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We hope you've come to learn more about Poertner Consulting Group, leadership, communicating effectively in the workplace and how you can have more influence, regardless of your title or position.

You're welcome to browse the leadership and communications posts on this page or dive right into the information on:

• Crucial Conversations
• Crucial Confrontations
• Influencer
• Executive Coaching
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by following the links to the left.  We'd welcome your feedback on our work and our site.

Beware the Busy Manager Part 1

You're busy. I'm busy. We're all busy. In fact, if you ask most business people what they want more of -- in both their personal and professional lives -- they'll likely tell you they want more time. And then they'll bemoan the fact that they have to:

• rush between back-to-back meetings,
• check their emails constantly to be sure they don't miss important happenings,
• put out fire after fire, and
• make endless phone calls from the road.

Sound familiar? Yeah, me too. What most business people don't tell you, and may not even realize, is that all of that busyness IS the problem. Being busy is NOT synonymous with being effective. It's deceiving though because we can't imagine being effective any other way.

But there is another way. A better way in fact. The characteristics of managers who are most effective are: Focus and Commitment. Not one or the other. Effective managers display both.

• Managers who are NOT focused OR committed will carry out their routine responsibilities because that's how they see their role. But don't count on them to be strategic or come up with new solutions requiring change.
• Managers who are focused but not committed tend to start projects but seldom have the energy to see them through to completion. Organizations can even discourage new managers from being committed by not rewarding their initiative or their curiosity and creative ideas.
• Managers who are committed but not focused do a lot of things. Their to-do lists are long and they're members of numerous task forces and teams. But they become easily overwhelmed and burn out rather than achieve significant results.
• Managers who are focused AND committed achieve a short list of critical long-term goals with a vigor that is unstoppable. They're effective and achieve results.

You don't hear a lot of busyness in that last description, do you? In "Beware the Busy Manager Part II," we'll explore the behaviors of focused and committed managers. We'll look at how they spend that most precious of resources -- time-- that makes all the difference for themselves and their organizations.

Photo on flickr by mazsola

It's Not About Charisma and Perks

When it comes to motivating others at work, it's not about relying on power or charisma or perks. Oh sure, you can always play the "power card" if you have to. You are the boss, after all. Or the department head. Or the team lead. (And at home, you're the parent, right?)

But the secret is, don't start with power. There are so many other ways to get people to do what they're supposed to be doing -- what they signed on to do --and these other ways are much more effective. Try some of them first. Put the "power card" in your back pocket and only use it as a last resort. So what are some of those other ways?

1. Clarify natural consequences. In their book, Crucial Confrontations, the authors explain that what ultimately motivates people are consequences. Natural consequences.

• Individuals anticipate the consequences that will result from a particular behavior.
• They weigh those consequences out in their mind.
• Then they choose how to act, or whether to act at all.

You and I do this too. It's human nature. So how do we motivate by clarifying natural consequences? We help the other person see what happens, or doesn't happen, as a natural result of their behavior.

For example, we might ask, "If you exclude the IT department from the planning team, what are the things that are likely to happen as a result?" If we help them think through those natural consequences, chances are they will see the wisdom, for themselves, of including the IT department. They will be motivated to do what needs to happen. But not because you told them they had to. And the "power card" never left your pocket!

2. Use goals to motivate. Most people like to measure themselves against a standard. They are turned on by reasonable goals. They like to know who can run the fastest, jump the highest and sell the most. And if they get to help set those goals...WOW! That's even more engaging. So work with them to set just-out-of-reach challenges and tasks that will be learning opportunities -- their first sales call, their first solo presentation to the Board, etc.

3. Identify people's hot buttons. What do they do first? What do they talk about all the time? What gets them excited? These are things we ought to know about the people who are working every day to help us be successful as leaders. Do what you can to provide what drives your team members. If you're not really sure what those drivers are, ask. They'll tell you.

Rupert Murdoch summed it up well. "In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example -- and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved." Notice that Murdock says nothing about charisma or perks.

Photo on flickr by Erich J. Harvey

Delegate Everything Except Uniqueness

Executive coaching is a huge force in the world of training & development today. My coaching practice is bigger today than it's ever been. Having your very own sounding board, learning partner, executive coach is a perk that many managers and directors are insisting on from their leaders.

But when partnering up with a coach, what's often the tendency to focus on? Weaknesses. Flaws. What's wrong. This comes from our childhood training where we learned that the secret to success in life is to "get better at what we're not already good at." That's dead wrong. That forces us to be preoccupied with mediocre behavior, performance and results. It results in a perpetual sense of frustration, wasted potential, and missed opportunity.

What should be the focus? Talents. Strengths. Uniqueness.

Think about it. As human beings, we spend our lives in a number of different "zones" or situations.

• Sometimes we're forced, or we mistakenly chose, to work in areas that do not play to who we really are, to our strengths. If we're right-handed, it's like having to do all of our work with our left hands. It's hard. No fun. And we'll never be at --or do--our best.
• Most of the time we are fortunate enough to be able to operate in areas that we are competent in. We have strengths in. We enjoy most of the time.
• But...who are the most successful and happy in their careers? As entrepreneurs AND intrapreneurs? Those who are blessed with being able to play to their uniqueness. To KNOW and to BE who they truly ARE.

Think about how different your life would be -- whether you are president of your own small business, a department head, or an individual contributor -- if you could spend your day doing those activities:

1. that you absolutely love doing,
2. that give you more energy than they consume, and
3. that produce tremendous results in relation to the amount of time you invest.

You can. You can be a learner, be confident, and be creative. You can have a sense of simplicity, clarity and serenity. How? Identify what your unique strengths are (...see list of activities above!) and do only them. Delegate everything else on your desk --your to-do list--to individuals who have uniqueness where you do not. Who have strengths where you have weaknesses.

Pay others to do those things that they are uniquely gifted to do, that fall outside your uniqueness, and look at what happens. You benefit, they benefit, and your business prospers. What are you waiting for? See list of activities above.

Photo on flickr by realkuhl