The Metiss Group's Blog

When asked “what’s the one thing you most admire about your best boss?”, most people answer something about communication and feedback.  When we ask people “what’s the one thing you’d like more from your boss?”, most people answer something about more communication and feedback.

So if communication and feedback is most admirable from leaders AND most people feel they don’t get enough from their boss, what are the chances your direct reports are getting all the communication and feedback they want/need?  In the same way you want more feedback from your boss, your directs want more feedback from you.

When giving feedback keep these basics in mind

• Feedback should on-going and delivered frequently;
• Feedback should be delivered timely, immediately after the demonstrated behavior;
• The feedback should describe the observed behavior not be personal or an opinion;
• Tailor the feedback to the direct report’s personality style;
• Keep the feedback productive, corrections should focus on future behaviors;
• Deliver both positive and course correction feedback (positive should out-weigh corrective).

Empower your direct reports with feedback and communication and you’ll both be more successful.

When our kids were growing up, we took them out to breakfast every Friday morning before school.  We rarely missed these routine times together.  During each breakfast we would ask “How’s school going?” and almost every time the answer was “good, okay.”  The important point is almost every time.  One time the answer was a mumbled “fine” followed by a shoulder shrug.  Not the usual “good, okay;” after further questioning, we found out there was an issue in science class.  If it were not for the regular breakfast meetings and the consistent questioning, science class would have been a big problem.

Be consistent with your direct report’s one-on-ones.  Hold them at the same time each week, and ask the same check-in questions.  When your direct report has challenges, knowing they’ll have your attention regularly gives them a built-in forum for dealing with the problem.

Asking the same check-in questions during each session will yield the same responses most of the time.  That gives you a basis for measuring unusual answers that may indicate underlying issues.

One-on-ones are one of the most powerful leadership tools in your toolkit.  Exercising consistency will make them even more successful.

What’s more important:

• Making 20 sales calls or closing $500,000 in new sales?
• Conducting weekly cycle inventories or .5% inventory shrink?
• Publishing regular newsletters or 97% customer retention?
• Creating weekly collections reports or receivables less than 30 days?
• Attending safety classes or zero days lost to workplace injury?

All too often leaders and direct report are so focused on the activities, they loose sight of the ultimate objective.  Leaders should make sure their direct reports understand their objective, have the resources available to achieve that objective, and then get out of the way.  Does it really matter that the sales associate made only 7 sales calls but still achieved the $500,000 sales objective?  Our tendency is to micro-manage the day-to-day activities because they are the easiest to affect.  Instead, clearly define your expectation – objective, time-frame, resources, and restraints – and hold your direct report accountable for the results without emerging yourself in the details.

Empower your direct reports with the ultimate expectation, make suggestions as to how it might be achieved, provide the resources for accomplishment, and you’ll both be more successful.

Often leaders assume their direct reports come to work and leave all their personal issues behind.  Although some might be better at it than others, we are all incapable of completely compartmentalizing our work and life challenges.

This year, Ramadan, the Muslim observance, falls during a period when the days are really long. Muslims are prohibited from eating or drinking (anything – even water) during daylight hours. For 30 days.  If you’re supervising Muslims, be sensitive. Yes, you’re responsible for their productivity, and so are they, irrespective of their religious beliefs. And, they have a special burden (you try going all day without drinking anything, even water.)

Be aware. Remember that you’re not managing a team, even if you hope to create one. You’re managing individuals.  Do you need to send out a note? Nope. But you do need to pay attention, and adjust.

source: Manager-tools.com

If you or your organization claim “our employees are our greatest asset”, you should be doing regular one-on-one sessions with your direct reports. There is no better way to maintain those valuable “assets” than weekly one-on-ones.

When you or your direct report travel, you might skip the one-on-one sessions.  Don’t do it; conduct the sessions by phone instead.  It is important for the one-on-one meeting rhythm to be maintained.  Remember one-on-ones build relationships and trust.  Productive relationships and enduring trust stem from predictability.  Rescheduling one-on-one sessions because you or your direct report are not in the office, disrupts this crucial rhythm.

Remember, whether it is you or your direct report who is working remotely, maintaining a consistent, predictable rhythm to communications keeps the empowered momentum going.  The purpose of one-on-ones has always been centered around the needs of the direct report; aren’t they more likely to have increased communication needs when you are not physically together?

It’s easy to forget the power of positive reinforcement, especially with direct reports who have worked with us for a long time.  We often treat new employees differently because we realize they need feedback relative to the extent to which they meet our expectations and because we are so excited to have this new employee.

It struck me the other day, as I was working with our dogs how we can re-engage or accelerate the performance of existing direct reports with an increase of positive feedback.

With a pup much praise and positive reinforcement needs to be lavished – much for the same reasons you do with a new employee.  What I didn’t expect was that as I issued an enthusiastic “Come” to the pup, and gave him much attention and praise when he obeyed, the other dogs realized they wanted a piece of the attention.  The otherwise lazy or inconsistent responses to my commands by the grown dogs were replaced with consistent and energetic desires for praise.

I’ve now replaced my apathetic responses to the grown dogs good behavior with more enthusiastic praise and have found their level of energy, promptness, and willingness has increased consistently.  Additionally, all three are feeding off the others’ responses and praise.

Empower your direct reports to accelerate performance by recognizing good performance with sincere positive feedback.

Below is an exemplary story from Michael Lewis’ book Liar’s Poker on how empowered leaders can change a company.

In 1968 Lewis Ranieri was a sophomore English major when he took a part time job on the night shift in the Salomon Brothers mailroom at $70 a week. His wife lay ill in the hospital, and the bills simply accumulated. Ranieri needed $10,000. He was nineteen years old, and all he had to his name was his weekly paycheck.

He finally got up the courage to request A LOAN from a partner at Salomon whom he knew only VAGUELY. The partner told Ranieri that the hospital bill would be taken care of. Ranieri thought that meant it would be deducted from his weekly paycheck, which he couldn’t afford, and he began to protest.

“It will be taken care of,” the partner repeated. Salomon Brothers then paid the $10,000 bill racked up by the wife of the mail room clerk with three months’ tenure.

There was no committee meeting. The partner hadn’t even paused before giving his answer. It was understood that the bill would be paid, for no reason other than it was the right thing to do.

The act moved Ranieri deeply who went on to become vice chairman of Salomon Brothers. He is considered the “godfather” of mortgage finance and and in 2004, Ranieri was considered by BusinessWeek one of the greatest innovators of the past 75 years.

Empower your leaders to do the “right thing” and you’ll both be successful.

Source: manager-tools.com