Are you their friend or enemy? You are in one or the other camp (whether you like it or not). You have to earn the right to get in their inner circle. It’s how our brains are wired.
To fast-track biz success, you’ve got to build high level of trust quickly. You do that not by pitching them, but getting to know them personally. You need to create the feeling (in 5 mins or less) that you’ve known the person forever. You do that by leading with vulnerability and opening them up.
Why? Because belonging is our DNA. Everyone wants it and they can never get enough of it. People want to open up and share, it’s just most people don’t care & don’t want to listen. People don’t want to hide behind their mask. So be the person that allows them to take it off.
How? Ask them deep personal questions the first time you meet them. Uncomfortable? Yes, but the research proves it works. The other way is slow and doesn’t work.
What questions (here are two examples):
1) What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in the last year? Why?
2) What’s a setback that turned into a blessing in disguise? Why was it?
You can also get my team building game (cardsagainstMundanity.com) for free and play it with them. Use two questions that you both answer. It will take you 3-4 minutes.
Do the opposite of the other 99% and you’ll skyrocket your results.
Try it and see how it works. You’ll be surprised how easy it is.
One top three biggest complaints I’ve received from hundreds of senior executives is employees don’t think like a CEO (enterprise-or company-wide. They think in a silo (narrow in scope & impact) and view the company from their team/group perspective. This doesn’t foster a contribution mindset nor problem-solving in a top-down/across-an-organization fashion.
Turn the table around. The CEO doesn’t just think about your group. They have to take into consideration all of them. Why shouldn’t you? Imagine how much more strategic you’ll be?
This IS the way to fast-track your career.
Also, many senior leaders don’t do this either. The ones that do really stand out and accomplish the most.
Here are some ways to up-level your thinking:
-Understand the company you work for and the business you are in (sales-driven, manufacturing, etc.)
-How the company makes money (end-to-end)
-Who the end customer is
-How what you do every day fits into the strategy of the company
-Goals, challenges and opportunities to each group (and how you can help them).This requires you to meet with people 1:1.
-Goals, challenges and opportunity of your colleagues
-You also need to understand the culture and how things really get done.
If you were “CEO” for the day, what would you do/change?
Start thinking like a CEO not like an employee. You’ll see a significant shift in how many people view, your success and fulfillment and cash in your pocket.
Here’s a free webinar on how to build the highest performing teams (and a free game to use as well). More than 5000+ people are using these strategies and processes including organizations such as Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Worldwide Express, PRSA, E&Y and many others. I spent more than 3+ years researching, interviewing and observing most of Forbes/Fortune’s top 10 workplaces to see firsthand what teams are doing, behavior, and thinking.
This also applies to individuals because you can influence the team and create the optimal environment around you.
What’s the best team you’ve ever been on? The team that was the most cohesive, cooperative, deeply connected, and productive. Maybe it was a job, a sports team, club, startup, an event you were apart of, etc.
How did it feel to be connected to something bigger, to sort of lose yourself in that moment?
That feeling you just thought of is…THE…most…powerful…business…asset…on…earth. It’s what separates the top 1% from all the rest.
Leaders struggle and stay awake at night trying to figure out how to create that feeling and conditions for others to thrive.
Unfortunately, many leaders believe that creating this is like your DNA – you either have it or not. It’s not luck nor an accident.
Business leaders can learn how to “dial in” to the right behaviors and environment to put every person in a peak state of performance and innovation.
Individuals, managers, leaders, human resources, and executives can use the strategies and processes. You can also use them externally with prospects, clients, key partners, etc.
You’ll learn how to create and operationalize this in a team and across an organization.
“The workshop and game were excellent. The team was very appreciative of the event, and it kept coming up as one of the best experiences they’ve ever had.As a manager, that was great to hear.
Throughout the following two days, we hosted some guests from other groups, and we asked them to answer random cards in front of the audience. Some of their answers were surprisingly deep and instantly helped to establish trust between them and our teams.”
Alberto Grazi, Google’s Head of Americas Video Solutions Consulting
“Jason did a great job of not only giving me the nudge I needed to explore a team workshop but he also did a fantastic job of organizing and running it!
The workshop was very beneficial and our leaders immediately felt the impact it had on the team as a whole.
Whether you have a high or low performing team I would highly recommend Jason’s workshops as a great tool to improve the team’s performance.”
Josh Pluemer, Vice President of Operations, WORLDWIDE EXPRESS
Three Things You’ll Learn:
1) Why 99% of teams underperform/lack innovation
2) Strategies, behaviors, and processes of the top 1%
3) How to operationalize team performance and innovation
Charles Feltman did some groundbreaking work on creating trust. He found that the most important factor in building trust is caring. Caring is key to building high-levels of trust in teams and organizations. It has to be embedded into the DNA of a team and organization.
When someone truly cares about another person, trust can be created in even in absence of other three key factors (sincerity, reliability, and competence).
You’ve known people that care about you and have your back. Perhaps they do things like showing up late all the time, may have told a lie here or there, may not be the most competent person, etc. You still keep them in your life because you know they care.
But it doesn’t work the same for any other three individual factors. For example, if someone is competent, but they don’t care about you, and they aren’t sincere and reliable, we don’t trust them.
Action: If you buy into the philosophy that your business and personal life is completely separate at work, you will eventually fall on hard times. Not only won’t you be able to create psychological safety, people won’t put themselves on the line for you. The requirement is to go all in and care about others.
PS: If you want to rocket “trust” in your organization check out my team building workshop.
Want to increase trust, engagement and closeness by 20%+ in your team & organization? My team performance workshop does that in under two hours, and that would take years of effort to do. You’ll see productivity, problem-solving and collaboration increases the next day.
5000+ people have gone through it so far, including organizations such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, PRSA, Chambers of Commerce, and many more.
“Jason did a great job of not only giving me the nudge I needed to explore a team workshop but he also did a fantastic job of organizing and running it! The workshop was very beneficial and our leaders immediately felt the impact it had on the team as a whole. Whether you have a high or low performing team I would highly recommend Jason’s workshops as a great tool to improve the team’s performance.”
JOSH PLUEMER. VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, WORLDWIDE EXPRESS ($2B Shipping/Logistics Private Company)
Won my first highly competitive bid for my team building (and best practices for managers) workshop. Had to present against three national companies (Ken Blanchard, Franklin Covey, Dale Carnegie) and two other large gurus w/ staffs of 50+ people. I was the only solopreneur. I didn’t think I had a shot in hell, but I guess sometimes you never know.
Morale of the story: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Self-awareness is the #1 predictor of your career, managerial and leadership success. It’s also the #1 reason people derail their career. Here are four questions will help you on that journey.
Why does self-awareness matter so much?
Your thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and the impact they have on others will dictate how others view you, interact with you, and support you.
Only 10% to 15% of people are self-aware, but 95% believe that they are. Most people are living in a delusion and they can’t see the reality the situation.
Here are two examples to highlight this point on self-awareness:
A manager who doesn’t trust his team micromanages them and doesn’t solicit feedback because they believe they have all the solutions. He or she comes off as a jerk, and then a wave of people quit over the next six months. That significantly impacts productivity and the overall culture.
A project doesn’t go as well as planned. Instead of blaming members on the team, the group leader first reflects on what role they played in the process. They take accountability for their role. Did they give sufficient guidance? Did they put the right people in the right roles? etc. They also have a post-mortem discussion looking at what happened objectively and seek feedback/suggestions from the group. They implement those suggestions for the next project. The group leader and team members crush their metrics and goals on the next project they work on together.
Do you see why this matters? Can you think of an example in your organization where self-awareness is an issue?
Here’s why it’s challenging:
I tell my clients all the time they are like Oprah. They can see all the problems around them and have solutions. But they can’t get see the problems in their own lives.
I’m sure you have had a friend, family member and/or colleague come to you for advice. You give them that advice and then they make the same mistake again. You clearly see this pattern and point it out again to them. But they make the same mistake again. They don’t get it. I’m sure that gets you frustrated because you want to help them because you care.
Well, the same thing happens to you too. It’s because our brain is wired for survival and not happiness. It’s wired to keep us safe, and doesn’t allow us to see everything that is going on around us. We would get completely overwhelmed and it would affect our survival.
That’s why it’s easier to coach other people than it is yourself.
Make sense?
Before you start the questions, I want you to write down the answers to the following two questions:
What are my current career challenges? This could issues you see, feedback from others, information from a review, etc.
If you solved those problems, what would it do for you?
Here are four questions to answer to raise your self-awareness:
What’s the real impact of self-awareness?
Who is one person you know that isn’t self-aware? What “un-self-aware” behaviors do you see from them? What is the impact of those behaviors?
Who is one person you know that is self-aware? What “self-aware” behaviors do you see from them? What is the impact of those behaviors?
What were three core values you raised with? Does your present-day belief system reflect those values? Do you see the world differently than you were brought up to see it?
What were the one to two most pivotal experiences from your childhood through high school years? What happened? How did they shape and affect you?
Look at your biggest blind spots and/or current challenges? Can you see any common threads from #3?
What breakthroughs or realizations did you have? Have you connected anything you’ve learned to your current career challenges?
PS: I’ve developed a breakthrough process to help individuals and groups maximize their self-awareness. I utilize in coaching and a workshop. Contact me for details.
Hands down clients tell this process is business- and life-changing for them.
The most significant accelerant to someone’s success is knowing that you have their back. Building a foundation that maximizes team and organizational success is absolutely critical, but it’s what organizations do the poorest job of and spend the least time doing. It’s the equivalent of building a house on sand.
You must operationalize and institutionalize deep levels of caring, trust and psychological safety if you want to create the highest team performance, the top 1%.
The key questions are:
Are you doing it now?
How are you doing it?
Is it being highly effective for every single person?
You’ve probably heard or thought this before: “I’m so frustrated and annoyed. My boss (or someone else in your organization) doesn’t get it. I’ve tried everything to perform well and make them happy, but nothing is working. I’m exhausted, upset, and they just suck. Maybe I’ll have to quit or transfer to another team.”
75% of people quit organizations because of their managers, not the organization itself. Poor management is a very real issue. Only 10% to 15% of managers are self-aware, but 95% believe that they are. There are tons of other statistics that go along with this.
But how is that going to help you deal with someone challenging or problematic?
It’s not.
You are the problem. That’s right. It’s YOU not THEM.
Acceptance is the first step in the process. For people who have severe behavioral issues, they can’t change until they accept the current situation and what’s going on. The same goes for you.
You aren’t going to change your manager, colleague, skip-level boss or CEO the organization. You will also always have to deal with difficult people in any place you work.
How you manage yourself is the key.
You have to change. You only can control two things: your behavior/actions/feelings and how you react.
You can quit, but in many instances, that’s not the answer. Changing how you engage is.
Here is what you do (this example will focus on your boss, but it could be anyone)?
