By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Managing Differences in the Workplace – Part 1

In the field of executive coaching there are many opportunities to provide solutions for team and organization-wide dysfunction. To describe workplace interactions as dysfunctional behaviors is not received well by some leaders and team managers. Some well-meaning professionals who want coaching and small group work for their teams go into denial when the culture is described as dysfunctional. Dysfunctional can mean:

• Relating badly

• Not performing as expected

• Affected by disease or impairment

You know, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck! Whether we call it: (1) culturally challenged; (2) a case of management malpractice; (3) stormy weather; or (4) poor behavioral alignment, improper team interactions and the dilution of group outcomes add up to dysfunction. As an executive coach working with individuals and teams, I try not to state the situation as bad when it isn’t.  It is also important to not state it as good when it isn’t. There is a recent study that brings present evidence to this.

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

In the coaching session with the executive leader is where the title for this article came to be.

He said that a few weeks ago while he was traveling the Fun Circle Coordinator sent him an email just to inform him that Friday they were having an ice cream social! My client had this childlike grin on his face as he told me. He said the coordinator did not ask permission to have the ice cream social; the coordinator was just informing him. The total expense for the ice cream delivered to the office was less than $200. Yet, it created a fun buzz at the end of a hard week where business had flourished and the account managers had given a lot of energy and hours. So what? The energy and enthusiasm, the honesty and openness to inquiry, divergent push back and the right to be different is not only felt at this company but is seen in their profitability.

That is where the ice cream social leadership concept emerged in my mind. The results for this company group are not just about $200 worth of ice cream. It is never that simple or company execs would go out immediately after reading this article and purchase large amounts of ice cream. The executive at this location, in spite of a corporate culture worldwide that is not aware of his style and specifically why his team keeps achieving exceptional results, is true to himself. That’s right; he is relational and strong relational skills are easy for him. He is far more than just likable, however. This executive is insightful, discerning, fearless, engaging, strategically gifted and a good listener. He is not perfect, but he is willing to build his large group’s successes first and foremost within each team member. As the team has become engaging, enthusiastic and as they take ownership of overall successes of the company, so goes the interaction with the customers. They are thinking beyond the closing of deals into the overall outcomes of the company because they have been invited into the inner culture of the organization through these circles. This allows them to service the customers’ needs, rather than, pushing for a closed deal. They are emotionally invested and have the freedom to let their personalities blossom making the customer experience great for the customer and the account manager. 

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Organizational culture has always been an indicator for employee turnover ratios, productivity and return on investment. Many times big and small companies plow ahead with flipchart strategies, profit and loss discussions, and backfilling for employee turnovers, without much consideration of how the workforce is relating to each other. 

An Ezine article by Jackie Jordan Davis speaks to the topic of getting along with people in the workplace. She lists seven simple communication rules for people in a work culture.

1. Observe boundaries.

1. Fulfill commitments.

1. Respect time.

1. Pay attention.

1. Avoid gossip.

1. Ask questions.

1. Check-in.

Connecting with people is easy for some and a challenge for others. Behavioral differences and personality style diversities are existent in every organizational culture. Sometimes these differences are celebrated as the “magic ingredient” for company success. Other times these diversities become impassable obstacles to effective productivity and exceptional outcomes. 

Conflict is inevitable in a team…in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and approaches are needed.   Susan Gerke

Conflict and normal amounts of opposing dialogue between company teams is healthy. Leaders that have developed their team building, communication and relational skill set can carefully guide a contrary conversation between team members into an effective goal-setting or solution-gathering episode. Conflict in and of itself is not bad. How it is guided, leveraged and utilized is a skill that many leaders aspire to seize. Some of the organizations I have worked with have simply given up on addressing these human factors and cultural challenges. Countless times the executive leaders are detached completely from these everyday incidences. Some clients accept the challenge of leading an organization or a team into healthy divergence. These leaders and their teams achieve results that many times surprise even the most optimistic.

What sets apart high-performance teams is how deeply committed the members are to one another.   Katzenbach and Smith

Recently, when coaching a long-time client who is an executive with an international company, we talked about this very topic of employee engagement and divergent conversations. The coaching conversation was rooted in his need to continue to motivate and inspire his top performers, although the company’s C-Suite, located in another city, had no clue of how the top performers were feeling about the culture. In fact, this particular office led by my client, outperformed all other offices in profitability, lack of turnover and general climate. This office of professionals had voted the office a “best-place-to-work” company in our city. This office and  one other office in another city, according to my client, have adopted a unique way of doing business. The employees, mostly highly talented account managers, have been encouraged to lead a circle of their peers. These circles are affinity groups like, (1) a fun circle [group] for employee events, (2) off-site circle for suggesting and planning group retreats, and (3) a service circle to suggest and coordinate community service projects. There are more circles. The executive has told the employees that when they have an idea for a circle to present it to the team then to organize it. This has brought energy, inclusion, security, wellbeing and healthy divergence to this company.

The company at large does not practice this circle idea. Maybe there is no correlation, but the rest of the company has higher turnover ratios and by observation are transfixed on just closing business. This energetic engaged company group is closing business and has even been challenged to close more and more. These “challenges” come at almost an unrealistic rate with goals that are insane. This team, however, is led in a way that allows the team to figure it out on their own and achieve astronomical financial goals. Wonder why the company executives keep picking on this large high-functioning group with goals to make up for other company teams’ profit losses? The team achieves exceptional results and the circles keep them engaged, healthily conversant and they feel like they have ownership of the company’s outcomes. They are discovering their own solutions and appear to enjoy coming to work. They work hard and long and are loyal.

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Change is the one constant these days. Going back a few years to the beginning of the economic downturn, change and uncertainty have been constant occurrences. As I heard a client say so eloquently once, “The economy and doing business is like good ‘ole Southern weather -Just wait awhile and it will completely shift on you.”

Leading through change and crisis is the pinnacle of great leadership.  Many of my coaching clients aspire to have management and leadership agility with discernment, as they lead their organizations and teams through change. One of the significant discoveries I have made in my coaching practice with executive leaders is that emotion and feeling are more of a consideration than many would reveal to their management teams. Why is this an important consideration when examining the core competencies of leadership? Emotion is a “wild card” when it comes to leadership style and choice. We will look at this again.

There are nine core competencies of leadership in our coaching sessions and workshops at Trove, Inc.:

• SETTING DIRECTION

• ALIGNING PEOPLE

• MOTIVATING AND INSPIRING

• LEADING TEAMS

• COMMUNICATING

• BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

• FACILITATING ETHICAL CONDUCT

• NEGOTIATING

• LEADING CHANGE

These nine proficiencies are the result of our investigation of core leadership competencies from business schools, government agencies, the military and companies. At Trove, we taken the competencies of many organizations and distilled them to these.  They are in prerequisite order. Notably, leading change is last. Change is one of the core competencies that are normally fraught with emotion. At Trove, we do not attempt to coach, consult or even train apart from the human emotional factor. No matter how hard a leader tries, emotion is the “unseen hand” that leads and guides us into certain management and leadership choices.

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Change is the one constant these days. Going back a few years to the beginning of the economic downturn, change and uncertainty have been constant occurrences. As I heard a client say so eloquently once, “The economy and doing business is like good ‘ole Southern weather -Just wait awhile and it will completely shift on you.”

Leading through change and crisis is the pinnacle of great leadership.  Many of my coaching clients aspire to have management and leadership agility with discernment, as they lead their organizations and teams through change. One of the significant discoveries I have made in my coaching practice with executive leaders is that emotion and feeling are more of a consideration than many would reveal to their management teams. Why is this an important consideration when examining the core competencies of leadership? Emotion is a “wild card” when it comes to leadership style and choice. We will look at this again.

There are nine core competencies of leadership in our coaching sessions and workshops at Trove, Inc.:

• SETTING DIRECTION

• ALIGNING PEOPLE

• MOTIVATING AND INSPIRING

• LEADING TEAMS

• COMMUNICATING

• BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

• FACILITATING ETHICAL CONDUCT

• NEGOTIATING

• LEADING CHANGE

These nine proficiencies are the result of our investigation of core leadership competencies from business schools, government agencies, the military and companies. At Trove, we taken the competencies of many organizations and distilled them to these.  They are in prerequisite order. Notably, leading change is last. Change is one of the core competencies that are normally fraught with emotion. At Trove, we do not attempt to coach, consult or even train apart from the human emotional factor. No matter how hard a leader tries, emotion is the “unseen hand” that leads and guides us into certain management and leadership choices.

The order of these leadership competencies is very specific. For instance, setting direction is a necessary first step for a

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Years ago I was asked to coach a middle school aged softball team. The decision to ask me came late the day before the teams were to meet for the first practice. My two sons, sixth and ninth graders (approximately) were already signed up to play in this league. The league administrator asked if I wanted to select some players for my team since two teams would be formed from the one group of players. These two teams would play other teams and also play each other throughout the season.

I love athletics and have played sports, but coaching middle school softball has never been a desire or goal of mine. Winning is. I gathered my team, which now included my two sons, a decision I made because of my assumed buy-in from them. I also chose Mark, a close friend of my older son to complete my team. Where Mark came up short on speed and agility, he made up for in power to hit the ball out of the park. How did I know? I had watched him and my sons play in the street. The first practice I asked the boys to tell me the goal of a softball game. With hands raised there were several answers, none of which included scoring more than the other team! As we practiced, I continued to remind them that we needed to: (1) stop the other team from scoring by catching well, throwing well and hustling more than the other team and (2) hit the ball hard and run fast to get to the home plate. Lastly, our only other goals were to (3) really believe we could win and allow me to (4) move them around on the field until we found the right combination to win.

We did not have the most talented team, although we had some good athletes. Nor did we have the most experienced players….but we had a winning season! How?

We met our four goals:

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

Lessons learned as we go about everyday life are many times the best ones. Leadership teachings are evident just about anywhere, if we are attuned to their cues. In my article writings every week or so, topics and leadership concepts emerge in different ways. When a profound need or a vital solution appears within a coaching session or surrounded by inquiry in a training class, a topic will present itself as worthy to be written. Sometimes the subject matter is such that hours of reading and research will be done prior to starting the articles. Other times, like this one, the idea materializes from a recent life experience.

Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.     Unknown

Changing and striving to become a better version of oneself is a preeminent topic in coaching conversations. Generational differences, cultural diversity and even aging often emerge as worthy topics of discussion. Many clients seem to be just settling for life as it is while others seem to never be satisfied. Breaking through to a fully actualized version of oneself is certainly a worthy quest. These ideas surfaced recently in everyday happenings.

My wife, Nancy and her sister Eloise, own an antique business with retail space in Destin, FL. Nancy hunts for rare finds, and unique things in between her trips to Florida, in the North Georgia and Atlanta metro shops, garage sales, estate sales and even consignment stores. Eloise does the same in the panhandle of Florida between the times that they work together on the retail space in Destin. Occasionally, they will make “a run” as they call it, across the southeast and even plan some further away, to explore the dusty confines of antique stores, garage sales, consignment shops, and yes, even, roadside “permanent” yard sales.

Certain items need refurbishing. Some objects need repair then refinishing. There are antique finds that just need sanding, a coat of primer and painting. Mostly, the aged objects are cleaned quickly and sold “as is.” I volunteer, when possible, to refurbish a few things, mainly for “therapy” for me. Although “therapy” is somewhat spoken with tongue in cheek, of late, the necessity to be alone and get out to my shop have worked well. Working with people all day long can be tiresome. Although my work is extremely rewarding, silence is golden at times. In my shop at least the sounds that are made seem to be soothing even when they are the noise of sanding, grinding or hammering.

 

 

If you have read any other writings of mine you know that I occasionally mention a pet peeve. With some reasonable amount of restraint this topic has not surfaced until now. To be quite honest, there is no more patience available within me at this point. It is maddening! There is some variance regarding intensity when it comes to the lack of follow through, and some outcomes, or lack thereof, are less pervasive than others. No matter how or why follow through does not occur, it is still a gripe of mine. Honestly, we all have some level of lack of follow through, but lately it seems to be everywhere I look.

One category of this issue is communication. One of the guiding principles of Trove, Inc. is to answer emails and voicemails as quickly as possible. Our clients are varied and reside in several time zones. We all try to answer questions sent by email or voicemail with some prudence. Since we are very busy and are caught in coaching one-on-one sessions for hours at a time, we have to be intentional in following up on client inquiries. What is interesting is how when an email is missed or a voicemail takes a full day to return, how some people are offended by the lack of immediacy to respond.

Also, what is interesting is when a crucial email is sent to a client from our end it will sit without a response until the answer is no longer needed or pertinent. There seems to be some unstated competition going on as to who is busiest. What is also interesting is how some so-called successful business and organizational leaders really do not seem to care that the lack of follow through is so pervasive in their management “tool kit.”

Those people blessed with the most talent don’t necessarily outperform everyone else. It’s the people with follow through who excel.     Mary Kay Ash

A second category of the lack of follow through falls into general action items that emerge in a team organizational meeting. This category is less emotional for me, but still as prevalent. Of course, I realize that I’m not providing empirical research and science behind these statements, but the results are still occurring in my work as a coach and consultant. Often companies and organizations know that productivity has gone down, profits are eroding and employees are frustrated by unclear vision and results. However, when it comes to creating a culture of follow through, there are serious gaps. Though this organizational issue is less emotional and offensive, it is a very real threat to return on investment and productivity.

Follow through is a motivational and emotional issue. From my experience, following through on something has several parts. Some of the “self talk” you may go through here could feel a little like these listed.

By Rick Forbus, Ph.D.

One client recently said to me that his series of coaching sessions afforded him opportunities to open up regarding his management team, his challenges with them and his leadership choices. In his case, feelings of isolation became prevailing at times. Because of the organizational structure, he did not really have peers to bounce things off of and his one report was inaccessible. The coaching sessions for him and for me became opportunities to energize thoughts, plans, and strategies and identify fears. Setting direction then became an act of strength and security, rather than, apprehension.

The website Fast Company, cites in another article, entitled, Coaching: The Fad that Won’t Go Away, by Jim Bolt (April 10, 2006) some more interesting comments regarding coaching.

“Our findings in my firm's executive development surveys indicated a dramatic increase in the use of coaching: In 2004, 56% of the companies said that executive coaching would be a major learning method they would emphasize. Then in a 2006 follow-up survey, 51% said the use of coaching had actually increased. Given this nearly miraculous change in the status of coaching we recently decided, along with our research partner, Dr.Brian Underhill of Coach Source, to conduct a major research project to explore the murky world of executive coaching in depth.

Our study, High-Impact Executive Coaching, was unique in that it examined the topic in a 3-D manner, i.e.,t hrough the eyes of coaches, organizations that retain them, and leaders being coached. The study included 48 organizations and 86 leaders being coached. In this column I want to focus mostly on what we learned from the leaders being coached since it’s highly relevant for anyone interested in either providing coaches to leaders or in being coached.

What did we learn?