This is personal! Why? Because I have been in roles where I have stopped growing..I’ve just stayed in the role for a year too long or I’ve waited for that next big opportunity to come along to challenge and excite me. Usually I’ve been underwhelmed when it hasn’t and have regretted not taking action sooner.

I’ve also seen people in jobs today who are quite content to be in roles where they are disengaged, bored and frustrated by their role, their surroundings and the people they work with.

Irrespective of industry, organisation or sector I find the answer the same; when you are not growing personally and professionally, you become stagnated, disengaged and often frustrated with your job.

One of the many things that excites me in my job is when I put a slide up in our programs that says “Grow or Go!" It challenges participants to really explore how they feel about their current circumstances and empowers them with the notion that they really do have a choice. They can:

1) Stay and be passionate and make a great difference to their workplace 

2) Stay, stagnate and become disengaged, bitter and twisted, or;

3) Get out. Leave and find something that aligns with their values, dreams and passion. 

Sometimes we settle for just ok. We set high expectations for others but fail to set high expectations for ourselves – if you’ve read Jim Collins’ book Good To Great, you know that “good is the enemy of great”.

We all know of instances where others have ‘checked out’ and avoid having the tough conversations or confronting difficult issues, but how do you confront the issue when you’re the person in the mirror? 

When managers themselves do nothing to grow, they “lead” by example – managers lead by example whether good or bad. If you are a manager and you have done absolutely nothing to perfect or enhance your skills within the last six months, you’re not growing. If you are not growing you have nothing new to bring to the table. Your lack of growth stagnates your team, kills creativity, and send a clear message to your staff that mediocrity is acceptable. 

One of my key Employee Engagement philosophies is that individuals need to own their engagement. We come to work with unique motivators, interests and talents. We cannot expect our workplace or organisation to provide an exact set of tasks or conditions to fit our personal definition of meaningful or satisfying work. We are ultimately responsible for our own personal and professional success. 

When you feel you are in a rut in your present job, there are two ways to re-energise. One is to take a strategic view of what is needed and find opportunities for intellectual or career growth. Taking your business or work to the next level is one way to recharge your batteries and keep your interest in your job alive. 

If, after you take that long view, you see no other possibilities to excite you in your chosen line of work then the other recourse is to find something else to challenge you. Be bold, this is the time to assess your skills and begin to look for something else that aligns with your passion. Don't forget, if you wait too long, you will become bored and boring.

Tell us your growth strategies. Have you stayed too long in a job and regretted it? Do you have people working for you who have "checked out"? How do you put this issue on the table and deal with the situation? Comment on our LinkedIn Discussion Page

I’ve been privileged to work for some great leaders. I’ve also worked for some not so great leaders. The best thing is I’ve learnt a lot from both.

I recently read the best-selling biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The book offers a revealing look at what the author calls ‘good Steve’ and ‘bad Steve’. 

‘Good Steve’ was brilliant, charismatic, a champion for excellence and an alchemist who turned a moribund computer company into gold. ‘Bad Steve’ was petulant, rude, spiteful and controlling, a man who thought nothing of publicly humiliating employees and taking the credit for others’ work, throwing tantrums when he didn't get his way.

So would you define Steve Jobs as a good or bad leader? Can leaders who lack emotional intelligence, exhibiting large blind spots regarding their own behaviour and who would be difficult to work for, still be a ‘good’ leader when it comes to results for their organisation?

A lot of my work is to help develop more self-aware leaders who exhibit adaptable behaviour. That is; leaders who are engaged but are also engaging to others, and who know when to push and drive and when to nurture and encourage their teams to get maximum engagement and performance. I am a firm believer in balance when it comes to getting maximum job contribution and maximum job satisfaction.

I like Apple products and I have a deep respect for those who have created them. These products and their creators have made my life easier in many ways. Though I never met Steve Jobs, it seems many who knew him found him difficult to work with. When it comes to leadership style, Steve Jobs could be considered a tyrant. He was said to be obsessively controlling and given to fits of rage, throwing tantrums and yelling at employees and board members. He could tear down someone's ideas, or the person themselves, in a public display. Some have said he took credit for others' ideas, and his confidence led to an over-the-top arrogance.

Does this sound like someone you work with?

Great by Choice

Researcher and author Jim Collins investigated characteristics of great companies and their leaders in his best-sellers on management ‘Good to Great’ and more recently ‘Great by Choice’. Collins points out that our culture has fallen in love with the idea of the ‘celebrity CEO’, described as charismatic egotists who swoop in to save companies and grace the covers of major magazines. This fuels the mistaken belief held by many directors that a high profile, larger-than-life leader is required to make a company great. ‘We keep putting people into positions of power who lack the inclination to be a multi dimensional leader’ says Collins.

Collins spent a great deal of time differentiating between what he called ‘Level 4’ and ‘Level 5’ leaders. The basic difference between these two is that while both have overwhelming success when at the helm of their companies, Level 4 leaders do not set their organisations up for success after they leave. In contrast, Level 5 leaders set up a sustainable culture where there is a shared leadership and multiple leaders throughout the organisation contributing to success. 

Both levels of leaders exhibit extreme passion and drive for success and they are effective in that they both stimulate higher levels of performance for their company. However they differ in their motivation for success. 

Level 4 leaders tend to be self-serving and ego driven, and the key distinction is the Level 4 leader’s drive is more for personal gain than for the benefit of the institution. Their larger-than-life personas are in stark contrast to the Level 5 leader’s understated modesty.

According to Collins there are five attributes that typify the Level 5 leader:

1. They are self-confident enough to set up their successors for success

2. They are humble and modest

3. They have ‘unwavering resolve’

4. They display a ‘powerhouse diligence - more plow horse than show horse’

5. They give credit to others for their success and take full responsibility for poor results. They "attribute much of their success to 'good luck' rather than ‘personal greatness’

How many of these attributes would you attribute to Steve Jobs? How do you fit against Collins criteria? How many would you tick for your own leaders? 

A leadership nightmare

While Steve Jobs was a successful leader, entrepreneur and visionary, he fell considerably short of the qualities possessed by the very best leaders. This is a case where Jobs' business success and his charisma, overshadow all of his bad qualities and behaviors, and that is why I think that Steve Jobs is a leadership scholar's nightmare.

It makes us wonder what Steve Jobs would have been like if he had all of the qualities and behaviors research shows are practised by the very best leaders. He might have been someone who truly deserves everyone's admiration. My fear is that future leaders may follow in Steve Jobs' path, thinking it's ok to behave badly as long as a leader is successful in business. Instead, I would rather that people critically analyse Jobs’ leadership style and learn how to be better leaders.

I sense an increasing societal unease with the emergence of celebrity leaders who care more about themselves than they do about the institutions for which they are responsible. Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions — whether in the corporate or social fields — to advance their own interests. Collins provides us with hard empirical evidence which indicates such leaders are negatively correlated with sustained long term positive results, and this evidence should bolster courageous boards. Finally, and perhaps most important, I am absolutely convinced that the seed of Level 5 leadership, that is leadership which is multi-dimensional, emotionally sound and engaging, is widely dispersed throughout society. It can be identified, it can be cultivated and it can be developed. Given encouragement and the right tools, it will flourish. And if it does, so will our institutions.

Apple has had a great decade and is still achieving great success with the release of the IPhone 5 this week. Only time will tell how well Apple sustains the success Jobs enjoyed, now that Tim Cook is leading the charge. 

Was Steve Jobs a great leader? Was he a Level 4 Leader? What do you think? Comment on our LinkedIn Discussion Page

Other attributes of Collins’ Level 5 Leaders

On the one hand… Creates—and is a clear catalyst in creating—superb results. Yet on the other hand… Demonstrates a compelling modesty, shunning public adulation and never boastful. 

On the one hand… Demonstrates an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult. Yet on the other hand… Acts with quiet, calm determination and relies principally on inspired standards—not an inspiring personality—to motivate. 

On the one hand… Sets the standard of building an enduring, great organisation and will settle for nothing less. Yet on the other hand… Channels ambition into the organisation and its work, not the self, setting up successors for even greater success in the next generation. 

On the one hand… Looks in the mirror, instead of the window, to apportion responsibility for poor results, never blaming other people, external factors, or bad luck. Yet on the other hand… Looks out the window, instead of the mirror, to apportion credit for the success of the company—to other people, external factors, and good luck.

As human resource professionals, we know that an engaged workforce provides many intangible benefits, and can be linked to productivity, retention, customer service and loyalty. In the past five years quantitative research studies have provided us with a compelling business cases regarding the upsides of an engaged workforce and the downsides of a disengaged workforce. 

But what are some key drivers for an engaged employee and how do we implement sound engagement strategies? How do we get our teams to love being back at work at the start of the working week?

This article will explore 5 tips for developing and implementing your Employee Engagement Strategy.

According to global employee survey company BlessingWhite, full engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction (“I like my work and do it well”) with maximum job contribution (“I help achieve the goals of my organisation”). Engagement is not only about your team feeling good about their job; it’s also about the desire to do their very best in their role.  Highly engaged employees are enthusiastic and excited about their organisation and its goals, and contribute wholeheartedly to their team's success. 

However when I conduct Employee Engagement programs or attend Employee Engagement seminars and conferences, people seem to be searching for a silver bullet. They are looking for a ‘secret recipe’ or quick solution for that elusive engagement strategy. What people tend to miss is the importance of all the separate ingredients – great culture, sound leadership, mature reward and recognition, growing interpersonal relationships and open communication – and the intrinsic nature of these parts in a successful  engagement strategy. 

So how do you improve employee engagement? Like improving culture, the answer is one step at a time (see our article Don’t blame your culture). Here are 5 tips to get that “I’m glad it’s Monday” excitement in your workplace. 

1. Empower individuals to take control of their own engagement and behaviour  

Each of your employees comes to work with unique motivators, interests and talents. They cannot expect the organisation to provide an exact set of tasks and conditions to fit their personal definition of meaningful or satisfying work. 

In our last newsletter Should I stay or should I grow? we discussed how  individuals need to be proactive in communicating their individual expectations; they need to communicate how they see their best ‘fit’ within the organisation. Employees should also be proactive in building their skills sets, articulating their interests and identifying their goals. 

Your team environment should foster opportunities for candid conversations with your employees about individual expectations, shaping of roles, clarification of work priorities and articulation of their goals and needs. Exploring how an employee’s individual talents are used is important. Don’t leave this for the annual performance review, but instead develop a culture which allows such conversations at any time.

2. Engage employees early and often. 

Ensure employees have a voice in the area of engagement. If you are conducting a employee engagement survey, have your employees participate in deciding the questions to be asked, investigation of the results and give them an opportunity to generate strategies and interventions. Metaphorically, you won’t get everyone on the same page unless everyone has been able to contribute to that page. 

3. Under-measure and over-deliver. 

The increasing use of employee engagement surveys is an encouraging trend in the development of workplace culture. Data can be very helpful in identifying areas needing improvement and strategies for success. 

Often when the latest engagement survey results are shown to an executive team, everyone immediately goes to the details of the underperforming areas and totally miss the areas of great success. 

Don’t just focus on the areas that need fixing. Instead look for areas of success within your organisation, celebrate them and see how you can repeat these successes over the whole organisation. Celebrate success more than you focus on failure, do it as soon as possible after the event and do it often.

Finally, survey less and act more. Data can help you produce some great strategies for improvement, but remember; making strategy work is more difficult than the task of strategy-making! The actual execution of your strategy is critical to engagement success. Gaining feedback from your employees is important, however acting on feedback in a timely manner is more important. 

4. Bad management is really expensive

Employee relationships with their managers is a key driver of employee engagement. The more employees feel they know their managers as people, the more engaged they’re likely to be (BlessingWhite: 2011). Managers drive engagement through who they are and what they do. Good management teams build relationships and they have the ability to drop the veil of their position or title, becoming better understood by employees. That doesn’t necessarily mean being best friends, but it does mean sharing personal motivation for work, challenges and appropriate weaknesses. Developing trust as part of this process is crucial. Humanise the workplace by creating opportunities to reward, develop and grow people and relationships.  

Leaders also need to take control of their own engagement and pay attention to the engagement of their direct reports. Disengaged managers cannot help others become more engaged in the same way a flat car battery cannot jump-start another car.

5. Employee engagement is not a soft skill. 

Employee engagement is not mushy and fluffy, but rather vital and pivotal. It is intrinsic to the organisation and is part of the cultural fabric. Changing this fabric requires ‘hard’ skills such as strategy development, strong leadership, communication systems and processes, and tangible rewards and recognition frameworks. Often this is borne from the empirical data of organisational surveys, but also from mature review and feedback processes. Changing the cultural fabric requires managers to ‘walk the talk’ and to develop and grow trust though well executed business strategies implemented in an open and consultative manner.

Seeing engagement as separate from the traditional financial or marketing strategy and technical aspects of the organisation undervalues the extent of this area and can dilute organisational success as a whole. The ‘soft’ variables that HR tends to deal with have hard outcomes – quantifiable, measurable outcomes that are pivotal to productivity, customer satisfaction and bottom line results. 

What are your tips for creating great employee engagement? – Tell us your tips on the People Development Australia LinkedIn Discussion Page.

Download copies for the BlessingWhite and ORC International Employee Engagement Reports and People Development Australia’s engagement summary on our Package Page (PDF’s are under the brochure tab to the right of page). 

Top drivers of Employee Engagement based on several national and international surveys: 

• Opportunities to apply individual talents 

• Career development 

• Training and development 

• Recognition and rewards 

• Internal communication 

• Flexibility and work life balance

• Positive culture and company reputation

One of the things I love about my work is that I get the opportunity to meet new people and new teams in workplaces around the country. I also love the opportunity to test out the culture in a workplace when I first visit. Bounding up to the reception with my cheesy grin and saying a big “Hello” to the Director of first impressions – the receptionist. On the odd occasion I get the early morning grunt, the lack of eye contact and treatment of indifference. I’m always amused especially when I read the big poster on the wall behind the receptionist that says “We care about you”. You soon know there is something wrong within the culture when the behaviour does not match with the rhetoric. 

Have you ever walked into a workplace and felt the heavy burden of a toxic culture come descending down on you? People with their heads buried – not caring about the people around them, too busy making their way through their day-to-day tasks to really want to make a difference with others?

Culture is powerful because we all take our cues from people around us. We are courteous or sharp-tongued, innovative or bureaucratic, argumentative or accommodating, at least in part because we unconsciously tend to imitate the behaviour of those nearby. 

This immutable aspect of human nature can be irritating to many leaders – especially when the culture is orientated away for high performance. 

Teaching an old culture new tricks

But how do you change culture? How do you move from blaming “the way we do things around here” and move to new behaviours and attitudes. Two options are that you can fight it head-on (How many times have you wished that you could just tell everyone what the new culture is going to be?) or ignore it altogether.  We’ve all heard of many failed attempts of both. A third way is to make small incremental changes to how people behave and how a business operates. 

To understand your culture, you need to pay close attention to its quite, sometimes hidden, manifestations, such as side conversations in hallways, the informal consultations behind closed doors - and the incisive guidance that people get when they ask one another for advice. 

Cultures can be diagnosed best by the work behaviours they promote. Do people collaborate easily? Do they make decisions individually or in groups? Are they open with their information? Do they reflect on successes and failures and learn from them?

As you move from diagnosing to improving behaviours, focus first on the few critical changes that mater most. 

Figure out which of the old constructive behaviours embedded in your culture can be applied to accelerate the changes you want. Find ways to counterbalance and diminish other elements of the culture that hinder you. The overall aim is to teach your old culture new tricks.

Edgar H. Schein author of The Corporate Culture Survival Guide and a leading authority on organisation culture, tells a story about making small changes to make a big difference. Three senior executives of a large manufacturing company visited him, seeking advice on building a more dynamic culture. “Just yesterday,” said the CEO, “I had my regular meeting with subordinates. We have a big circular room, and everybody sits in the same place each time. But get this – only four people were present this time, and they still sat at the far ends of this great big table. Do you see what I’m up against? 

“What did you do about it?” asked Schein. 

The executives responded at first with blank stares. Then they realised they were part of the system they were blaming. The CEO could have made a small but significant change simply by asking the four of them to move chairs. Better yet, he could ask the full team to vary their seating at the next meeting. The executives spent the next several hours figuring out other minor actions of that sort, which they put in place the following week, with great success. 

Culture Myths 

Why don’t leaders naturally respond to culture in this way is something I ask myself. It is usually because of several misconceptions about culture change that block us from taking these small steps. 

• We don’t really know how to change our culture, so let’s escape it – the answer must be to “recreate” an entirely new culture.  
• Leave culture to the people professionals (Ensuring behaviour change is the role of line leaders at all levels)
• Our culture is the root of all our problems (An all-purpose, convenient excuse)
• Culture is the job of the top leaders (top leaders need to play an important role but ideally it is the support to the many leaders down the line – particularly those who have daily contact with the people whose behaviour change is most critical) 

A key to changing culture is to change behaviour, changing behaviour rather than engaging with the culture directly. In emphasising behaviour, you are looking for those few actions, conducted again and again that will lead to better values (and thus better results) Make clear the distinctions among the values you want to develop and one-time actions you are changing, and the recurring behaviours you hope to install. A commitment to service, for example, is a value. When a receptionist expresses that value by a warm and happy greeting, that’s an action. 

When the receptionist does this routinely, knowing it will help with visitor satisfaction, it’s a behaviour. 

Repeated behaviours have cultural impact because they are contagious. Even small changes in behaviour, if they are picked up by more than one individual, can ripple though an organisation as others see their value and begin to act accordingly. 

This could involve changing the behaviour of your management team, or your supervisors and team leaders, developing small behavioural changes that lead them, bit by bit, to think about things differently, to act differently, to behave differently. 

Next time you are looking to blame your culture, stop and think about actions you need to take to change behaviour! Remember, it is much easier to act your way into new thinking than to think your way into new actions. This week try a new way of greeting visitors as they walk through your office. Ask the people around you to try it out as well. 

Tips for Changing Culture

• Don’t try to change everything at once. Focus on a few critical behaviours that resonate with you current culture 
• Create self-awareness about the behaviour you want to change
• Repeated behaviours have cultural impact because they are contagious. People unconsciously imitate what they see others do
• Practice new behaviours again and again so that people experience their value 
• Seek out role models for new behaviours. Enlist “cultural carriers”, people who are well positioned to transmit behaviours to others
• Don’t blame your culture if you can’t get things done; use it purposefully. View it as an asset: a source of energy, pride, and motivation. Learn to work with it and within it
• Look for subcultures (within teams or departments) and define specific action to target work on change within that subculture
• Help people recognise how new behaviours will support culture change
• Culture is like the tide – when the tide rises so do all the boats. Look for actions and behaviours that will help you create a high tide

Like to share your culture change strategies and tips? Comment on our LinkedIn Discussion page  

I’m constantly searching for great ways to develop, and to leverage employee engagement. Having engaged people within workplaces is such an important part of individual and organisational success and I like to shout its virtues whenever I’m given the opportunity.

The opportunity on this occasion is the release of two reports this year into employee engagement; one by BlessingWhite and the other by ORC International. 

Both reports indicate fewer than 1 in 3 employees are engaged. However the reports also offer some great advice backed by sound data, on ways to increase engagement.

Full engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction (“I like my work and do it well”) with maximum job contribution (“I help achieve the goals of my organisation”).

This month I’m offering People Development Australia’s supporters a summary of the two reports. The summary highlights:

• Key engagement trends and statistics 
• 15 tips for great engagement 
• Creative ways to implement your engagement strategy

Please let me know if you would also like a copy of the reports.

Email PDA at info@peopledevelop.com.au for a free copy of the report.

Like to share your engagement strategies and tips? Comment on our LinkedIn Discussion page  

These are diverse questions with many answers. But one commonality is present when people answer these questions - the issue of trust.

Trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives—both personally and professionally.

The Speed of Trust

In the personal development field, few names have as much cachet as Stephen R Covey. His book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) is a true classic, popularising familiar terms such as “begin with the end in mind”, “put first things first”, and “seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything (2006), was written by Covey’s son, Stephen M R Covey, and gives readers actionable direction on how to develop trust and use it to achieve better results in all aspects of life — work, home and relationships. Stephen M R Covey also describes a number of behaviours that develop and enhance trusting relationships. 

The book reinforces many of the principles People Development Australia utilise within our programs on trust and an engaging workplace; trust is a key ingredient, an important culture trait and something that has measurable bottom line results. 

Many leaders and organisations talk about a vague notion of trust. In actual fact, workplace trust is not vague at all and has measurable results once we break it down into its tangible component parts. Trust has a speed and an impact on bottom-line results; when trust goes up, speed goes up while costs come down.

Think of the outcomes of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; our trust in flying went down dramatically. Systems and checks have been put in place over the last decade as a reaction to that low level of trust. Subsequently the speed you can travel by air went down and the cost of travel went up. In another example Woolworths and Coles are now trusting customers to do their own checkout with self-serve checkout stations – the result is a lower staff cost and a faster checkout. Although I’m still getting use to the automation!

What level of trust is in your culture?

Say you need to pull a team of people together to complete a project within six weeks. Ask yourself: what’s the level of trust in your culture? What is the impact trust will have on the speed and cost of the project, and on your ability to execute this project effectively?

For most people, trust is hidden from view. They have no idea how present and pervasive the impact of trust is in every relationship, in every organisation, and in every interaction. 

Trust is the foundation of all relationships. People want to work for organisations and managers they can trust. People buy from companies and salespeople they trust. They may not say it that way, but that’s what they inevitably do.

After laying out a solid argument for the need for increased trust in business and private life, Stephen M R Covey goes on to explore the various aspects of trust and ways we can both encourage or lose trust. He outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders, such as demonstrating respect, creating transparency, righting wrongs, delivering results and practicing accountability.

The strength of the book lies in its many real life applications. However one of the drawbacks is its overwhelming plethora of ideas and the organisation of these ideas. 

The Elements of Trust

People Development Australia utilise the Elements of Trust  in our programs based on some great Australian research to develop positive cultures within workplaces. These elements can be part of a DiSC profile program or in a stand-alone workshop. 

The four Elements of Trust* are as follows:

• Congruence: I say what I mean and mean what I say. I walk the talk. I am honest and ethical. 
• Openness: I am receptive to the ideas and opinions of others. I am willing to disclose what’s on my mind.
• Acceptance: Who you are is OK with me. I do not judge other people. 
• Reliability: You can count on me to keep my commitments. I do my best at everything I do. 

Your strengths and potential weaknesses

Most people are naturally strong in two of the Elements of Trust, competent in a third element, and must work hard on the remaining element. Which two elements come most easily to you, and which one takes the most energy? 

Some people struggle with being congruent because they have difficulty being straightforward with people – they do not want to hurt their feelings or alienate them. Some find being open problematic because they are naturally more private. People who have difficulty accepting are typically less tolerant, as they set high standards for themselves and can tend to be outwardly critical of others. The primary reason some people struggle with reliability is because they tend to over-commit themselves. This is common with people-orientated extraverts who like to interact with their entire environment. 

Have your say on Trust

Need further help with Trust?

PDA has some great programs on Trust within the workplace and can tailor a program to suit your needs. Contact us today to discuss how we can be of assistance. 

Peter Agnew

Director
People Development Australia

* The Elements of Trust are trademarked by Integro Leadership Institute

Unfortunately the short answer is no. A great team has members with a combination of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, relevant skills and abilities, and a high level of trust. The team would be productive, devoid of interpersonal conflict and infighting, would have functional interactions with others, and would successfully accomplish tasks and goals.

Integral to these elements is the ability to communicate effectively. Obviously not all communication is agreeable, and it is the skill to turn conflicting approaches into constructive dialogue that creates a great team.

As a result, tough issues will require crucial conversations. In the book Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler (McGraw Hill, 2002), the authors note that a casual conversation can become crucial quickly and often surprisingly. They define a crucial conversation as a discussion between two or more people where:

1. the stakes are high 
2. opinions vary
3. emotions run strong

Unfortunately, it's human nature to back away from discussions we fear will hurt us or make things worse. We can be masters of avoiding these tough conversations. On the flip side we may take an aggressive approach that can cause more harm than good.

The authors identify their “silver bullet”, or the one thing they believe matters most in our interactions with others, which is:  

“When it comes to risky, controversial, and emotional conversations, skilled people find a way to get all the relevant information (from themselves and others) out into the open. That’s it! At the core of every successful conversation lies the free flow of relevant information”

This book also presents exercises to help you keep a cool head, communicate clearly and get things done, despite our evolutionary tendency to ‘fight or flight’. 

Frequently, people don’t feel safe voicing their concerns when an initiative is sponsored by someone in a position of power. One way to encourage people to begin talking about difficult issues is to point out that a culture of silence exists. 

Sincerely invite people to share their concerns. You might also want to try playing devil’s advocate: disagree with your own position to encourage dialogue. This helps others see that you’re open to feedback and opposing views. When people feel safe, they will talk more freely and honestly.

Before you approach a crucial conversation, try to recognise the difference between the facts and the stories you’re telling yourself about the situation or about the people in it. Facts are things that we can see, hear, or otherwise observe. Stories are the conclusions we draw about the facts, linked by assumptions and opinions.

The best communicators step up to crucial conversations and establish mutual purpose by backtracking from differences and seeking common ground. What is it that we both can agree on? While you may differ in tactics, you can agree on purpose: You both want what’s best for the organisation and those involved. Once you identify the mutual purpose, you can build a common strategy to achieve it.

Crucial Conversations is an insightful book because although it acknowledges our initial instincts may be to ‘fight or flight’ when handling crucial conversations, more civilised and constructive methods can be learned. 

To talk calmly while discussing a highly emotional subject and to get all of the information on the table is one of the most important skills to develop.

People Development Australia’s Top 5 Tips for Crucial Conversations:

1. Make it safe – successful dialogue results when everyone feels safe enough to add their meaning to the conversation (see our next newsletter on the elements of trust)
2. Become more self-aware of the strategies you use to get your own way eg; silence or violence?
3. Become more aware of other behaviour styles and how you interact as a response to these styles
4. Become a better communicator – explore how you listen and receive information and what sort of feedback you give in the communication process 
5. Practice assertive communications (I See, I Feel, I Want)

Win a copy of Crucial Conversations

What are your tips for handling crucial conversations? What is your best example handling a crucial conversation? What communication skills need to be present in a crucial conversation? 

The first four people to comment on our LinkedIn Discussion Page will receive a free copy of Crucial Conversations. 

Don’t have LinkedIn? Drop us your tips/comments on our Contact Us page on the PDA website 

Need more help?

People Development Australia has several programs that can help your team with crucial conversations, communications, trust and personal listening. Email or call us today

One of my basic assumptions is that there is not only a link between your interactions and how successful and productive you are in the workplace, but also a direct link between the quality of your interactions with others and the quality of your life. 

Moving past dysfunction 

Whether you are interacting with friends and family or with work colleagues, the way you interact – the way you meet their needs – is an important part of your day-to-day life. Misunderstandings, conflict and poor relationships are all by-products of dysfunctional interactions. 

One of the most dynamic and complex places for you to interact with others is the workplace. We often work under pressure, with people we don’t know well and with a vast array of different people who have different needs. There will be times when being yourself will work just fine for you, and there will be times when it doesn’t work. At times like this, when being yourself does not produce positive results for you, you need to be able to adapt your thinking and behaviour to be more effective.

Impact Interactions Program 

I'm excited to let you know about our informative and enjoyable one-day public program this month in Sydney and Melbourne. 

PDA’s Impact Interactions provides you with an opportunity to understand yourself and others during this interaction process. It will focus on your own personal interaction style and how you work best with others. We will explore strategies for interaction with others that are different to your own style of behaviour and explore ways to improve communications and reduce frustration. The end goal is to empower you with the ability to work with the diverse styles of those around you and for you to be able to communicate your needs while accomplishing project tasks.  

The program will use a pre-course online profile (DiSC Profile), while the face-to-face program will be an enjoyable, reflective and interactive session designed to explore how each participant can move towards excellent interactions with impact and rigour.

Tips for improving your interactions with others 

• Understanding yourself better is the first step to becoming more effective when working with others. 
• Learning about other people’s styles of behaviour can help you understand their priorities and how they may differ from your own. 
• Understand what motivates you and your stressors - eg do you like a fast pace with bold new goals or do you prefer more routine projects with a focus on systematic protocols? 

Register today for this informative and enjoyable one day program. Send or fax the attached registration form or book on our events page 

Upcoming programs

Sydney:       24 March & 4 August 2011

Melbourne:   31 March & 10 November 2011

Canberra: 11 May 2011

Brisbane: 26 May 2011