Cherri Holland Blog

I held a people management workshop yesterday, and got some exciting emails from people this morning as a result. It’s great when people see the potential for improvement in themselves and others and I am reminded how unnecessary it is for people to struggle with people issues for so long – all the while hardwiring negative behaviours into the business.

At the workshop, managers had these sorts of questions:

• How do I get staff to self start and take initiative?
• What is a list of DO’s and not DON’Ts so that I get the best out of the team?
• How do I deal with negative messages and/or situations?
• How do I get everyone to focus on what’s important (and have the same priorities as I do)?
• How do I stretch staff (so that they don’t remain in a comfort zone.)
• How do I step back so that they will step up?

One of the common mistakes that managers make is to “molly-coddle” staff who become increasingly disengaged over time. The way to gain control over results is to give it away with the necessary systems in place so that people can “take the reins” in a context of continuous improvement and increased contribution. Without this constant value-add, a business can barely keep its head above water in turbulent times. With it, it cannot help but thrive. Such is human brilliance, charged with a seemingly impossible mission.

A book written by Po Brosnan and Ashley Merryman – NutureShock – has something to say to business managers, not just teachers and parents! The central premise of this book is that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring. The main message is that when you constantly tell kids how great and smart they are, they develop this sense of entitlement so that when they don’t do well (or don’t score results consistent with their over-the-top self image) this not only causes a huge amount of stress but leads to a range of other unhealthy behaviours. For Ashley, it was that she never did anything that she wasn’t REALLY good at. As a result, she believes she has really missed out in her development.

On the People Management course, we do an exercise that shows managers clearly that staff need performance information, not effusive positive feedback – yet every management book you pick up and read says: constantly praise your staff! “Catch them doing something right.” In fact, you are told that if you have something negative to say, sandwich it between two positive statements. If anything is going to result in schizoid staff behaviour, that is!

This is not to say criticise people. There is no such thing as constructive criticism – don’t kid yourself. Any criticism sends everyone into a stress response. Very unhealthy and very unnecessary. Instead, create a context of high performance, real-time performance information, healthy self-comparison with the performance information, self-scrutiny and self-improvement.

Staff can criticise themselves – that’s okay and can be healthy! To a certain extent, colleagues can, without it having a negative outcome. Just don’t YOU do it, as the boss, in a position that is seen by them to be powerful. That never has a positive effect on performance. Nine times out of 10, it only results in defensiveness, anger and even sabotage; not in improved performance, which is presumably the reason to give the feedback in the first place. (Or was it to release the manager’s frustration – in which case, who really has the performance problem?)

While no one works well in an environment of stress, negativity or poorly-concealed annoyance on the part of the boss, neither do they work at their best in a soft, protective, molly-coddled play pen.

The high-performance alternative is what makes people, whether elite athletes, sports teams or businesses, achieve their full revenue and margin potential, on an ongoing basis.

And it is up to the leader to set the performance tone.

Cherri Holland

Can you really change people?
There are those who say: “You can’t change people.”

Yes you can – and you yourself undergo change all the time. Do you remember the last time you developed a “craze”? Suddenly, your daily habits incorporated a new, special treat. Over time, you either maintained this habit or it wore off. Either way, these are two examples of behaviour change. When you undergo specific skills training, there is the opportunity to undergo even more fundamental change.

In business, you don’t get people in exactly the shape you want. And if you do, then tomorrow change will be required if you are to stay competitive.
Here are two stories from workshops conducted in April 2010 that prove the extent of people change, in a matter of hours in some cases.

Example 1: A team leader started a people management workshop with the goal to become less emotional handling people, especially those “troublesome” people on the team. Not only did she completely change her demeanour, workplace actions and internal emotional state during the tirade that hit her on the job the very next day after the training, but she mentioned that she had not even needed to go home and “vent” which is what she would have done before the training.
She was able to remain detached yet effective. And three weeks later, the situation with the troublesome person was effectively and permanently resolved. She said she was really enjoying herself at work! A month later, she is still relaying examples of actions she is taking to positively influence those on the team.

Example 2: A half day session was conducted focusing on how to get high performance out of people. Half way through this session, one of the account managers spontaneously declared that she would need to completely change her approach to managing performance. She suddenly realised that her approach was ineffective, indeed counterproductive, and she now knew how to be effective in her approach to performance management. At the end of the session, she said how excited she was to get out there and be effective in her role.

Both of these people managers made a complete change to themselves in response to some information and people change techniques.
Knowledge is power, but applied knowledge is even more powerful. When these managers go out and influence the way others think, effectively changing all those they come into contact with, then you know that you too can change people. And, indeed, in your role as a leader, you must.

Cherri Holland