September 30, 2018 By Lynda Foster

One Path to Solving Your Biggest Problems at Work

Try this Path to Problem Solving this week

Problem Solving It can be confusing. One minute you need to smooth over an upset team member. The next, you need to hit a deadline on a report that is due. You need to jump on a conference call and send out an email to that customer that wants a quick response. You get to Friday and it feels like nothing truly important got done. A month can go by you’re still battling the same issues you did last quarter. What are you supposed to focus on? Is it what the customer wants? Or is it what you promised your team member you would get done? Maybe the most important task is getting that report that was due last week finished and sent out?

It’s easy to say you need to focus on the intersection between what truly matters and that which you can control. It is much harder to pinpoint exactly what those things are and most importantly, to execute them.

Start here.

Begin with the end in mind by filling in the blanks because it’s important to create clarity before trying to solve any problem you are facing:

If we get to the end of the year and ________________ is not complete the consequences will be significant to our team or organization.
If we don’t ____________________________, we will not complete that thing that has such high consequences.
What we need to do is ___________________________, to make certain we complete that thing.

Try this if you are stuck.

Am I or are we focusing on things that are not within our control right now and therefore wasting time and energy that could be better spent elsewhere? Do we know what right will look like December 31, 2018?
What is within our control right now, that we can change, fix, or complete? Do those tasks or issues work towards our goal of what right looks like?
Is there anything that can be removed from our task list so that we can fully focus on tackling the things that matter most to achieving what right looks like on December 31, 2018?

If all else fails, do this.

Stop. Really. Just stop. You could be operating from a place of anxiety which will not result in the best outcomes or your highest-level thinking. Take a day to observe what is really happening in yours or others work flow. You could be dealing with a systems issue. If you have time to redo things constantly and fix things that are messed up or done improperly you have time to observe and plan for better outcomes.
Get a thinking pair. Find someone who will ask you great questions and be curious about what you are doing, how you are doing things, and why you are doing certain things at all. Curiosity is key here. Your thinking pair is not an “expert” but rather a specialist in asking great questions that bring out our highest-level thinking. The answers are there, you may not be seeing them from the perspective you are at.
Unplug and relax. Sometimes we’ve worn ourselves out trying to solve the same problems over and over again. Our brain needs a break. Take a drive. Go for a walk or run. Turn off your phone, don’t check your email for a few hours, take some nice deep breaths and allow your brain to do its best job possible to solve some of your toughest problems.

Finally, it’s important to remember that competence breeds confidence. You got this!

September 23, 2018 By Lynda Foster

Stress Busters – Quick remedies for short-term stress and management techniques for the long-term

Stress Busters

There is no way to completely eliminate stress. Regardless of the job you do or do not have, your income level, where you live, or your responsibilities, you will experience stress. Finding ways to manage the stress to create an outcome that results in a healthy state of mind is important to reaching your highest level outcomes.

The most important aspect of stress management is having some type of plan for dealing with acute stressors and for long-term situations that cause stress.

So what’s your plan?

Short-term remedies

Try one or more of these when you find yourself in an acutely stressful situation. These can occur when things occur that you did not expect or have planned for. Acute stressors tend to appear more often if you do not have an adequate plan in place that takes all factors into consideration.

Turn off the notifications on your phone and email.

If your phone or computer is constantly dinging and binging at you all day and night you are operating in a reactionary way to others requests. Perhaps that’s your job. Many times, though, you simply haven’t thought of a better way to deal with necessary demands for your time and energy.

If you are in an acutely stressful situation, and you can turn things off to make to create some distance between you and the demands. Make the world quiet for a moment so you can switch on your highest level thinking.

Appreciate.

Appreciation and gratitude are the antidotes for anxiety and anger. Many times we feel frustration and stress because we want things to be different then what they are.

Stopping to appreciate someone or something will help switch on your higher level thinking and immediately improve your decision making capabilities.

Stop. Breathe. Store.

Sometimes things occur and we feel as though we need to address them immediately. Many times, however, the proper response is no response, at the moment. When you feel your blood pressure rising, try this method.

Stop.

Breathe.

Take several deep breathes.

Slowly breathe in through your nose for a count of 8, hold it for a count of 4, then breathe out for a count of 8. This will reduce the pressure on your amygdala (the almond-shaped gland in your brain that creates that flight, fight, freeze or appease impulse) and will switch on your pre-frontal cortex (the CEO or decision making part of your brain).

Store.

Does the situation that is causing you acute stress need your immediate attention or can you store the data that is coming in for you to think about later when you have some distance from it and time to figure out a long-term rather than a short-term solution for it.

Stretch.

Thoracic extension: Put your hands behind your head and bend your upper body over your chair’s back as far as possible. Draw your shoulder blades together and hold for two seconds. Release. Repeat eight times.

Hip-flexor stretch: Place one foot on a chair and lean forward while extending your arms overhead. Gently arch your back while moving your arms (keep them straight) back slightly. Hold for two seconds. Do eight reps.

Break it down.
If the acute stressor is of a significant size when it presents itself, break it down into small pieces and tackle the most impactful one, first. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant?”, one bite at a time, of course.

Long-Term Solutions

Exercise.

The best way to increase your ability to manage stress effectively can be getting some sort of regular exercise. Even a short walk, 3x a week, can make a big difference over time. Creating a habit of moving more and sitting less can help.

Food.

Look at your food as a source of energy. The more nutritious the food item, the more it will give you energy. The lower nutritional value the less long-term energy for your day it will provide. Foods that have been identified as “brain food”… good for your cognitive abilities:

Blueberries
Salmon
Almonds
Spinach

The big picture.

Create a strong understanding of why you are doing what you are doing. Ask yourself regularly why you are doing what you are doing. What are the outcomes you want to achieve long-term from the activities you are participating in? How does what you are doing serve you to reach those outcomes?

In my popular keynote Embracing the Pressure When the Pressure is On, here are some tools and tactics that might be helpful to you as well:

August 5, 2018 By Lynda Foster

One Thing That Could Matter Most in Resolving Conflicts at Work

One Thing That Could Matter Most in Resolving Conflicts at Work
by: Lynda McNutt Foster

If you think that you aren’t supposed to experience conflict at work or there is a way to completely avoid it, you’re probably not going to get very good at resolving it when it arises. Good people, with great intentions can have misunderstandings, let one another down, breach trust at some level, or just get pretty annoyed at the other person just because they spend so much time together at work. It’s common to look at another person and think that what they did was just “weird” and can I just say it because so many people think it, “stupid”.

To get better at being a leader you’ll need to practice navigating conflicts and many of those conflicts come from people not seeing the other person’s perspective or point of view. Conflicts become worse when people think that their point of view is the “right” one and that the other person “should” have done something different than they did.

A recent Fast Company article entitled, All Your CoWorkers Behaviors, Explained stood out to me. Two out of three of the ways to explain “weird” behavior are things we talk about in our training frequently which are traits (different behavioral types as described in DISC assessments) and goals (which align with the Motivators or Driving Forces assessments). It can help to resolve a conflict, or even avoid one, by understanding which behavioral types you are dealing with and what is going to motivate them to reach their goals. If you know what someone’s goals are it helps in understanding what they are focused on.

The situation matters.

The third explanation of why a coworker may behave a certain way was one that comes up during one-on-one coaching sessions. It is about discovering the situation or context of the behavior you are observing. The situation someone finds themselves is can have a significant effect on what decisions they make. It takes time to listen for the facts of a situation. Some people aren’t that good at explaining their situation or don’t have a great memory to communicate the facts well. Others give TOO many facts and data about their situation which requires patience and concentration to decipher.

It can be quite the slippery slope of a time trap to even ask about the details of a situation, so you want to make sure they matter. They usually don’t if the conflict is of a minor nature or the problem seems based in drama. It’s a good rule of thumb to dig into the situation if you see a consistent pattern or patterns of behavior occurring. There could be a very good reason why one of the people is acting the way that they are.

For instance, people can get pretty upset when they perceive that one of their teammates isn’t pulling their weight. They may feel that they have to make up for the lack of work by the other team member and they can perceive that as unfair. Whether it is or it isn’t you are probably going to be navigating a conflict, whether someone has voiced it or not. Perhaps there isn’t clarity around what the roles, responsibilities, and expectations are for each member of the team. Maybe, the expectations of the team member that is upset are not reasonable for the project or circumstance. It could also be true that the team member that is being seen as not pulling their weight is dealing with a situation that others are not aware of and that has not been communicated, or perhaps cannot be.

I coached a leader once, let’s call him “Joe”, that took over a department in which 3 of the 5 members he inherited in his new position were unable to do their job. One was very ill and had to frequently call out sick, another was dealing with an emotional issue that caused them to be withdrawn and extremely limited in their ability to complete tasks. Still the other one was simply someone that was close to retirement and believed they could “coast” through the last few years of their employment with the organization.

[Read more…]

July 4, 2018 By Lynda Foster

How much of being perceived as a bad boss by an employee is your fault?

It might not just be in your head. According to research, how your leadership actions are being perceived are likely based on an employees perception of whether you are a “good” boss or a “bad” one. Check out the image on the left to see how the same action can be perceived very differently by someone who works for you.

One of the best articles I have read on this topic is from MIT Sloan and it’s entitled “Setting You Up To Fail”. To get the full article there is a fee. I think it’s worth the $6.50 because it lays out the conditions that lead to a boss being undermined by their subordinates so that you can recognize them and do what you can to avoid them.

I agree with the fact that most of the focus in leadership and management advice is derived from a perception that it is the leader’s fault if things don’t work out. They state in the research article that many times it’s the boss that has a “set-up-to-fail-syndrome” for their new employee by doing things like labeling the employee to soon in the onboarding process, over monitoring them, or looking for ways that the employee is under-performing.

Also to consider is what you have control over and what you don’t. We tend to focus on what you can do differently because you have control over your responses and setting up effective processes to give your employees the best chances of being successful. That being said, being aware of experiences that you did or did not control that led to biases can be helpful in overcoming them or avoiding them altogether.

Ways that you could get mislabeled are that your team had preconceptions of you based on your reputation at your previous position or what they have “heard” about you. They could even be based on the boss you are replacing and how that person performed or acted. Let’s face it, based on your employee’s past experiences, you could also be dealing with some over sensitivity on their part – justified or not. Whatever the reason, if you’re in the situation where you believe that there is bias against you that is creating mislabeling you can try a few things that might help the situation:

– Understand them better by asking more questions and actively listening (try to focus on listening for information, not confirmation)
– Know them better (learn what matters most to them)
-Establish a rapport. Try these tips.

Here are 4 habits to break to be a better boss

Employees aren’t always blameless and they aren’t helpless victims. Coaching them on how to better recognize biases they may be holding towards you, your customers or one another can help them learn to spot them early and more often. Also, improving their ability to communicate effectively about their perspectives and become more skilled at conflict resolution can lead to a more improved work environment. Teaching them the basics of a problem orientation mindset that leads to drama versus one that creates more empowerment is vital to healthy work relationships.

Kathlynn Stone, anchor for Good Day Virginia on WFXR news, discussed this topic with me on their Virginia at Work segment.

April 29, 2018 By Lynda Foster

What People Said Would Make Work Fun Again

The Cortex Survey Results are in about what will make work fun again – the results may surprise you

The Cortex Survey Results are in for the question: What types of conditions make work fun for you?
We asked our Lynda’s Launch List readers that question a few weeks ago and here are some of the answers we received from those leaders, executives, and professionals. The results we collected were complete anonymity. Thank you to everyone who participated!

We posed this question because we are on a mission to provide team training that makes work fun again and the only way to be sure we are on track is to find out from our clients, readers, and followers what they think.

There are tons of gold nuggets in the feedback we received in the survey results for CEO’s, VPs, frontline managers and anyone who is in a position of authority for their team or even if you are leading or managing people through a project. We didn’t have one answer that even mentioned receiving more money for what they currently do at work (although I am sure none of them would turn that away if offered to them).

The basic theme of the answers.
The conditions that make work fun are clear and defined outcomes that don’t frequently change in the middle of an assignment or task. We have fun when we work hard to solve problems as a team, get time to play together, laugh, celebrate our wins, and feel appreciated, all while making our customers happy.

If you are familiar with DISC, it’s fun to read the list and see which types may find what fun at work. Some are pretty easy preferences to spot.

When we are selling business regularly and the team is excited about how to deliver it to wow our clients.
Working together as a team, attaining goals, supporting each other, staying busy, profitable.
Challenges but not micro-management to get them accomplished; challenges that DO NOT WASTE MY TIME – I dread the question that starts with, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” because it usually generates something that will waste most people’s time; free-wheeling discussions where no idea is wasted; keeping my time my time
Collaborative/Communicative Work Environment
The ability to share best practices
Teamwork: Sales Summits
Fun/Energetic Environment
Team Spirit/Winning Attitude
Everyone Wins
Recognition
Opportunities to collectively problem-solve.
Getting to focus on a task and not getting changed halfway. Doing it successfully and celebrating success after.
I am very appreciative of a work environment with a staff that wants to win. I’ve found that regular staff get-togethers or very loose staff meetings, as well as communication, are the keys to a happy, fun work environment. When the staff is happy, we win.
A team that is excited to work. Our department is different from any other because we personalize items. Everything is different; everything is unique. When we have a team that everyone is involved in making it go timely and best quality we can do it is fun to plan it out and watch it take place. A team that likes a little healthy competition makes it fun, too.
Energetic staff. A buzz within the office of good energy. Engaging in meaningful tasks and activities.
When we function as a team, the more ideas the better, and the more ideas the better opportunity in the planning stage.
Being able to smile and have a pleasant conversation with co-workers without fear of reprisal.
Being human and interacting with people on a more personal level and not so rushed to continuously not waste time by asking co-workers if they are ok.
Group collaborations. Outside community activities.
It’s pizza for breakfast day! Underlying well-baked crust of mutual respect, openness, curiosity and optimism (optimism is the yeast). Variety of toppings: humor, time flexibility, inspiration, deadlines and new problems to solve. Cheese (always): Rhythm (keeps things in a loose but continuous order so we can innovate within the structure of our vision). Bake it in the light of people we love – clients, friends, advisors and family. Shake a little profit and continuous learning over the whole thing. Delicious!
Responsible, Intelligent, Cooperative and Kind (RICK) individuals that systematically completes work in the most efficient process which allows more personal network and teambuilding time to Make Work Fun Again (MWFA). I often think of work as a machine that is designed, run and maintained to perform a desired outcome with precision and efficiency. Such a machine can be fun by having a pleasant or interesting appearance.
Work is a four letter word, along with Dumb. One of the definitions of dumb is to “have no power of speech; mute. ” The problem, as I see it, is the fact that many organizations do not allow a constructive two-way conversation leading towards an inefficient workplace along with employees not suitable for their assigned tasks. The organization that is wise and forward thinking and within a profit motivated platform will always outpace the “plodders, those companies that the employees just show up to get a paycheck”. Where is the fun in that?
Fun at work is having the ability to make wise and efficient choices and just enjoy the day.
Honest collaboration. A willingness to suspend roles to seek equality of input from all. The ability to see how the jobs that we do positively affect others. Time to interact informally.
Flexible work schedule
Small breaks or activities (corn hole game or table tennis)
Set clear goals
Incentives, rewards & recognition
The Environment- conducive to work and enjoy my time here. Get to work within my passion and inspire others around me. We work hard, but carve out time for fun events.
I like a relaxed but detail focused environment. One in which we have a balance of sharing details and new ideas, but once we decide on the plan, we stay on track with minimal distractions and execute.
Clear procedures with room to do it your own way. Happy coworkers. Nice clients. good smells. Lunch together.
Being part of a team that works hard and plays hard all while being committed to making daily progress toward the BHAG that we have all agreed upon.
Having a good sense of humor. Kindness. Celebrating milestones, like birthday’s and work anniversary’s. Good communication among team members. An attitude of servitude towards team members.
1. The atmosphere of the job. Meaning how the higher management makes the worker place feel on a daily bases once the employees walk into the building. Example: Relaxed atmosphere not a tense or walking on egg shell filling.
2. Have different at work function for the employees to keep up the morale in the job place and to let the employees know they are appreciated. Which by the way, our organization, has been doing really great with showing us we are appreciated.
3. Just having your supervisor and manager talk to you as a person and not just as an employee. Makes any workplace conditions a little fun. Knowing you can joke and laugh and still get the job done and not cross the line of whose over who.
Conditions or an atmosphere with a positive environment. Also, although not always possible, if one has a natural interest in what they are doing it usually lends itself to being fun. Along the lines of “do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”