselves when they are in your presence. It’s moving away from a focus on the self to a focus on the other—from wanting attention to paying attention. It’s business etiquette at its best.
Treat everyone with the same courtesy.
In our hierarchal mindset, we sometimes unwittingly end up having two sets of manners: one for those who occupy a top rung on the corporate ladder and another one for those who toil at the bottom of the ladder. Consider that when your people see you “putting on the Ritz” for the higher-ups that you want to impress while you treat your workers as inferiors, you put a big dent in your credibility. As Benjamin Franklin once said: ” “To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.” Don’t have two sets of standards. Show civility and courtesy in all situations.
Don’t drag your feet when others need your input.
There is a French proverb which says: “People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.” Nowhere is this more applicable than when someone is waiting for your input before they can complete their own work. No matter how busy you are, work on developing your empathy of others’ needs, even if this means simply sending them a quick note to let them know that you have not forgotten about them. It’s a sign of caring and caring is never outdated no matter how fast-paced and harried our world is becoming.
Show up at company events.
As much as you might dislike organized frivolity, keep in mind that a great deal of consideration goes into planning company events such as the annual picnic or office Christmas party. Not attending these events on a regular basis signals to others that you don’t care. Office social gatherings are opportunities to mingle with colleagues in other areas and are intended to create an esprit de corps. Show solidarity with your company by graciously attending.
Respect the dress code.
Every company has its own unwritten code of what constitutes appropriate dress. While defying this may seem to us like a small act of independence, it is also a quick way to attract negative attention. As Guy Kawasaki states in Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions: “Under-dressing says, “I don’t respect you. I’ll dress any way that I please.”
Practice digital empathy.
Sending very large attachments by email may clog the recipients’ system and slow down their ability to send and receive emails. We can spare others this irritation by using a web-based file hosting service such as Dropbox or an online file sharing service such as Yousendit. Additional ideas on how to avoid email faux pas can be found in Seth Godin’s blog: How to send a personal email.
Be thoughtful with your telephone communication.
Consider that when you use your cell phone on a noisy street or while driving through tunnels, you may be showing disregard for the person who has to struggle to hear you amidst the background noises. There is a humorous episode from Seinfeld, showcasing this behavior. Many truths are said in comedic episodes.
The rules of behavior change as society changes, but one thing that doesn’t change is our need to feel respected. Observing business etiquette is a subtle signal to others that we respect them. No matter how busy our lives are, there is time for civility. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it best: “Life be not so short but there is always time for courtesy.”
One of the most common reasons we experience presentation anxiety is the fear that we will forget what we have to say and, therefore, risk losing credibility. And the remedy that many adopt to address this fear is to create PowerPoint slides as a memory aid. This is short-sighted because nothing erodes your credibility as a speaker faster than signaling to the audience that you are dependent on your slides.
Seasoned presenters are able to announce a slide before showing it. At a minimum, they know their material so well that all they need to do is just briefly glance at the slide to know what’s coming next. You can achieve this by learning to use some simple memory boosting practices to better remember your presentation material and, in so doing, reduce your anxiety.
Here are nine tips to help you remember what you have to say:
Use the Palace Method
Research into brain science has now proven that there is a very deep connection between the way we remember an event and the space in which it occurred. The brain system that is important for memory is also important for space; in other words, we remember things on the basis of spatial locations or “spatial scaffolds.” This is an ancient memory technique, commonly referred to as The Palace Method or Mind Palace. To learn how to use the method, watch Joshua Foer’s video: “To Remember Better, Build a Mansion in Your Mind or read the author’s book, Moonlighting with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
Use Mind Maps
Mind maps are diagrams that allow you to lay out all of your presentation material in a visual shape rather than in list form. This can be a powerful memory aid as the visual shape or image is imprinted in your brain and makes it easier to recall the information than a linear list of items, especially if you are a visual learner. Try practicing your presentation from a mind map rather than from traditional notes and see what happens.
You can draw mind maps manually or you can purchase mind mapping software such as Matchware or MindGenius.
Know the value of focusing for 8 seconds
Memory experts tell us that it takes an uninterrupted eight seconds for a piece of information to be processed through the hippocampus and into memory—this is how information is encoded in our brain. Examine how you go about preparing for a presentation. Are you concentrating fully on the task of transferring the information from your notes into memory? Or are you in the habit of interrupting yourself by checking email, reacting to each Blackberry ring or answering the phone? Remember the crucial 8 seconds ruleand carve out dedicated time when you can be laser-focused on rehearing the information without any interruptions. You will not only know your material better but you will also shorten your preparation time considerably.
Practice the 20-20-20 rule of rehearsal
How long should you be rehearsing your presentation? Memory experts recommend the 20-20-20 rule which prescribes going over the details of a presentation for 20 minutes, then repeating the same material twice more. If material is not repeated within 30 minutes, it is not encoded into long-term memory.
Rehearse out loud
Researchers have found that memory improved by more than 10% for words spoken out loud. Rehearse your entire presentation out loud for no less than 5 to 6 times. Do this and watch your confidence in the material grow as you not only boost your memory of the material but you end up turning the presentation from a mere recital of facts to something that you have truly internalized—it changes the presentation from a thespian activity to a message that you deliver from the inside out.
Practice to music
Music is an effective tool to help us retain information. Dr. Georgi Lozanov, a psychologist, developed a methodology for teaching foreign languages which involved using baroque music with about sixty beats per minute. This type of music activates the left and right brain; the simultaneous action of both hemispheres maximizes the retention of information. Students not only learned in a fraction of the normal time, but they had an average of 92 percent retention. The same applies to retaining your presentation material. Consider listening to music while rehearsing your presentation, to help you absorb and retain large amounts of information.
Record your presentation
A simple, yet surprisingly not widely-known, feature in PowerPoint is the record narration function. This allows you to record yourself delivering your presentation and then playing it back. Hearing yourself narrating your presentation from slide to slide will boost your ability to remember your material, as you are now using a visual and auditory memory aid. If you are unfamiliar with this feature, see the step-by-step video “How to Record a Narration for a PowerPoint Presentation for Dummies.”
Rehearse before bedtime
Neuroscientists have uncovered a link between sleep and learning and memory. Sleep enhances the consolidation of recently-acquired information in our memory system. So, if you rehearse your presentation just before bedtime, you are more likely to remember the material more easily in the morning. Try doing this for your next presentation.
Improve your working memory
Working memory, also referred to as our “mental chalkboard” is a system in our brain that allows us to temporarily retain and manipulate information necessary for complex tasks such as language comprehension, reasoning and learning new things. Improving our working memory can be helpful in controlling our ability to pay attention and remember things. In a Psychology Today article, William Klemm, Professor of Neuroscience at Texas A&M University, writes that research now shows that working memory can be strengthened by training. He refers to Cogmed, a new computer software program, which has been found helpful in improving working memory through a series of daily exercises. More on Cogmed’s method can be seen in this video.
Keep in mind that only you know the ideas that you intend to present. If you forget a part, simply move on and the audience is not likely to even notice. You are not delivering an opera where the audience has a libretto to follow your script. If you remember something later, simply say so: “There is one other item I would like to add,” or “Let me digress for a moment to mention another point.” As the 19th century public orator, Henry Ward Hughes said long ago, “Worry is rust upon the blade.” Stay sharp by replacing the time used for worry with time spent to acquire some of these memory improvement tools.
There is a growing body of research on the link between likability and authenticity and trustworthiness. Even expert witnesses, providing court testimony, are viewed as more credible if — in addition to appearing trustworthy, knowledgeable, and confident — they are also likable. The same applies to a presenter who seeks to establish credibility in the eyes of the audience. Likability, coupled with authenticity, is one of the cornerstones of credibility as a speaker.
During presentations, we often unwittingly behave in ways that make us unlikable. Some presenters subtly manifest annoyance if someone asks an adversarial question; others slip into veiled sarcasm with an audience member they may not like; a few may inadvertently seem to ridicule someone who makes what they consider to be a vacuous point. Those on the receiving end perceive these emotional signals we are transmitting even if they are subtle. The messages clearly announce to the audience members involved that we don’t like them and they become receptors of our negativity towards them.
A presenter who is emotionally intelligent learns to control this emotional leakage. While this is the decent thing to do, it is also a smart thing to do: In an interview on Management Consulting News, Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice, states that “People can tell when you like them. And everything changes in the hands of somebody who likes me. Maybe I believe an insurance agent or a stockbroker is a real expert. Well, expertise may not be enough. I want an expert who likes me and then I’ve got both sides covered.” We are more likely to protect the interests of those we like, which boosts our trustworthiness and credibility.
As a presenter, then, being likable is as important as being knowledgeable about your topic. Keep in mind the 15/85 percent rule of presentations: 15 percent of your presentation’s success is based on your formal education, background, and knowledge. The other 85 percent is based on who you are rather than what you know. As Keld Widinberg Jensen (nominated best speaker in Scandinavia) put it: “The main reason you will be successful is whether people will trust you and believe in you…whether they will find you credible and likable.”
How can you boost your likability as a presenter? Here are 12 pointers:
Respect the listeners’ intelligence by not lecturing to them.
Use “we” or “us” when referring to groups.
Show genuine friendliness to the audience. The simplest way to do this is to smile and to use people’s names.
Disclose some personal information. This makes you approachable and more familiar and natural to the audience.
Be confident without being arrogant. A little humility is attractive and makes us likable.
Allow people to save face, that is, to maintain their dignity. Even if you don’t agree with an audience member, don’t use defiant contradiction.
Be authentic. If you don’t know something, admit it. Readily acknowledge a potential error or an uncertainty.
Practice small courtesies such as thanking an audience member for asking a question or making an observation.
Use a conversational tone and less technical jargon.
Don’t take up all the oxygen in the room. Listen attentively and give audience contributors their moment — turn the limelight on them.
Take a likeability test to discover the positive and negative feelings that you produce in others. Self-awareness precedes self-management.
Observe someone you consider likeable and try to dissect what makes them likeable, whether online or in person.
In the words of Roger Ailes, president of Fox News Channel, “If you could master one element of personal communications that is more powerful than anything… it is the quality of being likable…. If your audience likes you, they’ll forgive just about everything else you do wrong.”
There is a large body of work concerning the way women’s communication style differs from that of men. For example, there is research suggesting that females downplay their certainty, while males downplay their doubts. In an effort to crack the female linguistic code, some have even gone so far as to assert that women and men speak different languages. But stereotyping the way women or men speak is dangerous and can be misleading.
A more reliable way of looking at the issue of communication styles is to look at it from the point of view of personality which is independent of gender. Some individuals have a more personal or trusting approach while others have a more impersonal and skeptical approach to communication. Within the framework of a personality assessment such as the Myers-Briggs, these different types are labeled as Feelers and Thinkers.
If you are not sure whether you are predominantly a Feeling or Thinking type, you can take a quick quiz here. Thinkers place more weight on objective principles and analysis when making decisions while Feelers are more influenced by a concern for harmony and impact on the people involved. Thinkers are more questioning and critical, while Feelers are more accommodating and accepting of others.
If we are influenced by stereotypes, we might conclude that the majority of males are overwhelmingly Thinkers while statistics indicate that a whopping 43.5 % of males in the U.S. are Feelers. As for females, statistics show that approximately 25% have thinking preferences, i.e. are firm, tough-minded, ends-oriented as opposed to those with feeling preferences who are gentle, tender-hearted, and means-oriented.
With this in mind, here are recommendations for improving communication with both types, regardless of gender:
Tips for Thinkers:
Work on being more approachable.
Consider that your style may be intimidating to some team members. Intimidation is not your ally. Work on making others feel safe in your presence. They will be more likely to share their insights with you and support you.
Listen without judgment.
If you habitually use an evaluation approach when you listen, i.e. you judge and then either agree or disagree, consider listening without judgment at first. This requires a great deal of discipline but suspending judgment and giving the other person the space to be heard is a prized skill that will instantly improve your interactions with others. As Steven Covey has said: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Use discretion when questioning others.
Know when questioning others’ insights and contributions adds value to the discussion and when it is gratuitous and the result of force of habit. For example, at your next meeting, ask yourself if your questioning approach is to genuinely look at the bigger picture or if it is sub-consciously intended to show how smart you are. If it is the latter, temper your zeal with discretion.
Tips for Feelers:
Don’t avoid difficult conversations.
Most of us have at least one conversation that we are avoiding—a conversation that the longer we put off, the worse the situation becomes. Develop the courage to face these difficult people issues. You do this by acquiring a few conflict resolution tools to help you become more comfortable with adversity. A primer for learning how to conduct these high-stakes conversations is Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. Courage is a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger we become.
Wait for others to ask for advice before proffering it.
In your desire to help, do you have a tendency to rush in to give advice, to solve others’ problems for them? Establish clear boundaries of what is your problem to fix and what is others’ concern. Offer advice, if you are asked, but refrain from being everyone’s savior. Consider how being consumed by others derails you from focusing on what matters.
Improve your decision-making process.
Balance your strong concern for the people issues with a concern for the bottom line. Set up priorities and develop a more analytic approach when making decisions. Take this test to find out how good your decision-making style skill is. If you need help in this area, consider examining the 40+ decision-making techniques at Mindtools to increase your ability to make more impartial decisions.
It helps to understand that there is no good or bad when it comes to Feelers or Thinkers—both approaches are necessary aspects of healthy communication. But each type also carries liabilities, especially when done to excess. Winston Churchill once said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Both Feelers and Thinkers could benefit from this advice.
When we think of diversity, most of us first think of race, ethnicity, gender and age. We think of the legendary Louis Armstrong’s lyrics from his song, “What a Wonderful World,” that allude to the notion: “The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by.” Yet, diversity in organizations is a much broader spectrum than that. It encompasses diversity in passions, talents, personality, motivations and experience, to name a few.
But diversity is not about focusing on how we differ—as author Ola Joseph puts it, it is about “embracing one another’s uniqueness.” Leaders who recognize and celebrate the uniqueness of their people help their teams perform better. Harnessing the richness of diversity can lead to better problem-solving and decision-making and increased creativity and innovation.
Here are some inspirations to help you raise your diversity awareness so that you can capitalize on its value.
Optimize the innovativeness of team members. There is ample research to show that the most innovative teams are composed of varied individuals with different styles, approaches or skill sets. In The Ten Faces of Innovation, author Tom Kelley, who is also the general manager of the design company IDEO, describes the 10 personas that are crucial for establishing a culture of innovation. These include, for example, The Cross-Pollinator, who has the ability to draw associations and connections between seemingly unrelated concepts to break new ground, or The Hurdler, whose skills lie in being a tireless problem-solver who enjoys tackling something that’s never been done before. Here’s a brief introduction of the Ten Faces. If you want to fuel innovation, make sure that each of these 10 personas has a place on your team.
If you need help assessing the various innovation approaches of your team members, consider introducing the Innovation Styles Assessment, which recognizes four unique innovation styles like, for example, visioning (envisioning the ideal future) and experimenting (combining and testing).
Be a talent hunter. Imagine having a reputation for being a talent hunter, for being known as the type of leader who walks into a room and looks for what’s right with people. Extensive research has proven that focusing on enhancing people’s talents rather than eliminating their weaknesses is the most direct route to individual and organizational improvements. A primer for this is Marcus Buckingham’s and Donald O. Clifton’s book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, which helps readers identify their talents and build on their strengths as a way to boost performance. Talents are defined as people’s naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied. The book also provides access to StrengthsFinder, a Web-based assessment that helps you identify the five most powerful signature themes, or talents, for you and your team.
When we shackle people with labels of what they are not good at, we diminish their confidence in their ability to succeed. Resolve to view your people as a reservoir of talent rather than a problem to be fixed. As Peter F. Drucker once said: “Nobody ever commented, for example, that the great violinist Jascha Heifetz probably couldn’t play the trumpet very well.”
Help people live their passions. Passions are pursuits that fully engage our hearts and minds; they fuel us, and they are different for each person. A company that understands the importance of supporting their employees’ individual passions is Amex Bank of Canada. As explained in the article, “Amex Ignites Employees Passions—for Living and for Work,” the company has instituted a program called “Realize the Potential,” which recognizes and supports the people who are taking the time to identify their passions and realize their potential—whether it is through charity work, taking a sabbatical for adventure travel or being mentored by the company’s top people. With this program, Amex is sending a message to their people that they want to know the whole person, so they encourage people to tell their managers about their passions—and to explore them while working within Amex.
Accommodating employees’ passions is a smart thing to do. It engenders loyalty and the enthusiasm spills over into one’s work.
Educate the organization about “micro-inequities.” This idea comes from Douglas R. Conant, retired president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company. In a Harvard Business Review article, “How to Make Diversity and Inclusion Real,” Conant defines “micro-inequities” as the common behaviors that undermine a culture of inclusion. Conant set up courses to raise his managers’ awareness of these behaviors. An example of this is the language used. “Too many male managers,” says Conant, “may rely too heavily on sports analogies—a habit that might not be inclusive for women and nonathletes. We wanted to make sure that people learned to listen, speak and act more inclusively.”
Know what motivates people. If you want to motivate people to give you the best that they have to offer, consider that not everyone is motivated by the same things. In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink shows that external rewards (what he calls the carrot-and-stick approach) incentivize performance when the work is simple and straightforward and involves only mechanical skills. But for nonroutine jobs, when the work entails even rudimentary cognitive skills, external rewards don’t work. Instead, there are three crucial factors that motivate people to perform better:
Autonomy: People are motivated by a desire to be self-directed.
Mastery: People have an innate desire to become better at what they do.
Purpose: People want to have a sense of deeper purpose in their work.
Consider these motivators and give people the flexibility to choose the way they want to complete their work; give them opportunities to master their craft, to develop and grow and, finally, inspire them with a deeper purpose, a higher ideal than simply making more money for the company. As Pink says, don’t unhinge profit from purpose.
Guard against viewing people through a narrow lens and be wide open to the broad landscape of diversity. As Max de Pree, retired CEO of Herman Miller, said: “We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing and inclusion.” What a wonderful world, indeed.
Harry S. Truman said: “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” These words are echoed by John Donovan, chief technology officer at AT&T in a recent New York Times interview:Strive for Results, Not for the Accolades. One of the leadership lessons Donovan learned in his career is that “people appreciate you when you play for results, and not for your role on the team.” He says that he learned that “that giving credit away, deflecting credit, was an effective thing to do.”
It is an admirable quality for a leader to share credit for what is accomplished. More often than not, it’s the other way around: people are very protective of their contributions and some make it an art to keep score. This diminishes rather than enhances our status. It takes a big man (or woman) to feel secure enough to let the light shine on others.
Here are some tips to help you be that big leader:
Put yourself in others’ shoes.
Think about a situation when a leader gave you credit for something you accomplished. How did this feel? Chances are it made you feel good about yourself, about your work. It made you feel proud. As a leader, you have the power to bestow these feelings on every team member who deserves to be recognized. A small effort in genuinely sharing credit boosts people’s spirit.
Show Others that You Value Them.
When we give credit to someone for their work, we send a message that we notice them, and that what they do is important. Studies have shown that an increase in productivity results when individuals are singled out, and made to feel important. Having a leader who makes a point to notice what each person contributes to the team, no matter what position the person occupies in the corporate hierarchy, is a powerful way to create employee engagement.
Hone your awareness of team members’ different linguistic styles.
Linguist Deborah Tannen in a Harvard Business Review article Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why states that “Most of us judge others’ competence—as well as their confidence and authority—by the way they talk. Based on what we hear, we decide whether a boss’, peer’s, or subordinate’s ideas merit our attention and support.”
The problem with this, as Tannen’s research shows, is that we all have different linguistic styles. For example, someone’s style may be to use “we” rather than “I” to describe accomplishments because “I” may seem too self-promoting. The unintended consequences of this style, explains Tannen, is that a person “doesn’t get credit for accomplishments and may hesitate to offer good ideas in the future.” As a leader, you should develop an awareness of people’s speaking styles so that you don’t unintentionally discount someone’s contributions because of their understated manner.
Allow people to sign their work.
Every artist likes to sign his painting. Similarly, every worker likes to put his personal stamp on his own work. Don’t deprive people of this privilege. If you submit a report that was drafted by one of your team members, find ways to include the person’s name somewhere in the report.
Make sharing credit a part of the meeting agenda.
This idea comes from Mike Robbins in Focus on the Good Stuff: The Power of Appreciation. Periodically, start off meetings with team members sharing all the good things that have happened since the last meeting. Examples include specific acknowledgments of individuals, announcement of successes—even small ones—or expressing gratitude for the team in general. This is a quick activity that can boost morale and make it easier for those who are unaccustomed to giving appreciation.
Pass on third party praise.
If a client or other stakeholder praises one of your team members, no matter how small the praise might seem to you, make sure that you pass on the comments to the individual concerned. Forward complimentary emails and add a personal note to congratulate the person and let them know what this means to you personally and to the department. It only takes a few moments and it means a lot to the recipient.
Tell the story.
When you share credit, make an effort to give the context and some of the details of the individual’s contribution. As James Kouzes and Barry Posner state in Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others, “Stories put a human face on success. They put the behavior in a real context and make standards more than statistics.” They honor the person’s contributions and set the standard for others.
Recognition is an energy booster; it has a ripple effect. When we are seen to share the responsibility for successes with others, it encourages other team members to do the same. When enough people start to do this on a team, it becomes the norm, a part of the team culture. The result is a better place to work for everyone. It is also a surefire way to become a better leader: As Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, said: “When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’”
Polls show that one of the top New Year’s resolutions people consistently make is to appreciate their family and friends and to spend more time with them in the coming year. One resolution that doesn’t show up is learning how to receive. This is a powerful, and yet often neglected way of showing appreciation of others.
It’s been ingrained in us to think that it is better to give than to receive. Consequently, some of us have never learned how to receive. The result of not receiving well is that we deny others the pleasure of feeling valued—we deny them of the joy of giving.
Here are some pointers to remind you to receive in a graceful manner.
1. Accept compliments and praise graciously.
This means avoiding well-intentioned, but nonetheless negative comments such as: “You’re too generous.” Contrast this with: “Thank you for saying this.” If appropriate, think about telling something about the item complimented. “Thank you. It’s a graduation gift my father gave me. It means a lot to me.”
Seneca, the Roman philosopher, made this observation: “You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.” Dismissing a compliment or praise we receive, even if out of modesty, is the equivalent of unwrapping a gift and tossing it back to the giver.
2. Honor someone who gives you a gift.
Don’t dismiss a gift with the proverbial “You shouldn’t have” or worse still “You know you don’t have to do this.” Every person offering a gift experiences an anticipatory excitement—the dismissal unintentionally robs the moment of its energy.
3. Know the etiquette of receiving.
In her article “9 Ways to Take Compliments Without Looking Conceited,” LisaMarie Luccioni provides some insights on the art of receiving that we may not all be aware of. For example, when you receive a trophy, certificate or plaque, accept it with your left hand, so that you keep your right hand free for a proper handshake; or demonstrate the right protocol, if you are complimented with a toast: “Toast recipients do not themselves drink,” advises Luccioni. “Acknowledge the toast, (with a head nod and smile . . .) allow everyone to have a sip of beverage, and then offer a return toast (where you can then drink.)”
4. Never say “Thank you, anyway.”
This is often a typical, automatic, response to someone who has done something for us which turned out to be not what we needed. “Anyway” in this context is a weasel word— a careless habit which takes on the unintended meaning of: “Thank you for nothing.” Why not simply thank them for their time or effort?
5. Teach a child how to receive.
Teach a child the language of appreciation by modeling the way yourself. You would be giving them a lifetime gift, more valuable than the most expensive toy.
Ultimately, receiving affirms our interdependence and strengthens the human bonds we have with each other. Author Amanda Owen said: “Who is the Giver and who is the Receiver when we look at the relationship between a butterfly and a butterfly bush? They give to each other and receive from each other.” Receiving well is emotional reciprocity in its most elegant form. It is the most generous way to show appreciation for the attention others give us.
“I would maintain” said G. K. Chesterton, “that thanks are the highest form of thought.” It is easy to let our thoughts be consumed by concerns about reduced economic security, rising health care, energy or food costs, and other worries about the future. It takes more effort to focus, instead, on being grateful for what we have.
We all know the old adage: count your blessings not your sorrows. Science has now proven that heeding the wisdom in this worn-out saying produces tangible physical and emotional benefits. In his book, THANKS! How The New Science Of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Dr. Robert Emmons, who is considered the world’s leading expert on the psychology of gratitude, reports that experiencing anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, causes our heart rhythms to become incoherent or jagged, interfering with the communication between the heart and the brain. It causes our hearts to function in a less efficient manner. This is a hefty price to pay for worrying about the future.
On the other hand, heartfelt emotions such as appreciation produce “harmonious heart rhythms that are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. When people consciously experience appreciation and gratitude, they can restore the natural rhythms of their heart.”
Here are some tips for cultivating gratitude, not only on Thanksgiving Day, but all year-round:
1. Allow gratitude its moment
As neuropsychologist Rick Hanson explains in his video How To Take In The Good, it is not enough to feel grateful for a few seconds when something good happens. For your brain to get the full benefit of the positive event, you need to consciously focus your attention on the event.
Let yourself feel good, even when it is small things such as putting the kids to bed or handing in a report on time. You do this by intentionally acknowledging the moment, feeling it for 10 to 30 seconds and letting it register deeply in your emotional memory. As Rick Hanson aptly puts it: “Don’t leave money on the table.” Savor all good moments! Life is a long series of moments.
2. Practice introspection
The Japanese have a beautiful concept known as Naikan, which means self-reflection, or looking inside. This is a powerful practice for enhancing our self-awareness and increasing our capacity for gratitude. It involves asking yourself three questions, at the end of each day:
What have I received from (person x)?
What have I given to (person x)?
What troubles and difficulties have I caused to (person x)?
3. Write a thank-you note every day
This idea comes from businessman John Kralik, who decided to practice gratitude amidst worries about his troubled business. As he explains in his video interview with ABC, writing one thank you note a day changed his life. We can derive a great deal of inspiration from this man’s initiative. More than likely, if we set out to make a list, we would find dozens of people who could be the recipients of our gratitude, whether it is a friend, a family member, a teacher, a neighbor, a physician, a handy-man or the server at the local coffee shop who remembers how we like our coffee.
4. Watch the Gratitude Dance
It is almost impossible to watch this video of the original Gratitude Dance, without breaking into a smile. Better still, watch it with your family and friends. Watch, as well, the video of this young man who practiced the gratitude dance and inspired people in 42 countries.
5. Take a hiatus from negative news
Go on a crash mental diet by skipping all negative news and focusing instead on uplifting intellectual pursuits. Part of the diet includes re-evaluating the time you spend on social media sites. Consider hanging around sites such as Berkley University’s Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life or watch uplifting videos on TED.com such as Neil Pasricha: The 3 A’s of awesome.
6. Take the Gratitude Questionnaire
Self-awareness precedes self-management. If you want to measure your Gratitude Disposition, take Dr. Robert Emmons’ Gratitude Questionnaire. If your score is low, consider making the practice of gratitude a part of your behavioral habits. If you score high, congratulate yourself on your ability to regulate your emotions and maintain a state of grace. It is a sign of emotional intelligence.
Acknowledge the presence of good in your life. Louie Schwartzberg, award-winning cinematographer and director, talks about the years when he didn’t have much money but he had time and a sense of wonder and spent years photographing breathtaking time lapse photography of flowers. In Gratitude, one of the most inspiring videos, he says that to see the flowers move is a dance, that he will never tire of. Their beauty envelopes us and they also provide a third of the food we eat. “Beauty and seduction is nature’s tool for survival because we protect what we fall in love with.” Take time every day to think of all the things in your life that you could be grateful for. Celebrate your life.
Leadership scholar, Warren Bennis said: “We seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven’t devised a means of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows.” There is a wealth of information at our disposal today on the latest discoveries in brain science. While we enjoy reading about these findings and expanding our intellect, how many of us actually apply these concepts?
We can drown in information or turn it into a lifesaver by extracting its practical knowledge. This article outlines five important discoveries in brain research that can help us improve our personal and professional lives, as well as help others in our sphere of influence.
1. Use visualization to learn a new skill.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to continuously create new neural pathways. When we repeat a skill that we are trying to master, we strengthen the neural networks that represent that action. The same happens physically in the brain whether we perform the action, or simply visualize it—Your brain cannot tell the difference between an action you performed and an action you visualized.
In a
Harvard University study, two groups of volunteers were presented with a piece of unfamiliar piano music. One group received the music and a keyboard, and was told to practice. The other group was instructed to just read the music and imagine playing it. When their brain activity was examined, both groups showed expansion in their motor cortex, even though the second group had never touched a keyboard. Einstein, who is credited with saying that “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” used visualization throughout his entire life. Why not take advantage of what we know about brain plasticity and take the time to add visualization as part of your rehearsals of anything you are trying to master, such as delivering a flawless presentation?
2. Achieve your goals by keeping your mouth shut.
This idea was popularized by Derek Sivers, a professional musician, in his presentation at TED.com.
As he explains, psychology tests have proven that when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, you are less likely to do the work to realize the goal. This is because your brain mistakes the talking for the doing, that is, the gratification that the social acknowledgment brings tricks your brain into feeling that the goal has already been accomplished. The satisfaction you experience in the telling removes the motivation to do whatever it takes to actually make it happen. Heed this information and keep your goals to yourself. It might just spur you to work harder to achieve an important goal.
3. Smile to improve your mood.
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis indicates that facial expressions representative of an emotion trigger changes in your body that are similar to those that happen when you experience the actual emotion. For example, your brain cannot tell the difference between a posed smile or a genuine smile—A posed smile will elicit, physiologically, the same pleasure or happiness response as a genuine smile. Your facial muscles cue your brain to experience that positive emotion. Taking notice of this, consider how this information can help you to regulate some of your emotional reactions by controlling your facial expressions. Try this the next time you are in a bad mood: instead of frowning, which reinforces a negative mood, consider smiling. Research has shown that by doing so, you are likely to experience a more positive mood.
4. Understand the physiology of emotional pain to develop empathy.
Research at the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University discovered that social or emotional pain is as real and intense as physical pain. The same brain networks are activated when a person experiences a physical injury as when they go through a painful emotional experience. Your brain cannot distinguish between physical and emotional pain. “While both types of pain can hurt very much at the time they occur,” says Dr Kip Williams, “social pain has the unique ability to come back over and over again, whereas physical pain lingers only as an awareness that it was indeed at one time painful.” Consider for a moment that when we hurt someone emotionally, it may very well be the equivalent of breaking one of their bones. We can create a better world in our sphere of influence just by being mindful of this thought and using it to help develop our empathy towards others.
5. Lower your stress level by managing your thoughts.
There is ample research proving that your brain cannot tell the difference between a real and imagined threat—The physical response is the same. In
Mystic Cool: A Proven Approach to Transcend Stress, Achieve Optimal Brain Function, and Maximize Your Creative Intelligence, Don Joseph Goewey provides a powerful tool—The Clear Button— to thwart fearful thoughts and stop the escalating stress. This 10-second strategy works because it creates a distraction from the primitive brain where fear resides. Care to test it out? Follow these steps:
Imagine that there is a button in the center of your left palm; imagine that this button, when pressed, will send a signal to your brain to stop the fearful thinking.
Press the button with your right hand as you become aware of your breath.
Take three easy breaths counting them out.
Imagine a different color for each number.
As you exhale, relax in the present moment.
Parker J. Palmer, founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal once said: “Science requires an engagement with the world, a live encounter between the knower and the known.” In other words, knowing is not enough. We do ourselves and others a great disservice when we don’t decide to act on the gift of knowledge. It’s the difference between hording information and developing wisdom.
