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I’m gonna deliver this message once a month ‘cuz it’s so dang important.
The zillion dollar question to ask at the start of every process is this, “What’s the outcome we want?”
You gotta start with the results you are aiming for. Start with whatever you want to have at the end of the meeting, project or conversation.
Simply by asking “what’s the outcome we want?” you can streamline any process. You’ll gain clarity about where to take the questions. Troubleshooting will become a snap. It will be easier to avoid the distractions that present themselves in every procedure. Because you know where you’re headed. You know where you want the finish line to be.
Write your desired outcome on a BIG piece of paper and post it on the wall. Keep it in sight at all times. Hang it in the hall. Make it your screen saver. Write it on your hand. Email it to everyone. Keep your eye on the outcome.
When other important issues pop up (and threaten to derail your process), take a Post-It note, write down the distraction and call it “other issues to be discussed”. Deal with it later...but deal with it.
Try this: talk to your management team. Make a pact that you will continually ask each other “what’s the outcome?”
When you know what track you’re on it’s easier to STAY on track.
The staff has gathered in the conference room and the manager is about to offer some well deserved praise for a huge sale made to a new client. But sadly, she starts with that demoralizing and empty sentence we’ve all heard (or said??) too often:
“You all did a great job, but I won’t name any names because I might leave someone out”…so I’ll just thank the entire group because you know who you are”.
YES, I KNOW WHO I AM.
What I don’t know is whether YOU, my boss, think I did a good job.
And now, nobody else will know, because this is backwards. You don't praise the deed - you praise the people. So as Ms. Manager goes on and one about the group effort that produced the huge multi-year sale, most people are now only half listening. Because thanking a group just doesn't count as praise.
This is praise: naming names, lauding specific accomplishments, making it public, making it timely and when appropriate, adding a reward.
Here are four rules for offering killer praise:
1. NAME NAMES
Praise the person, not the outcome. Do your homework. Get ALL the names and pronounce them perfectly one by one. If you mistakenly omit someone, then you can offer some after-the-fact public praise to make it right.
2. THIS IS THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE
This makes it easy: pretend you are praising the greatest piece of chocolate cake you’ve ever eaten….then, praise the person even more enthusiastically than you would praise the cake.
3. LOUD AND PROUD
There are endless ways to make the praise public. How about a group email, a company-wide email, a mock ad in the company newsletter, a real ad in their hometown paper, a monthly ad in a trade publication, a banner ad on your website, a special parking place, a day off with an email that says, "David is off today because he did the following great thing, create a place on your website devoted to employee recognition, send an email to the CEO, post an announcement in the lunchroom, offer a cash reward, offer any kind of reward, write a letter to their spouse, mother, children or friends. Do something. Do anything. Keep doing it.
4. NEVER STOP
In addition to the monthly birthday party, host a monthly recognition party where the only things that get talked about are jobs well done.
Try this: create a new position called Company CPA – Chief Praise Auditor. The job is easy... to gather info every month to make sure that YOU publicly praise the right people.
Do you have an organizational system? If I followed you around would I see you using it?
It’s not whether you have a good system or the right system; it’s whether you have a system that you USE. If you can’t answer the two questions above lickety split, then your answers are no and no. As a manager, you have to be a poster child for this.
Here's a break: forget about a system. More than a system, organization is also a decision. A method where you spend time every day in service to what you will do tomorrow. So, here’s your system and I promise that it’s the best one ever.
EVERY DAY you spend 15 minutes planning the next day. That’s it. The whole system. Put a recurring appointment in your Outlook EVERY DAY. And keep it. Make this the most important appointment of your day. EVERY DAY.
If you have an assistant, ask for help. Or, just like in kindergarten, choose a work buddy and ask the buddy to help you.
Or….ask a friend to email you, set up an auto email reminder, set up the Outlook reminder that pops up so annoyingly, use the alarm on your Blackberry or phone, hire an old-school answering service to call you or ask your mother to leave a message on your voicemail every night which you listen to on your way to work. EVERY DAY.
