Chapter #3 | Are instructions included? Supporting the team towards their goals.

Jill’s playing pictionary with a group of people but the game keeps getting brought to a stand still. It’s pretty clear Jill doesn’t know the rules and everytime the game begins to advance and get interesting for the group they have to stop and explain the rules. It’s getting pretty frustrating for the other players, having to stop every five minutes. Do your team know the rules to the game? If you haven’t provided your team with clear instruction and support towards performance it’s likely that their work isn’t up to scratch. They have to ask stop and ask questions, as they try to figure out what’s required. Providing them with regular coaching, support and feedback will provide them with the direction they need to keep advancing in the game. By the end of this chapter you will be able to: Identify the impact your behaviour as a leader has on your team’s performanceImplement strategies to support your team towards their goalsUnderstand the impact relationships have on work performanceBuild motivation within your team

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You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. Don’t beat yourself up about it though, just have a good think about the ways that your behaviour could be impacting your team. Once you have a conscious understanding of what it is that you’re doing you can work towards correcting the behaviour.

Do I really give the team the impression I don’t care about customer service? Going out onto the shop floor isn’t the favourite part of my day. Perhaps I’ve been a little slack and this has impacted my team’s performance.

You’re seeing some pretty poor results from your last customer mystery shop report. Great, now the pressure is going to be on from your manager who just doesn’t care about anything about the ‘results’. Laura was the one working that night... typical. She always seems disinterested in serving the actual customers and more concerned with talking to her friends. You’re going to approach Laura about the results and find out why she doesn’t adhere to the customer service standards you’ve set. Why is it so hard for the team to just get it right? When talking to Laura about the results of the mystery shop, she kind of startles you. You ask why she doesn’t adhere to the standards when she’s reminded of them every single shift and she came out with, “Why should I? You hate customer service. You're always hiding out in the office and every time you have to come out onto the shop floor you complain about it.” Whoa! You definitely weren't expecting that. What are you thinking?

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How dare she talk to me like that – I’m the manager! If that’s how she’s going to behave at work she can say goodbye to her two shifts a week.

Well you're right in that Laura probably shouldn’t have spoken the way she did. But do you think she was lying? Perhaps there is some truth to what she’s saying and without realising it you’ve been showing the team that you aren’t too concerned with customer service. Maybe you can look at this as a learning opportunity for both of you. If your attitude changes, perhaps Laura’s will too.

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Congrats on getting through your unit to this point! So what have you done in this chapter? Well, you’ve:Identified the impact your behaviour as a leader has on your team’s performance Looked at strategies to support your team towards their goals Looked at the impact relationships have on work performance Identified ways to build motivation within your teamSo what now? We recommend you put into practice some of the new skills, techniques and principles you’ve just learned. This is the best way we know, to ensure you know what you need to be successful on your journey – know what we mean? Now, let’s get into the next chapter!

Get your whistles ready! It’s time to get the troops to run some laps and pump out some push ups! While workplace coaching is not quite as physical on the body, it definitely should be on the mind. Your role in coaching and giving your team feedback is all about driving high performance. Sometimes this means improving their technique and, at other times, it means keeping their head in the game. It’s all worth it in the end though. While it’s all about them – their success is yours too. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of coaching.

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The Circle of Influence was created by Stephen Covey to provide an understanding of the range of concerns people have each day and the way they can proactively or reactively address them. The model explains the impacts of spending your time and energy on concerns you have influence over versus the ones you don’t. It also shows how your behaviour influences others, particularly your team. Let’s have a look at how the Circle of Influence can help you focus your time and become a better role model.

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Think of it like an ‘if you, then’ way of approaching motivation. For example, “If you wash my car, then I will give you cash!” or “If you miss that deadline, I will dock your pay.” Sometimes these benefits are beyond your direct control and are already determined at an organisational level. Traditionally, in a business environment, it was thought that in order to get as much productivity from your team members as possible, you should reward the behaviour you seek and give consequences for the behaviour you discourage. You might have heard of this as the ‘carrot and stick’ approach. With roles becoming more self-directed and complex in the modern work environment, this style is becoming less effective. Check out some common challenges that face leaders when motivating their teams and why they occur.

Extrinsic motivation is any external factor that provides an incentive to do something. On the positive side, this can include: BonusesRewardsPromotionsSecurityThings within the physical work environment (such as a better office or car parking space)Titles and improved working conditionsOn the other hand, it can also mean: Punishments and consequences

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What you do as a leader has a direct impact on the way your team perform. You set the tone and pace for the rest of the team on a day-to-day basis. Whether you realise it or not, they are always looking to you for the standard. The trouble with this is you’re only human and inevitably will make mistakes that are witnessed by the team and impact their productivity and performance. Let’s look at ways you can positively impact the effectiveness of your team.

Be aware of just what it is that makes you stressed, the emotions that you feel when stressed and the way your behaviour is altered as a result. This clarity provides you with the opportunity to look at ways to overcome these situations. You might not be able to avoid all stressful situations, but figuring out how to manage your emotions when they arise (before they impact the way you behave), is key. You’ll be more consistent in the way you interact with your team and in turn they’ll be more consistent with what they produce.

This one's a no brainer. Spend time developing their skills and knowledge and their level of performance will lift. You might do this through on the job coaching, providing a mentor relationship, or sending them to training activities. Skill building should be a focus across all levels of performance, not just underperformance. Even high performers like to learn new things.

Relationships impact performance – there’s no doubt about it. When your team aren’t a cohesive unit working towards a common goal they just aren’t going to be as productive as they could be. Spend time in developing the relationships you have with the team and the relationships they have with each other and you’ll find their performance as a unit lifts. You might do this through a quick catch up every morning where the team has a chance to connect about work and personal life or through structured team building days.

Spend time understanding the challenges your team experience with their work and then looking at how you can assist them in overcoming each one. You might find some of them are as simple as not understanding who the best person to collaborate with is, given the number of people within the business. All you have to do is point them in the right direction and the road block is removed.

Get to know just what it is that makes them tick and how you can appeal to those motivators. We’re all driven to perform by different factors so don’t assume anything.

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6. Talking too much. Oh, are you still talking? Silence and attentive listening are more powerful tools as a coach. 7. Owning the outcomes. Their success and their failures are exactly that; theirs. Don’t try to own the outcomes for them. 8. Giving advice. Giving advice does one thing only – it makes you feel good. Even the most well-meaning advice is weaker than a great question you can ask. 9. Steering the path. The path forward is not one you can steer and trying to will only mean a greater likelihood of them failing. They are perfectly capable of finding their own path. 10. Not gaining commitment. For coaching to truly be successful, there must be some commitment to advancing their cause. Otherwise, it just becomes a forgotten conversation.

You don’t need to be perfect, but you can avoid these common coaching mistakes:

1. Trying to be too great. Instead of trying too hard to be a great coach, put your energy into helping them become great. 2. Working too hard at it. It’s your job to challenge their thinking and get them working so don’t work too hard yourself. 3. Avoiding conversations. Everything important must be said – don’t avoid the challenging questions even if they are a little harder to manage – you’ll only be doing them an injustice. 4. Asking how you can help. They own the agenda for coaching so ask them how you can be most helpful to them. 5. Assuming you can fix them. They are not a project for you to figure out, a challenge for you to overcome or a problem for you to fix. Coaching is a relationship and a conversation.

Let’s define motivation as what energises, maintains, and controls consistent behaviours. Let’s start by looking at how you manage your own motivation. Focus on these things to determine what drives you: Reflect on times at work when your motivation was at an all time high. What caused this? How can you recreate these factors to influence your motivation? Be prepared to take responsibility for where you’re at. It’s about asking, “What am I doing (or not doing) to contribute to my current level of motivation?” Think about your performance. In business, your motivation is closely linked to your results. Have a great day and your motivation is up; have a bad day and it’s harder to stay positive. So, think about how you can continue to deliver on the results you want to achieve. What skills do you need to work on? How can you take your successes to the next level? Have mini-pep talks with your mind. It’s called positive self-talk. Remind yourself of your strengths. Remind yourself of why you do what you do and all the great things about the business you work for. Change simple language from “I can’t ...” to “Soon, I will be able to …” Recognise how you’ve progressed. One of the key drivers of a positive inner work life is making progress on meaningful work. Allow yourself to recognise the wins, no matter how small.So you’ve looked at you, but chances are your team will be motivated quite differently. Let’s take a look at motivation a little more closely…

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Circle of influence

The inner circle of influence includes all of the concerns we experience that we are able to directly influence. Now, let’s look only at the concerns the leader is able to directly influence.

The outer circle of concerns is made up of all of those concerns we experience in our lives. It doesn’t matter about their context; they could relate to family, health, work, social or what’s happening in the government. All of the concerns sit within this circle. Let’s start by listing out some concerns a leader could have at work.

Circle of concern

Will the company merger impact my role and my team?Will we be able to deliver our work on time?Are we working towards our department goals?How can I lift Leah’s performance?Who will fill the role of my direct line manager?What time will Jill show up to work?

Will we be able to deliver our work on time?Are we working towards our department goals?How can I lift Leah’s performance?

CIRCLE OF CONCERN

A focus on your circle of influence Now, focus our energy on those concerns we have direct influence over. Take the concern about the team being able to meet their deadlines. You as the leader have a direct influence over the outcome of that concern. What do I mean? There are actions you can take to alter the outcome of the situation. For example, you could make time to get in and do the work alongside your team (more manpower = more work complete), or you could look at what support they require to get the job done and see if they have any roadblocks you could remove. Focusing on your circle of influence is both proactive and positive and can actually lead to you increasing your circle of influence to the point that you can, for example, actually have a say in that company merger.

A focus on your circle of concerns Most people spend time focusing their energy on all of their concerns, trying to figure out a way to overcome or manage each one. But what if these concerns sit outside your circle of influence? If this is the case, it’s very unlikely your actions will be able to directly impact the result. Let’s think about that company merger for example. You have no direct influence over the outcome, so why spend time worrying about it? Spending all of your time in your circle of concern is not only reactive, it’s highly stressful and creates negativity in you. This leads to very little opportunity to actually be able to increase your circle of influence.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE

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So, the next time you feel a little overwhelmed and perhaps stressed about things, take some time to think about whether it’s something you can influence. If not, maybe it’s not worth the negative energy it brings. A proactive focus provides these benefits. You’ll be more efficient with your time. By spending your time on the concerns you’re able to directly influence, your using your time more efficiently and being more productive. You’ll gain better results. As you concentrate on taking action you’re already working towards achieving results. Your approach is more focused and outcome orientated. You’ll be a better role model for your team. Being a leader can be stressful and it’s easy to let that stress affect the way you behave in front of your team. Before you know it your behaviour has altered your team's productivity and performance, creating even more stress. By focusing on the concerns you have influence over, your stress levels are already being managed and your team will notice that you’re taking steps to improve the things that matter.

GOALS

WAY FORWARD

How do you manage a coaching conversation so that it remains focused on the team member and achieves commitment to action? The GROW model is a simple but powerful framework to structure your coaching sessions with your team members. It can be used to help your team improve performance, solve problems, make better decisions and reach their career goals. Great coaching is all about asking great questions as you take individuals on the journey of GROW.

REALITY

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OPTIONS

GOALS - Explore what they want to achieve/do/fix/change: What do you want to achieve?What would you like to get out of this?What areas do you want to work on?What would be the benefits if you achieved this?Describe your perfect world around this

REALITY – Examine where things are at right now: Where are you now in relation to your goal?What has contributed to your success so far?What skills/knowledge/attributes do you have?What is working well right now?What have you done so far? What were the effects of this?What steps have you taken already?

OPTIONS – Explore what is now possible and potential barriers: What are your options?Have you done something like this before?What could you do differently?What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?What do you need to stop or do more of to achieve this?What could get in the way and can we change that?

WAY FORWARD – Establish a commitment to action Which options work best for you?What one step are you going to take right now?What actions will you take?What will you do now? When?How can you keep yourself motivated?When do you need to review your progress?How will you know you have been successful?

The real beauty of tapping into, and supporting, your team’s intrinsic motivation are the outcomes that can be achieved. Creative thinking, problem solving and seeking continuous improvement occurs when people can reflect on their internal desires. Ultimately, people want to do good work and it’s your role to help them do it. Start by creating a happy, positive work environment where your team can motivate themselves and others. Avoid providing excessive external motivations that can squash people’s inherent desires and drive them to become too narrow in focus.

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To be motivated intrinsically, means to do something because of a want or desire for an internal reward. The rewards for us are largely intangible as we are seeking a ‘feeling’ from doing something, not a gift or the avoidance of a consequence. There are some key factors that help to promote and drive our internal motivations: Being able to challenge yourself in new tasks and therefore receive a sense of accomplishment Having a choice about what you can do – allowing for a feeling of control Co-operation by being able to work with and help others Getting meaningful, balanced recognition for your work or efforts Having trust. When you trust people who you work with, intrinsic motivation is much easier Meaningful work provides an idea that the ‘ends’ we go to are worthwhile

Some tips for designing and implementing intrinsically motivating environments include: Know your team – because your team is made up of individuals with many different intrinsic motivators, get to know their passions in life, at work and beyond. Knowing them, and letting them know you, is one of the best ways to increase a sense of belonging.  Make known the ‘facts of life’ – tell team members up front what is expected – what are the boundaries, constraints, and goals? Provide choices – given the ‘facts of life’ engage team members to move forward – help them develop a measurement system to promote their own accountability. Create camaraderie and collaboration – create a culture that values teamwork, openness and friendship – you don’t want to let your friends down. Ensure you have the right resources – one of the greatest inhibitors to intrinsic motivation is an organisational or functional barrier to performance. Entrepreneurial spirit – make it about personal freedom, make few rules, and embrace the idea of your team being in charge of and controlling their own destiny.

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There can be a real drawback to rewarding people for the stuff they should just be doing. In some cases, they take it for granted and as soon as you withdraw the reward or the consequence, the motivation disappears. This makes it unsustainable for most. In other cases if the consequences or the rewards stay at the same levels, motivation slowly drops off. If you want the same level of motivation next time, you’ll actually need to increase the reward. Potentially, you’re going to have to spend more and more just to get the same result!

“He seemed excited to do this before – I even gave him a reward – and now he’s lost interest.”

“They only get it done when I’m rewarding them – I stop, they stop.”

Problem solving and creative thinking is not really an option. The more we focus on the prize – or the consequence – the more likely we are to just ‘get the job done’.

Rewarding or giving consequences for doing something can actually remove or block our internal desire to do something, as it shifts our focus to the external. You have to select the right reward. If you intend to give or take away something – it better be important to them or it won’t motivate.

“They get it done but I want them to do more.”

PURPOSE: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. When purpose is high a team member will: Understand the business visionRecognise their impact in achieving goalsDo the big stuff and the small stuffWhen purpose is low a team member will: Only do some things (that they like) well – there’s no big picture perspectiveJust get the job done Take steps to fulfill your team members’ natural desire to contribute to a cause greater than themselves: Communicate the purpose – make sure your team members know and understand the organisations’ purpose and goals, not just its profit goals.Place equal emphasis on both purpose maximisation and profit maximisation. Focus team and individual goals on purpose as well as profit. Use profit as the catalyst to pursuing purpose, rather than making it the objective.Use purpose-orientated words – talk about your organisation as a united team by using words such as “us” and “we”. This will inspire team members to talk about the organisation in the same way and feel part of a greater cause.

MASTERY: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. When mastery is high a team member will: Seek feedback from everyoneHave an in-depth knowledge or skill baseContinue to seek out opportunities to improveWhen mastery is low a team member will:Be happy with their existing level of ‘performance’Have to be asked to perform tasks to improve You can help to improve mastery by allowing team members to become better at something that matters to them: Provide ‘Goldilocks tasks’ – Pink uses this term to describe those tasks which are neither overly difficult or overly simple. These tasks allow your team members to extend themselves and develop their skills further. Create an environment where mastery is possible – four essentials are required; autonomy, clear goals, immediate feedback and Goldilocks tasks.

AUTONOMY: the urge to direct our own lives. When autonomy is high a team member will: Make informed decisions on their ownTake responsibility for their own actionsBe able to direct themselves in their role When autonomy is low a team member will: Seek constant direction and validationBlame or redirect issues to othersRequire high levels of supervision You can help to improve autonomy by focusing on these four main aspects: When they do it (time). Focus on the result rather than time/schedule. This will allow your team members greater flexibility around when they complete their work.How they do it (technique). Don’t tell your team members how to complete tasks. Give some guidance but allow them to tackle it in their own unique way.Who they do it with (team). Allow team members some choice over who they work with – give them the ability to assemble their own teams.What they do (task). Allow team members to have regular ‘creative’ days where they can work on any project/problem they wish – there is evidence that many new initiatives are often generated during this creative free time.

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INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS In Daniel H Pink’s book, ‘Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us’, he proposes that businesses should adopt a revised approach to motivation that aligns more closely with the way we work today. It is based on a self-determination theory (SDT); that human beings have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. When this drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.

Daniel H. Pink is the author of five provocative books about business, work and management — including three long-running New York Times best sellers. Check out Dan Pink’s TED talk on his theory of motivation. To learn more about Dan Pink check his website out here.

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Setting your team up to be productive, efficient and results orientated includes having plans in place to develop their skills. If you want your team to become ‘high performing’ you’re going to need to invest some time into developing their skills. There’s two streams of learning activities that you can utilise: informal and formal.

FORMAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES Formal learning activities are structured programs put in place to develop team members. They are generally conducted with groups of people who progress through the program at the same pace. The objectives of the formal learning activities are generally set by the business or provider and then provided to leaders and team members to assess whether or not it is of benefit for them to attend. Formal learning activities are best used for compliance, certification and theoretical based topics.

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INFORMAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES Informal learning activities tend to be more ‘on the job’ than formal structured training programs. They provide more opportunity to be self-directed where the individual learns at their own pace. Informal learning activities are best used to bridge individual skill gaps, for ongoing development and to reiterate formal learning. It works effectively where the team member looks at what they want to achieve and establishes ‘how’ to make it happen (through informal learning activities) with their leader.

What types of activities are considered informal learning? Mentoring relationshipsCoachingE-learning coursesBuddy/peer systemsSocial learning

What types of activities are considered formal learning? Accredited coursesWorkshopsSeminarsFeedback

Check out how your circle of influence can impact your team in a positive way here.

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