The organization’s objective in bringing me in was to broaden and deepen the scope of work that the team performed, so some things needed to change.

And quickly.

Over two 1/2-day sessions (conducted a week apart), we explored different working styles and how we, as humans, often jump to conclusions and embrace our personal assumptions, sometimes without sufficient data. We learned and tested a model that would give the team members language and motivation to share more responsibility, define accountabilities, and become more self-empowered. The team practiced new methods of communicating, coming up with ways to help and support each other, and began to realize that making a choice about changing the conversation can change the outcome of the relationship.

It’s a simple beginning to a new way of being.

Here are three ways that the team members’ choices began to change the relationships across the team. These choices are important for any team and its members:

• Choose what you see. We’re all familiar with Rorschach images, those inkblots that everyone views differently. By choosing what you see, you’re acknowledging that what you see may not be what someone else sees, that their interpretation may be different than yours, yet equally valid. Covey says, “Seek first to understand; then seek to be understood.” By choosing to view a situation from another’s point of view, there just may be an even better outcome all around.
• Choose who shows up. There were moments in the offsite when the conversation took on a negative tone, focusing how other parts of the company were standing in the way of the team meeting its goals. But we all know that there will always be issues or roadblocks. We can show up as a victim or as a creator. By choosing to show up as creator, to declare what you want rather than what you can’t have or do, you put yourself—and the team—in a position to think creatively. The creator standpoint says that you “can do” rather than that you “can’t do.” Your peers, then, can contribute by creating a new way with you.
• Choose to collaborate. When an issue is important to address and the relationship is important to nurture, choose to work together to create a mutually beneficial outcome. Both sides may need to bend a bit to accommodate the other’s needs or wishes. By entering into a conversation space with an intention of good will and collaboration, you and your teammates will move towards building a more solid working relationship.

These choices—and they are choices—are made by each individual and by the group as a whole. And, once made, they have tremendous impact, again, on each individual and on the group as a whole.

What choices do you and your teams make each day?

Then we left the “K” and proceeded on the “through 8″ part of our elementary education. For a while sharing was still important, but not so much as it had been before.  Now, a lot of the things we wanted to share were things we weren’t allowed to anymore. We had to work alone, think alone, take tests alone. What used to be sharing they now called “cheating.”

And on it went, through middle school and high school where they tested how much we–as individuals–knew. Despite the occasional joint venture, knowledge became a solitary act.  And then came college, where we were not only tested on what we knew, but on what we knew relative to what others didn’t know–and they called it “the curve.” Now it wasn’t just that there was little advantage in sharing with others; in college they promote an actual disadvantage.

And then we got jobs, and the companies who hired us wanted us to share again, to cooperate, to work closely together for everyone’s (and the company’s) mutual benefit.

Many don’t realize how hard that can be, don’t remember that sharing has been largely bred out of us before we finally hit the workforce.

Why all this preface about sharing?  Because even we, as professionals in this industry, sometimes forget how much we can learn from each other by sharing what we know, what we discover. Without question, the people we interact with are some of the most cooperative and sharing we’ve ever met, but we can all always do more.

Here are three things that we at Charney Coaching & Consulting are committed to sharing with our friends in the HR, Executive Coaching, and Leadership industries:

• Our thoughts and ideas. We’re always looking for new ways to approach leadership development and executive coaching. We’ve explored ways to analyze levels of behavior, the kinds of exchanges that happen in what we call “the conversation space,” and new techniques for building trust. As we develop these–and test them with clients–we’ll tell you about them here on our blog and through the groups we participate in on Linked In.
• What’s happening out there. There are–quite literally–thousands of professionals with millions of ideas. There’s no way everyone can keep track of them all.  However, using a new platform called Scoop.It, we’ve begun to aggregate and link to dozens of very interesting articles and blogs, all reviewed and curated by us, and now available as the re-launched version of The Way We Lead.
  
• The conversations we have with others. Each Wednesday, starting next week. we will begin a conversation on our Facebook page and invite others to respond. Some weeks it will be a question, other weeks a link to something we find provocative or interesting. Whatever it is, it will always challenge our thinking.

With these new initiatives we hope to participate in–and contribute to–the sharing of knowledge about what we do.  We hope you will come and see what we have to say and–importantly–tell us what you have to say.

Thanks.  We look forward to our conversations.

Renee and Michael

A webinar that I’m currently taking, The Empowerment Dynamic (or TED), teaches us about shifts in our mindsets when we set our intentions on what we want, on creating something rather than solving a problem or focusing on what we don’t want. When we shift to an intention of creating something we want, we choose – personally choose – an energy and orientation on an outcome of “I Can Do It” rather than “I’m not as fast|able|agile as the gal or guy in front of me.” It may seem small, yet applying this to my running changes everything – my relationship with myself and my running goal, my relationship and conversation with other runners, and my relationship with how I perceive myself. I’m not focused on whether or not I’m the slowest one in the pack; rather my mindset is focused on bringing into being a newly created identity and outcome – I am a runner.

I experienced a breakthrough at our last clinic: I noticed that after the first two cycles of ”run three, walk two”, that I was not as tired or out of breath as I was the week before. Keeping with my slow and deliberate pace, I psyched myself to keep going to the next tree, then to the next crosswalk, and on and on. I wasn’t gasping for breath and my body wasn’t screaming to stop. The pace that I had developed for myself was serving me well.  I was doing it!

My new practice of running and the new habits I’m forming in the process have moved me beyond where I was a month ago. These are clearly baby steps that I’m taking (I’m not signing up for a marathon anytime too soon!) and I am setting my intention on an outcome – to finish the 5K race. My mindset is focused on what I want rather than what I don’t want. This is a subtle and powerful shift and distinction. What I’ve done, simply put, is to empower myself, to act as a leader for myself by focusing on the positive outcomes I want, and creating the intentions and energy to make those outcomes real. I’m realizing, too, that these ideas can strengthen the leaders I work with.  All leaders can benefit from such an approach, one that focuses on a “can do” mindset for yourself and your team members.

Try this over the next week. See how you might shift the language and your outlook on how you engage with your employees and teams. Where might you instill a “can do” mindset in your conversations? Ask them “what do we want” rather than “what don’t we want”, see what you notice, and comment back. I’ll be curious what breakthroughs you might experience!

Targeting my first 5K race may not seem like all that much, but I don’t run. Never. Not in high school or college, not for recreation, not for exercise. I have the shoes and some of the clothes, enough to get me through the chilly spring days, but that’s it. Still, I decided to go for it and joined a beginner’s running class that gathers twice-weekly for eight weeks, all in preparation for the race.

Last week was the first class, and we ran a little bit—one minute jogging, then a minute walking, back and forth like that for a few cycles. In subsequent sessions the walking intermezzos would shorten, while the periods of running would lengthen.

Did I mention I’d never run before?

I had forgotten how long a minute could be. I had a quick flash where, in my imagination, I collapsed into a heap and was carted off to the hospital, where someone encouraged my recovery with a whoopie pie and a cup of coffee while I, smiling through my caffeine-and-sugar euphoria, assumed it was all a dream.  That sounded really good after about the fourth run-walk cycle…

But I kept going—encouraged by three excellent, supportive running coaches. They reminded me (and others also just starting out; I wasn’t the only one) that we all came with goals, that we were all different, that we could achieve what we wanted and more. They’d run up next to us and remind us that we each had our own pace, telling us to hold on to that pace while we learned how to stretch our capacity for more from there. They told us to listen to our bodies and to be curious about what it’s telling us. Harder to breathe? Slow down. Sensing a cramp in my calf? Be sure you’re coming down on your feet correctly.

I began to heed their advice and listened in a way that was new for me. Since I’d never run before I became curious about my body’s responses to running: the way my lungs expanded in new ways, the way my legs muscles tensed and relaxed.

I soon turned to self-encouragement, urging a run to (at least) the next sign-post. I pushed, struggled, succeeded.  I realized that, as a beginner, I had a lot to learn about this new thing called “running.” Once I set my intention to learn, to respond to my pace, and to listen to my body’s triggers and cues, I began to enjoy the experience more. It became a lesson in discovery!

When we heard the shout of “FINAL WALK!” we all slowed down and headed back to the running store where we had begun. The coaches checked in with each of us, asked us how we felt and gave us each a “well done!” for finishing that day.  I headed home with a remembered appreciation for the “beginner’s mind,” that place from which we always start something new, something discoverable about ourselves.

As leaders, let’s remind ourselves to queue up our curiosity more and pay attention to our beginner’s mind. Our beginner’s mind may show us new ways of pacing ourselves as well as new ways of leading our teams. Our bodies and minds are intuitive and smart message transmitters, not just when we run, but also when we are in situations that are new or different.  What is yours telling you? What new triggers emerge from your beginner’s mind?

Here’s the bad news: the job market is improving.

This morning’s job numbers show that new applications for unemployment benefits have dropped to a four-year low, while last week’s jobs report showed a net increase of 227,000 jobs.  Sherry Leginski of CareerPlace (as reported in the New York Times) said that “we’ve seen a lot less Eeyore,” referring to the hapless sad-sack from the Winnie-the-Pooh books, suggesting instead that people are “turning a little bit more Tigger.”

So why is this bad news? Well, it’s not. Not really. But as employers, leaders and HR professionals we need to be aware that the people who work in our organizations will soon have more opportunities for advancement and, if they’re not happy where they are, if they’re not fully engaged, they may choose to go elsewhere.

Employee engagement once again takes center stage, and here are three things you can do right now to engage your employees:

1. Have Honest Conversations. This sounds simple, but too often we’ve seen leaders err on the side of sharing too little information with their teams rather than too much. Leadership Development Consultant Kristi Hedges recently blogged about a related topic, saying that “authenticity is paramount and palpable.” Engaged employees want to work for leaders who are self-aware, sharing, and trusting. That starts with openness.
   
2. Encourage Risk Taking. David Packard, American philanthropist and a founding half of Hewlett-Packard, said this: “Take risks. Ask big questions. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; if you don’t make mistakes, you’re not reaching far enough.”  How often do we, as leaders, encourage rather than discourage risk taking? Engaged employees want to take chances, want to try new things. Sure, they’ll fall down, and that’s when it’s a leader’s job to help them up. So let them take chances; let them reach “far enough.”
3. Give Trust. Too often in our culture we talk of having to earn trust, as if trust is some currency that can be passed from hand to hand. In our view, trust is something to give, not to earn, and one way to engage effectively with your employees is simply to assume trust.  As often as not, your lack of trust may be merely self-fulfilling. Try it the other way, giving trust rather than forcing it to be earned. You’ll be amazed at how often people will live up to your expectations—and will trust you all the more for trusting them.

“Engage” is one of those buzzwords; we’re all supposed to take it seriously and we know it. But many, we believe, forget that the word has myriad meanings. On the one hand it means to “occupy the attention or efforts of.” If that’s the definition we want to use—if we think that employee engagement is merely about occupying the attention and efforts of our team members—then we will fail. However, if we lean to another meaning—“to pledge one’s word; to assume an obligation”—then we can truly engage with our employees in meaningful ways, and they’ll do the same with us.

What are your thoughts? How have you succeeded in providing instant employee engagement? Please share your ideas for others to read by adding to the comments below, and thank you.

Sounds like a good practice.

The person who introduced me to the upcycling world was Victoria Tane, a jeweler who takes estate sale and flea market finds and re-purposes them into beautiful, wearable works of art. When I first walked into her studio, I was greeted by displays of both beauty and whimsy: former pastry decorating tips transformed into fashionable necklaces; beads, old buttons and wire glued together into a brooch you could swear you saw on a fashion runway; unique headbands that, with a twist of the wrist, become geometric chokers. And all the items refashioned with new purpose.

Victoria’s work got me thinking. As leaders and as team development specialists, how often do we seek out the shiny and new when, if we stepped back just a bit, we might find exactly what we need right before our eyes—if only we are willing to look in a slightly different way, to look not only with purpose, but with repurpose?

Right now I’m working with a client at a pivotal point in her career. She is an expert in what she does and is well-respected. She believes she might be ready to take the next step in her career. However, if she sought new opportunities, her absence would leave a huge gap in her group, a simple fact that has created an impasse for her. The friction between her wish for promotion and the group’s need for her to stay where she is very much needed has caused a rift in their relationship. Her loyalty is beginning to wane.

The issue I see is one of opportunity: the organization should consider upcycling this leader’s skills, taking what she’s really good at and repurposing those skills somewhere else in the organization.  By rewarding her expertise and refashioning her capabilities, she achieves upward mobility while the organization retains important talent. Employee retention and engagement equals cost savings—and much more—for the company.

What leadership capabilities and talents can be upcycled in your organization? Are there those hidden jewels amongst your teams that can be refashioned and repurposed to address critical business and talent needs? In taking the time to see people and their skills in a slightly different way, you may find just what you are looking for!

I know that probably sounds strange, so perhaps I’d better explain.  I recently signed up for a virtual writing class, something to keep me sharp and to teach me how to come up with new ideas whenever I feel the specter of writer’s block hovering just behind me. For this particular exercise, we were instructed to look at our arm and write whatever comes to mind. At first I thought, “Huh?? It’s my arm!” My arm, after all, has been attached to me since I was born. It swings into view on a regular basis. What could I possibly see that I hadn’t seen before?

Was I surprised!

The first thoughts that came to me were simple, shallow ones, generating words that I’m sure you would expect:  length, width, markings, color – the words that would describe the surface, what I can easily see when I glance at my arm.  “Hmmm, new freckle,” I thought to myself. “Need to keep a watch on that. And my hand is beginning to show it’s age a bit….” Those types of things.

Then something happened. I began to see my arm in a new way.

This was the limb that held my child as he grew up, that cradles my dog when she’s afraid. It helps me grab onto a tree and pull myself up a steep terrain when I hike and wraps around my husband’s neck to let him know that I care. My arm, over the years, may have changed in the way it looks, but it continues to give back to me in ways that I probably took for granted.

How often do we see our employees that way, the way I initially looked at my arm, as something that’s always been there but never really, deeply seen? Perhaps they’ve been working with us for a long time and we don’t really notice them as they were or as they’ve grown. If you were to really look at your employees – beyond the surface features like their tenure, skill, and ability – what would you see? What largely unseen—but deeply important—qualities do they have that, when you reflect on them, you appreciate and value, perhaps couldn’t or wouldn’t want to live without?

Take a moment and look at your employees with simple appreciation. What do they inspire that you may have overlooked?

Still, regardless of how much attention we in HR pay to the issue, it continues to warrant concern.  A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that only 52% of employees felt “plugged in” at work.

But, is that the end of the story? What’s going on with other 48%?

Years ago my husband worked for the CEO of a small company who had a mantra of sorts around employee engagement.  “You can quit or you can stay,” he would say, “but you can’t quit and stay.”  That phrase has stuck with me all these years.  So: what about those employees who appear to be staying and working and engaging, but, underneath it all, have at least a few toes already crossing the exit door’s threshold?  How do we identify those signals and, more importantly, work to create what I like to call a “Stay Culture?”

Here are the three clues I often advise others to look for:

1. Connection – How connected is the work that your people are doing with what’s important to them? These days, more and more Gen Y’ers actively voice their opinions about the need for meaning in their work, for a sense of connection between what they do and what they value. You could be pumping out widgets, but if the end result is that those widgets are being used for purposes that speak to core values, then your employees’ connection to their work will be deepened.
2. Contribution – How do you and your employees “show up” at work? (notice I said “at” work and not “to” work) This is less about the time on the clock – although a willingness to go above and beyond is often a sign of engagement – and more about stepping up to contribute in ways that go outside the job description. There is a balance, of course, but when you see your folks raising their hand to volunteer to learn about something new or taking on a leadership role for a project, this is a staying sign.
3. Conversation – How many times do your employees strike up a conversation with you, trying to get to know you more, trying, in fact, to engage? How open and inclusive is your culture of feedback and engagement? Sometimes employees actually try to engage but are turned back. The reasons may be valid—deadlines, urgencies, customer issues—but we should pay particular attention to these attempts to reach out. Ignoring such attempts can easily result in employees who “quit and stay.”

There may be other factors that could be at play that help to create a “stay culture”. What have you experienced in your organization that helps to create an engaged “stay” mindset?

I’m not a political or economic expert, but what I am able to do is notice what’s happening with my clients. There’s a slight and steady surge in preparing to lead new teams with new leaders—and that’s exciting! A new generation of leadership offers us all a new opportunity to embrace possibility for growth and innovation; it’s what our nation is all about.

And with this shift comes a need for focus.

The leaders who are emerging need our help to be able to take on the upcoming challenges of growing our economy and leading our organizations. Perhaps they’ve just graduated from college or they are high-performing, individual contributors ready to step into a leadership role. Either way, all emerging leaders need guidance and partnership to grow and learn how to lead in ways that enable and empower others.

Here are three important things that we should focus on to help our emerging leaders:

1)   Help them to become servant leaders. We know, and have had experience with, two types of leaders – the autocratic leader and the servant leader. Research and experience informs us that those who view their leadership as serving others – their employees, customers and stakeholders – are leaders who gain long-term and deep seated trust and followership. Servant leaders who view their work for the sake of others’ growth, development and empowerment will develop into the leaders who are able to shepherd their organizations through thick or thin, deliver news – good or bad – and secure the understanding and loyalty of those around them.

2)   Help them to empower others. If there’s one thing my experience has shown can guarantee an impact on organizations, it’s this – an empowered organization will get things done quickly and innovatively. Period. Once a leader has embraced letting go and empowering their team to make decisions and take action, their way of leading and their team’s way of working is boundless.

3)   Help them become conversational leaders. Conversations are at the core of building authentic relationships and, as a result, our emerging economy and growing organizations can benefit greatly from leaders who encourage and promote active, engaged conversations. I’ve observed organizations come through some really hard times unscathed due to the integrity, frequency and encouragement of conversations they held as an operating and behavioral norm. Leaders who embrace this notion are leaders who develop relationships with their teams and, as a result, pave the way for sustainable performance.

There are more things that we can model and embrace as leaders. If we start with these three, we are well on our way to developing a strong, cross-generational and emerging leadership capability. What other ways can you suggest?

This post is not about that.

What I’d like to offer is an invitation to think about “right now,” to step back and reflect upon what’s most important to you today, at this moment. Ask yourself that question – What’s most important?

Perhaps right now the most important thing that you could be doing is to take a nap or a walk. Perhaps what would make your moment would be to eat that last piece of chocolate layer cake for breakfast (I’m all for that!). What is the one thing, the one “do” or “be” that will shepherd you into a place of well-being and contentment?

So often we hold ourselves hostage by the promises we make to ourselves. I’ve been there myself, caught in a loop of trying to lose the same [fill in the number] pounds for the last six years. If it was the most important thing – really…the MOST important thing – then I would have accomplished it some time ago. Other concerns, or goals, or distractions have moved up the ranks somewhere along the way and have made themselves more important.

What’s most important?

It’s a question I often use to begin a coaching session. Of all the things leaders encounter each day, there’s always a “most important” that trumps all others. Focusing on that usually opens the way for other concerns to fall away or slip in prioritization. But after we unpack it, examine it and address it—that most important item—there often comes the sense of clarity needed to get to the other stuff.

There will be plenty of posts today and over the next couple of days that will invite us to plan and make new goals for ourselves, and I look forward to reading them. Goals, too, are very important. Goals are good. We need goals to propel us forward.

This is more about pausing.  This is about awareness and, more importantly, self-awareness. It’s about taking a moment to fully understand what you can be doing or being right now.  What’s most important?

My wish is that we will ask ourselves that question over and over again in 2012.