Do You Create Superheroes?
What creates a high performer? Is it how many degrees they have, how many IQ points they have? Or is it how they create, use and power up their network? Dan Goleman says just one cognitive ability distinguishes top performers from average; pattern recognition. And an important part of big picture pattern thinking is the ability to create and energize a network of people who provide the pieces of that pattern.
Rob Cross, from the University of Virginia, has been studying how people interact, and the networks we create in the workplace. And he’s convinced that the strength, reach, and energy in the networks we create are powerful predictors of professional success, and happiness too.
Try this. Don’t ask yourself, “Who do I talk to at work?” Instead ask yourself these four questions:
- Who do I go to to get things done?
- Who do I go to for information?
- Who do I trust at work?
- Who do I interact with who always leaves me feeling better and stronger, and more energized?
In many organizations, up to a third of one’s professional skills and capabilities remain unknown to others in the organization. Enter the importance and power of the “broker.” The Broker is an important capabilities connector in the Real Org Chart. The Broker creates the connectivity in information, expertise, decision-making, political dynamics, project awareness and more. It also turns out your SVPs are most likely to be the centers of information, trust, effectiveness and energy.
But one of the greatest predictors of your effectiveness, your happiness, and your success is your capacity to be an energizer, instead of a vampire. According to Rob Cross, statistically your ability to create energy in the workplace and with your colleagues is more than 10 times as powerful as other predictors, including function, title, department, expertise, knowledge… Think about that for a second, and then ask yourself, “When people leave an interaction with me, do they leave feeling more or less energized?”
Enthusiasm is the contagious excitement of seeing the possible, and effectively sharing that vision with others. When we get enthusiastic about something it can be infectious. Just remember the difference between enthusiasm and action. There’s nothing more de-energizing than walking away fired-up from a meeting, work diligently on the shared vision, then only to return and find the prophet hasn’t done anything.
Craft an enthusiastic vision that captures the values of people in the group, and paint real possibilities. Next lead by example and make your contribution to the vision. That’s leadership enthusiasm in action.
Read MoreWant to Connect? Try the Power of Story
You walk into a sandwich shop, order the yummy-sounding special and turn to the cooler to grab a drink. The usual representatives are there from major beverage providers. And then a cool photo and unique label catches your eye – something called Can of Whoopass by Jones Soda. This particular label is a photo of a horse taken by her owner in Manassas, VA, neat! You look again and each label and photo is different. And every photo label is contributed by a Jones Soda fan somewhere around the world. The labels are cool, unique, intriguing, and the soda isn’t bad either. You buy it. And the next time you come in to the sandwich shop too. It turns out Jones Soda is building the customer storyline into the product itself. You can go to their website, submit your own photo and contribute to the community experience. In his book, A Whole New Mind, Dan Pink highlights the story of Big Tattoo Red, a fine and affordable red wine made and sold by two brothers who are also donating 50 cents from each bottle sold to Hospice of Northern Virginia honor their mother who died of cancer. When presented with three equally drinkable and price-competitive wines, which one are you going to buy?
Enter the power of story. One of the greatest challenges you face as a manager, as a leader of other people, is making sure they remember the priorities that you have for them. Your goal is to get people around you to remember the core values and the way you would like them to behave, decide and perform on critical issues when you aren’t around them – which is most of the time. The problem you face, though, is the way the brain is wired. It is not wired to hold onto things. And the dilemma is that while you stand up and communicate your goals, your values, your vision for the organization, people are actually not retaining that easily. Now we know a lot from neuroscience about how the brain is wired to store information or memory. Despite the brains astonishing powers, it has a limited capacity for retention of message, depending on how it’s delivered.
Michael Hammer used to say, “The first fifty times you say it, they won’t hear you. The second fifty times you say it, they won’t understand you. And the third fifty times you say it, they won’t believe you.” Your challenge is to actually get your message, your goals, your key priorities to stick in their memory during those times when they are far from you in client meetings, strategy sessions, etc. One of the most powerful ways to communicate lasting messages is through the power of story. Stories can capture ideas succinctly and translate them to the listener through emotion. Consistent studies reveal that emotion drives behavior, which in turn creates belief. Not the other way around – it’s not that once you believe something, your behavior changes. The consistent behavior comes before belief. And one of the surest ways to ensure your message is both remembered, and acted on, is through the power of story.
Read MoreGenerosity Only Makes You Richer
The answer to the question, “Can money buy you happiness?” is ‘Yes’. The rider is that you have to spend money on someone else. Michael Norton, Harvard Business School, and his colleagues Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Aknin from the Universtity of British Columbia, researched on whether money can really buy happiness. They published their findings in an article, “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” which appeared in the March 21, 2008 issue of Science.
The reason for the study was based on the paradox that though people spend so much of their time and effort trying to make more and more money, having all that money does not seem to make them as happy. Could it be that they were not spending money the right way? If people were encouraged to spend money in different ways, maybe those areas where money would lead to happiness could be found.
In the bonus study, how much bonus people got did not impact on their happiness. When tracked, it was found that some paid bills or the mortgage, or treated themselves to something special, while others gave to charity or bought gifts for others. Norton, Dunn and Aknin called this kind of charitable or gifting behavior, “prosocial.” Thus, it was deduced that if people spent a percentage of that bonus on others, it clearly increased their well-being. In fact, even giving other people something as little as $5, could lead to an increased sense of well-being for the giver. And so, “Employees who devoted more of their bonus to prosocial spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself.”
Another study showed that spending a relatively small amount such as $5 over one day on another person led to increased happiness. Which only goes to prove that people do not have to be wealthy and make large donations to charity to experience the happiness and benefits of prosocial spending; just a little money drawn away from themselves to another person is enough.
Activities in which people fully engaged represents the way to lasting happiness. The study showed that HOW people choose to spend their money was as important as HOW MUCH money they made. Most people realize that once basic food and security needs are met, money does not equal happiness. What we do with the money and resources we have, has a greater affect on how we feel, than the amount of resources we have available. The same is true at our work. Lending resources across divisions and product lines increases collaboration, unity and sense of shared purpose. Remember, generosity only makes you richer.
Read MoreAsk Carefully. You May Find Yourself There.
We grow in the direction of the questions we ask. Our line of inquiry reinforces our interests, fuels our curiosity, and amplifies our identity and understanding in that direction. In a world today that is increasingly volatile, ambiguous and complex, the ideas and opinions that vie for our attention have compounded vastly beyond our abilities to digest intellectually, and thus the inquisitive choices we make become increasingly important in directing the shape of our ideas, our identities and our collaborative communities.
We need to follow the positive idea threads that matter to us, in context of our work, our play, and our lives. Appreciative Inquiry is the notion that we appreciate – add value to – the ideas and beliefs that we inquire of, and importantly that our questions are indeed creations. That is, each question we pose begets change, and what we anticipate in the world and in each interaction tomorrow, reflects our behavior and disposition today. Appreciative Inquiry respects Remedial and Diagnostic forms of organizational development, yet also presents a future path of positive change focusing on inspired innovation as opposed to focusing solely on correcting what isn’t working.
Diagnostic exercises such as “autopsies without blame” are surely useful at isolating and excising those practices and processes that failed, but arguably only add to the ever-increasing list of things we should not do. And remediating efforts, like finding the weakest link, can certainly work toward elevating those skills and behaviors that fall below the curve. But in this rapidly evolving economic landscape where next iterations, and emergent inspired-innovation represents real differentiating value, I believe that a more forward, positive and appreciative approach is needed. Basically I believe the world is moving too fast to spend most of our time fixing the old, we need to be creating the new.
We are seeing these developments in the emergence of positive institutions such as IDEO, the award-winning design firm. As IDEO engages their clients in their highly co-creative, rapid-prototyping process of design, they are simultaneously instructing and creating these capacities in the customers they work with. So even beyond the personal level of creating and affecting change by the questions we ask, we see whole organizations positively affect whole organizations simply by manner and behavior of interaction.
And so, craft your questions carefully, for they affect everyone they touch.
Read MoreStay Positive and Good Things Happen
Want to build a great marriage? Create positive teams that go the duration? Be a better boss, not a bosshole? Turns out there is statistical evidence that creating great results and great relationships, is correlated to the ratio of positive/negative interactions we have with the people around us. Above 2.9 to 1 and below 11.6 to 1 is trending positive, and right about 6:1 is the sweet spot for professional environments. For personal relationships you want about 5:1 positive to negative interactions.
Marcial Francisco Losada conducted studies in which teams of assistants, behind one-way mirrors, observed group discussions and categorized comments made as either positive, negative, or neutral. Later, he drew upon independent metrics of performance, and was able to rank the team’s performance in context of the tenor of the conversations they had. The researchers also measured whether questions were intended to elicit new information or advocate their own point of view. Interestingly, low-performing teams asked very few inquisitive questions, and instead exercised a position of “waiting to talk” instead of actively listening.
Interestingly, on the high-performing teams one person’s inquisitive line of questioning would lead to another’s positivity. That is, if someone in the group made a curious inquiry, another member would react positively toward that line of questioning.
The take-away is straightforward: build positive interactions into your daily life and good things happen.
Read MoreTo Bring Change Build Emotional Connection
Justin Menkes told me this story about Andrea Jung in one of her early business development efforts at Avon.
Avon is originally the California Perfume Company established in 1886. Fast-forward to the 1990s where Avon was often considered an aging product and a tired brand. Andrea Jung had just entered the company and had diagnosed the problem – the product was considered cheap and associated with low quality and outdated styles. Andrea knew it was time to take the product up-market. But knowing the course of action, and getting everyone on the bus is another matter. Even with the strongest strategy and idea, if people aren’t emotionally connected, it’s not going get off the ground. Andrea knew she had to capture the hearts and minds of everyone in the company, so she called a big town hall meeting to introduce the new branding and product enhancements.
As her product team was introducing the new flashy colors, packaging, products and branding, Andrea looked out upon a sea of confused and angry Avon women. They didn’t understand the reason for all this seismic change. All they could think about was their reliable customers’ disappointment and the loss of their Christmas bonuses. In the minds of the Avon women, Andrea was proposing to take away their livelihood.
Andrea stopped the presentation and asked a simple question to the audience, “How many of you use Avon products? Raise your hand.” As the Avon ladies looked around the room and saw how few among them actually used their own products, they understood how much trouble the company was in. In one singular moment Andrea empathetically understood their point of view and was able to pose a question to allow them to realize the urgency of their situation and the need for change. The rest was easy because now Avon had thousands of ambassadors for the new brand and product.
The message is this: don’t think the strength of a strategy or change idea will carry the day. Ultimately you have to win the hearts and minds of the people.
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