Tagged: Consulting
Use a checklist to guide decisions about developing supervisors
For many supervisors the focus of workshops on conflict is about delivering feedback to employees – something supervisors have to do, and do well. Conversations about unhelpful behaviour and poor performance however do not occur in a vacuum.
While many employees would like to better handle delivering and receiving feedback there are some conditions at work which make the task of delivering feedback that much harder. While part of the solution may be to develop supervisor skills in delivering feedback firmly and in a timely manner, the following checklist has been used to identify some of the work conditions which make delivering feedback well an almost impossible task.
Consider the scenario where your supervisors give poor performers too many chances and when they do act – expect turnaround miracles. What if your organisation’s response to the checklist items is “No”?
You can see that improving supervisor skill alone is not going to cut it.
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Conflict Prevention Checklist |
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Item |
Rating |
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No! Definitely not |
Yes!Absolutely | ||||
| We have employee education programs about |
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| · Our expectations about acceptable work behaviour | |||||
| · Our workplace policies and procedures | |||||
| · The unwritten rules and expectations about work behaviour | |||||
| · How to conduct, participate in and follow up meetings with colleagues, clients and suppliers | |||||
| Our workplace procedures and policies |
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| · Cover all employment law requirements | |||||
| · Have been communicated to all employees | |||||
| · Include standards against which the conduct of employees may be evaluated | |||||
| · Provide a legal basis for imposing discipline, suspension or termination | |||||
| · Provide for effective complaint resolution procedures | |||||
Finally
Time spent developing, training and coaching supervisors is a scarce resource. One way to suck more value out of a scarce resource is to make better decisions about how to use it – in this case better deciding how to use supervisor development time. The big idea here is that we are more likely to accurately identify what supervisors need to get better at by assessing the operational conditions under which they and their teams perform, rather than only assessing the supervisor – or worse – conducting no assessment or diagnosis at all.
Executive women
One of the most common pieces of business advice to almost anyone seeking to build their business or career – no matter what the profession – is to seek the counsel of a mentor. It’s become almost one of those things people ‘tick off’ on the list – and many organisations incorporate formal coaching and mentorship into their development programs.
However, there’s something to be said for seeking out someone who brings a completely different perspective. Someone who can listen, challenge and provoke… someone to help chair the ‘internal/infernal committee’ that goes on in so many of our heads.
This year I’ve had the pleasure of being a mentor to Executive Women. I’ve always believed in the power of mentorship, and it was refreshing to have that reinforced recently – illustrated by these snatches of conversation a few nights ago at a wrap-up of the 2013 Mentor Program for Executive Women run by Kim McGuinness CEO of Network Central.
“Things seemed to fall into place after meetings with my mentor, I’d be worried about what was happening, prepare to talk it through with my mentor and after talking it through – then in the next day or so – it just fell into place. I used to think learning came from books – it does and so much more comes from people”
“I’d prepare for catching up with my mentor, she’d draw out more information and my feelings, We’d plan the conversation, rehearse it. Then when I had the conversation – half the things I was worried would happen didn’t – it has made me think about the things I worry about in my life. Most of the stuff I worried about never happened – what a waste – the mentoring has changed my outlook”
“As a mentor I saw the woman I was mentoring just going around in circles – so frustrating to watch. My job then was to listen to her talk to herself and ask her what was she looking for?”
The conversations alerted me to three powerful insights into mentoring:
- Mentors ask questions that encourage those with whom they are working to talk about what is important to them
- Practising conversations, or saying things out loud to another is critical – it would appear once people hear themselves saying something, they are more inclined to actually do it
- Mentors only give advice when they are directly asked for it
Why get into a mentoring program? Here’s one reason.
I’ve talked with lots of people who comment that their conversations with themselves, their self-talk, the comments of their “internal committee” rarely change. The conversations are a lot like what happens at poor meetings – everyone says their set pieces, like lines in a bad play and nothing changes. If you find a mentor who delivers on the three insights above then you too might find that you can change your conversations with yourself by having them out loud with someone who listens and who every now and then asks you a question that disrupts your set piece.
Why not start now and find someone who needs a good listening to and – ask if you can listen?
Self-defence?
Do you get a bit uncomfortable in a conversation where you think your contribution, or performance is challenged? When you start to think that others are trying to get you to change, do you become a little uncomfortable and try to change the subject of the conversation?
When I am uncomfortable in a conversation where I am being told something about myself I don’t really want to attend to, I change the subject of the conversation. I sometimes channel Bart Simpson “You can’t make me, it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it.”! I suspect there’s a little of Bart in all of us.
Defensive behaviour – putting up barriers to or avoiding information that may improve life at home and at work. Some are so defensive about the way they now behave (the status quo) that they decline to consider changes.
Defensive behaviour stops us from being well informed. Defensive behaviour helps us not to change, prompts us to focus only on information supporting what we are currently doing.
Common defensive behaviours include:
- Blaming others – my colleagues have no sense of urgency,
- Denying – there is nothing wrong with our product,
- Rationalising – people work better under the pressure of tight deadlines,
- Minimalising – it’s not a big deal.
Is defensive behaviour just a personal eccentricity – or is it costly to personal and business relationships?
It’s both isn’t it?
Let’s look at some of the costs. Defensive behaviour may be a barrier to:
- openly discussing and reviewing errors and near misses.
- using customer complaints as a source of information about product and service enhancement.
- resolving conflict.
- working collaboratively.
- developing your relationships.
Are you avoiding information, feedback and conversations that could help you improve?
It will be obvious to someone.
Let’s hope they care enough about you to let you know.
Joe Moore - blog 