Coaching your Staff - Effective Teams don't Focus on the "F-word"

Tweet

 

3 Practices to help teams avoid the "Splat" focus...

Would you dare to climb an 828 metre tall building without a rope or net?
I've found the reports of the "French Spiderman" Alain Robert fascinating. He scales some of the world's tallest buildings without a harness, using his finger strength and strategy, as he mentally focuses with absolute clarity on each careful step on the way to reaching his summit goal. Why would most of us refrain from such attempts? Most would simply focus on the possibility of failure, or what I call the Splat Factor of falling. The reality is that when we focus on failure, we become fearful and our actions reflect it like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Let's face it, in the current economy most organizations are facing challenges, and the media certainly can be preoccupied with the glass-half-empty focus to sell papers. I was speaking with a VP of Sales recently about his team, and we were discussing the need for his sales managers to create clarity of focus on goals. He had been made aware of a manager who totally lost it (emotional control) with his sales team for failing to meet numbers, and even mentioned that there might be a need to cut staff (which wasn't in the plans with the VP). After a talk like that, what do you think a team member would be focussed on? Would they be thinking about what he/she could do to increase sales volume, or the changes they need to make to their resume to start a job search? That's one of the challenges for organizations - maintaining good leaders who can help their people focus their actions and energies on clear objectives, and the next steps they need to be taking to arrive there. A good leader helps the team focus on the future, not on the "F-word" - failure.

Research in the field of Emotional Intelligence makes it clear that leaders influence the emotional states of their teams. In this case, the sales manager's emotional state was contagious, creating focus on failure, which leads to a state of fear, which undermines the accomplishment of sales targets. In fact, it is this state that will foster the disease that Brian Tracy refers to as "excusitis", the symptoms of which are blaming the market and media reports for poor performance. This problem is not limited to sales teams. Instead of feeling that they have power to achieve results, people begin focusing on the 'reasons' for their failure, and this shuts down the creativity that's needed for effective problem solving.

In these times more than ever, managers need to discipline themselves and coach their teams to focus with absolute clarity on objectives - and the actions within their control that can bring them closer to accomplishment.

3 Practices to inculcate:

1) Lead yourself first - Remember, when on a plane the flight attendants always direct passengers travelling with kids (followers) to don their own oxygen mask first before helping others. Likewise in leadership - you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. Feeling anxious, stressed? Your people will take their cue from you. Create a new plan to exercise rigorously and regularly. Run, swim, get in some tennis, long walks - 3-4 times per week - and more. Coach yourself here. What do you need to do to be in the best physical/mental shape to endure the climb of the current economic tower before you? Work out more? Stop smoking? Reduce alcohol intake?  Rest? Forget New Year's resolutions - set your goals to enhance your personal leadership now!

2) Coach your team to enhance their personal leadership skills - The reality is that whatever is going on in the lives of your direct reports can impact their performance. Anything from staying up too late to unhealthy eating practices can undermine results. The best way to encourage is for you to model positive personal leadership practices worthy of following.

3) Remember, to Coach/Lead vs. Manage. Remember the distinction between Coach-Leading and Managing. Coach-Leading is transformative and Managing is transactional (all the other non-leadership responsibilities). Don't micro-manage. Resist the temptation to tell your people what to do or solve all the problems. Instead, discuss and gain agreement on metrics for success - then engage them, by using a questioning dialogue, to help them determine and focus on actions needed to  summit at the intended point.

Organizations with leaders who coach their people to clearly focus on objectives and the actions within their control will rise above the competition in the long run. In the absence of doing this, the department culture risks being infected by a preoccupation with the "F-word” - Failure, leading to fear and diminished productivity.

Think about it - then Focus and Get Going!



P.S. For a visceral demonstration of how to ignore the fear of failure - watch this video of French Spiderman Alain Robert scaling a skyscraper!