People who GSD know the difference between two key words: efficient and effective. Do you know? And an even better question…..what do you focus on when taking on tasks?

So, let’s cut to the chase.

1. Start with the recognition that you are not effectively managing your time.

You can only manage yourself (your attitudes, beliefs and actions) was in the flow of time. The experience of time has more to do with your thoughts than with clock time. Stress you feel that you associate with time, originates in your thinking. Example: think about the distinction in your perception of time between when you’re late and when you’re waiting for someone who’s late. The actual clock time doesn’t change, but your experience of time does, based on your perception. To quote William Shakespeare, “nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

2. Prioritize your efforts

Stephen Covey, author of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, makes a distinction between things that are important in things that are urgent. Most of the time, doing the things that are important, rather than urgent, results in greater effectiveness. In other words, don’t major and minor things.

3. Do less to get more

Economize your efforts. Example: when you’re boiling a pot of water, you can fill the pot with water, cover it and turn on the heat and let it come to a boil water you do something else or you can “watch the pot” while it comes to a boil.

4. Eliminate sources of adrenaline

These are substances, activities, relationships, situations, or attitudes that results in your feeling “charged up”. Adrenaline can distract you from the focus needed to complete a project, increase feelings of anxiety, intensify the feeling that time is flying. Over time, excessive adrenaline can have negative health consequences as well.

5. Eliminate things, which are taxing your time and energy

These are situations, attitudes or behaviors (in yourself or others) that you are putting up with in your personal or work life, which does not serve you or your larger purpose, but rather consume physical, mental and/or emotional energy. Eliminating them results in an increase in available energy for people and projects, and over all feeling of calmness, and the experience of more time to get things done.

6. Simplify your environment

Clutter in your office or home environment can create stress. You can actually “feel” like you have much more work to do than you really do when you “archive” things you don’t need in your environment.

7. Simplify your tasks

This may involve over-responding and/or under-responding. Example: under-responding – a fax, which needs only a quick response or a confirmation. You can write your answer on the fax document and fax it right back. Over-responding – if someone asked you for something specific, and you know that by offering more help than was specifically asked for, you can avoid the situation or issue from coming back to you in the form of a problem, then isn’t it worth it to do more? Make a point of over responding to any situation in which there is an opportunity to solve more than one problem in the process and when there is the potential for the situation to be presented again, requiring additional energy.

8. Really listen to others

When you allow other thoughts to intrude into your “listening space”, you actually create anxiety for yourself about both what you are listening to and what you allow to intrude. This anxiety is created, because you can neither act immediately on the thoughts you allow to intrude, nor can you completely take in what the person with whom you are talking is trying to tell you. You’re left feeling incomplete with both.

9. Decide what you can give up in order to get what you want

The day has only 24 hours in it, and yet, how many times have you “borrowed” from the next day to finish a project and thereby lost valuable sleep, or “borrowed” from your relationships to pursue a goal, or “borrowed” from your personal time with yourself to work on a project? We choose among multiple possibilities for how we will spend our work, and/or personal time, the universe almost always asked us to choose what we will give up in order to have the “more” in our personal or work lives. Much pain and suffering around “managing time” could be avoided if this process were respected.

10. Find some time each day for quiet reflection

When you commit to spending some time each day suspending your thoughts and judgments and creating inner stillness, you’ll train your body and mind in what it feels like and with that awareness, you can transform how you experience the flow of time when you are “in the world”.

Effective teamwork is essential in today’s world, but as you’ll know from the teams you have led or belonged to, you can’t expect a new team to perform exceptionally from the very outset. Team formation takes time, and usually follows some easily recognizable stages, as the team journeys from being a group of strangers to becoming united team with a common goal.

Whether your team is a temporary working group or a newly-formed, permanent team, by understanding these stages you will be able to help the team quickly become productive. When I was a member of the USAF Para Rescue I was introduced to the foundation of team theory.

Understanding the Theory

Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with the memorable words “forming, storming, norming and performing” back in 1965 to describe the path to high-performance that most teams follow. Later, he added a fifth stage that he called “adjourning” (and others often call “mourning” – it rhymes better!)

Teams initially go through a “Forming” stage in which members are positive and polite. Some members are anxious, as they haven’t yet worked out exactly what work the team will involve. Others are simply excited about the task ahead. As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage: other members’ roles and responsibilities are less clear.

This stage is usually fairly short, and may only last for a single meeting at which people are introduced to one-another. At this stage there may be discussions about how the team will work, which can be frustrating for some members who simply want to get on with the team task.

Soon, reality sets in and your team moves into a “Storming” phase. Your authority may be challenged as others jockey for position as their roles are clarified. The ways of working start to be defined, and as leader you must be aware that some members may feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do, or uncomfortable with the approach being used. Some react by questioning how worthwhile the goal of the team is and resist taking on tasks. This is the stage when many teams fail, and even those who stick with it feel that they are on an emotional roller coaster as they try to focus on the job in hand without the support of established processes or relationships with their colleagues.

Gradually, the team moves into a “Norming” stage, as a hierarchy is established. Team members come to respect your authority as leader, and others show leadership in specific areas.

Now the team members know each other better, they may be socializing together, and they are able to ask each other for help and provide constructive criticism. The team is developing a strong commitment to the team goal, and you start to see good progress towards it.

There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming behavior: As new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into typical storming stage behavior, but this eventually dies out.

When the team reaches the “Performing” stage, hard work leads directly to progress towards the shared vision of their goal, supported by the structures and processes which have been set up. Individual team members may join or leave the team without affecting the performing culture.

As leader, you are able to delegate much of the work and can concentrate on developing team members. Being part of the team at this stage feels “easy” compared with earlier on.

Project teams exist only for a fixed period, and even permanent teams may be disbanded through organizational restructuring. As team leader, your concern is both for the team’s goal and the team members. Breaking up a team can be stressful for all concerned and the “Adjourning” or “Mourning” stage is important in reaching both team goal and personal conclusions.

The break up of the team can be particularly hard for members who like routine or have developed close working relationships with other team members, particularly if their future roles or even jobs look uncertain.

Using the Tool

As a team leader, your aim is to help your team reach and sustain high performance as soon as possible. To do this, you will need to change your approach at each stage. The steps below will help ensure you are doing the right thing at the right time.

1. Identify which stage of the team development your team is at from the descriptions above.

1. Now consider what needs to be done to move towards the Performing stage, and what you can do to help the team do that effectively. The table below (Figure 1) helps you understand your role at each stage and how to move the team forward.

Figure 1: Leadership Activities at Different Group Formation Stages

3. Schedule regular reviews of where your teams are, and adjust your behavior and leadership approach to suit the stage your team has reached.

Another useful model of team formation is Cog’s Ladder. The phases of each model largely correspond with each other, although Cog’s Ladder includes an additional “Why are we here?” phase which falls across Tuckman’s Forming and Storming phases.

Key points

Teams are formed because they can achieve far more than their individual members can on their own, and while being part of a high-performing team can be fun, it can take patience and professionalism to get to that stage.

Effective team leaders can accelerate that process and reduce the difficulties that team members experience by understanding what they need to do as their team moves through the stages from forming to storming, norming and, finally, performing.

]]> http://dbperformancemgmt.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/understanding-team-formation-from-air-force-commandos/feed/ 0 donaldburns jolly-green-giant1 http://dbperformancemgmt.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/staying-cool-and-confident-under-pressure/ http://dbperformancemgmt.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/staying-cool-and-confident-under-pressure/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:32:46 +0000 db http://dbperformancemgmt.wordpress.com/?p=103 ]]>

Learning To Think On Your Feet

“So, Susan, your report indicates you support forging ahead with the expansion but have you considered the impact this will have on our customers? Surely you remember the fiasco in Dallas last year when they tried the same type of project?”

Yikes! If you’re Susan, you’re likely feeling under pressure! You have to answer the question and allay the CEO’s concerns about the disruption to customers. What do you do? What do you say? How do you say it? What if you can’t think of anything to say?

This is not an uncommon situation. Whether you are put on the spot while attending a meeting, talking to guests, selling an event, or answering questions after a presentation, articulating your thoughts in unanticipated situations is a skill. Thinking on your feet is highly coveted skill and when you master it, your clever and astute responses will instill immediate confidence in what you are saying.

When you can translate your thoughts and ideas into coherent speech quickly, you ensure your ideas are heard. You also come across as being confident, persuasive, and trustworthy.

Confidence is key when learning to think on your feet. When you present information, give an opinion or provide suggestions, make sure you know what you are talking about and that you are well informed. This doesn’t mean you have to know everything about everything, but if you are reasonably confident in your knowledge of the subject, that confidence will help you to remain calm and collected even if you are put unexpectedly in the hot seat.

The secret of thinking on your feet is to be prepared: learn some skills and tactics, and do some preparation for situations that might put you under pressure. Then when you do find yourself faced with unexpected questions and debate, you’ll be ready to draw on these tactics and preparation, and so stay poised while you compose your thoughts and prepare your response. Here are some tips and tactics:

1. Relax
This is often the opposite of how you are feeling when you’re under pressure, but in order for your voice to remain calm and for your brain to “think”, you have to be as relaxed as possible.

• Take deep breaths
• Take a second and give yourself a positive and affirming message
• Clench invisible muscles (thighs, biceps, feet) for a few seconds and release.

2. Listen
It comes as no surprise that listening is critical to thinking on your feet. Why do you need to listen? To make sure you fully understand the question or request before you reply. If you answer too soon, you risk going into a line of thinking that is unnecessary or inappropriate. To help you with your listening remember to:

• Look directly at the questioner
• Observe body language as well as what is being spoken
• Try to interpret what is being suggested by the question or request. Is this an attack, a legitimate request for more information, or a test? Why is this person asking this and what is the intention?

Tip:
Remember that the person is asking a question because he or she is interested. Some interest is positive – they simply want to know more – and some is negative – they want to see you squirm. Either way they are interested in what you have to say. It’s your privilege and pleasure not to disappoint them!

3. Have the Question Repeated
If you’re feeling particularly under pressure, ask for the question to be repeated. This gives you a bit more time to think about your response.

At first glance people think this will only make them look unsure. It doesn’t. It makes you look concerned that you give an appropriate response. It also gives the questioner an opportunity to rephrase and ask a question that is more on point. Remember, the questioner may well have just “thought on his or her feet” to ask the question, so when you give them a second chance, the question may well be better articulated and clearer to all.

By asking to have the question repeated you also get another opportunity to assess the intentions of the questioner. If it is more specific or better worded, chances are the person really wants to learn more. If the repeated question is more aggressive than the first one, then you know the person is more interested in making you uncomfortable than anything else. When that’s the case, the next tip comes in very handy.

4. Use Stall Tactics
Sometimes you need more time to get your thoughts straight and calm yourself down enough to make a clear reply. The last thing you want to do is blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. Often this is a defensive comment that only makes you look insecure and anxious rather than confident and composed.

• Repeat the question yourself. This gives you time to think and you clarify exactly what is being asked. It also allows you to rephrase if necessary and put a positive spin on the request. “How have I considered the impact on customers in order to make sure they have a continued positive experience during the expansion?”
• Narrow the focus. Here, you ask a question of your own to not only clarify, but to bring the question down to a manageable scope. “You’re interested in hearing how I’ve considered customer impacts. What impacts are you most interested in: number of menu items available or service? ”
• Ask for clarification. Again, this will force the questioner to be more specific and hopefully get more to a specific point. “When you say you want to know how I’ve analyzed customer impacts, do you mean you want a detailed analysis or a list of the tools and methods I used?”
• Ask for a definition. Jargon and specific terminology may present a problem for you. Ask to have words and ideas clarified to ensure you are talking about the same thing.

5. Use Silence to your Advantage
We are conditioned to believe that silence is uncomfortable. However, if you use it sparingly, it communicates that you are in control of your thoughts and confident in your ability to answer expertly. When you rush to answer you also typically rush your words. Pausing to collect your thoughts tells your brain to slow everything down.

6. Stick to One Point and One Supporting Piece of Information
There’s a high risk that, under pressure, you’ll answer a question with either too much or too little information. If you give too short an answer, you risk letting the conversation slip into interrogation mode. (You’ll get another question, and the questioner will be firmly in control of how the dialogue unfolds). When your reply is too long, you risk losing people’s interest, coming across as boring, or giving away things that are better left unsaid. Remember, you aren’t being asked to give a speech on the subject. The questioner wants to know something. Respect that and give them an answer, with just enough supporting information.

This technique gives you focus. Rather than trying to tie together all the ideas that are running through your head, when you pick one main point and one supporting fact, you allow yourself to answer accurately and assuredly.

Tip:
If you don’t know the answer, say so. There is no point trying to make something up. You will end up looking foolish and this will lower your confidence when you need to think on your feet in the future. There is (usually) nothing wrong with not knowing something. Simply make sure you follow up as soon as possible afterwards with a researched answer.

7. Prepare some “what ifs”
With a bit of forethought, it’s often possible to predict the types of questions you might be asked, so you can prepare and rehearse some answers to questions that might come your way. Let’s say you are presenting the monthly sales figures to your management team. The chances are your report will cover most of the obvious questions that the management team might have, but what other questions might you predict? What’s different about this month? What new questions might be asked? How would you respond? What additional information might you need to have to hand to support more detailed questions?

In particular, spend some time brainstorming the most difficult questions that people might ask, and preparing and rehearsing good answers to them.

8. Practice Clear Delivery
How you say something is almost as important as what you say. If you mumble or use “umm” or “ah” between every second word, confidence in what you are saying plummets. Whenever you are speaking with people, make a point to practice these key oration skills:

• Speak in a strong voice. (Don’t confuse strong with loud!)
• Use pauses strategically to emphasize a point or slow yourself down
• Vary your tone and pay attention to how your message will be perceived given the intonation you use
• Use eye contact appropriately
• Pay attention to your grammar
• Use the level of formality that is appropriate to the situation.

9. Summarize and Stop
Wrap up your response with a quick summary statement. After that, resist adding more information. There may well be silence after your summary. Don’t make the common mistake of filling the silence with more information! This is the time when other people are adsorbing the information you have given. If you persist with more information, you may end up causing confusion and undoing the great work you’ve already done in delivering your response.

Use words to indicate you are summarizing (i.e. “in conclusion,” “finally”) or briefly restate the question and your answer. So – what did I do to analyze customer impacts? I reviewed the Dallas case files in detail, and prepared a “What if” analysis for our own situation.”

Key points:

No one enjoys being putting on the spot or answering questions that you aren’t fully expecting. The uncertainty can be stressful. That stress doesn’t need to be unmanageable and you can think on your feet if you remember the strategies we just discussed. Essentially, thinking on your feet means staying in control of the situation. Ask questions, buy time for yourself, and remember to stick to one point and make that one point count. When you are able to zoom in on the key areas of concern, you’ll answer like an expert and you impress your audience, and yourself, with your confidence and poise.

Using Belbin’s Team Roles

When a team is performing at its best, you’ll usually find that each team member has clear responsibilities. Just as importantly, you’ll normally see that every role needed to achieve the team’s goal is being performed fully and well.

But often, despite clear roles and responsibilities, a team will fall short of its full potential.

How often does this happen in the teams you work with? Perhaps some team members don’t complete what you expect them to do. Perhaps some team members are not quite flexible enough, so things ‘fall between the cracks’. Maybe someone who is valued for their expert input fails to see the wider picture, and so misses out tasks or steps that others would expect. Or perhaps one team member become frustrated because he or she disagrees with the approach of another team members.

Dr Meredith Belbin studied team-work for many years, and he famously observed that people in teams tend to assume different “team roles”. He defines a “team role” as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way” and named nine such team roles that underlie team success.

Creating More Balanced Teams

Belbin suggests that, by understanding your team role within a particular team, you can develop your strengths and manage your weaknesses as a team member, and so improve how you contribute to the team.

Team leaders and team development practitioners often use the Belbin model to help create more balanced teams. Teams can become unbalanced if all team members have similar styles of behavior or team roles.

If team members have similar weakness, the team as a whole may tend to have that weakness. If team members have similar team-work strengths, they may tend to compete (rather than co-operate) for the team tasks and responsibilities that best suit their natural styles. So you can use the model with your team to help ensure that necessary team roles are covered, and that potential behavioral tensions or weaknesses among the team member are addressed.

Tip 1:
Belbin’s “team-roles” are based on observed behavior and interpersonal styles.

While Belbin suggests that people tend to adopt a particular team-role, bear in mind that your behavior and interpersonal style within a team is to some extent dependent on the situation: It relates not only to your own natural working style, but also to your interrelationships with others, and the work being done.

Be careful: You, and the people you work with, may behave and interact quite differently in different teams or when the membership or work of the team changes.

Also, be aware that there are other approaches in use, some of which complement this model, some of which conflict with it. By all means use this approach as a guide, however do not put too much reliance on it, and temper any conclusions with common sense.

Understanding Belbin’s Team Roles Model

Belbin identified nine team roles and he categorized those roles into three groups: Action Oriented, People Oriented, and Thought Oriented. Each team role is associated with typical behavioral and interpersonal strengths.

Belbin also defined characteristic weaknesses that tend to accompany the team-role. He called the characteristic weaknesses of team-roles the “allowable” weaknesses; as for any behavioral weakness, these are areas to be aware of and potentially improve.

The nine team-roles are:

Action Oriented Roles:

Shapers (SH)
Shapers are people who challenge the team to improve. They are dynamic and usually extroverted people who enjoy stimulating others, questioning norms, and finding the best approaches to problems. The Shaper is the one who shakes things up to make sure that all possibilities are considered and that the team does not become complacent.

Shapers often see obstacles as exciting challenges and they tend to have the courage to push on when others feel like quitting.

Their potential weaknesses may be that they’re argumentative, and that they may offend people’s feelings.

Implementer (IMP)
Implementers are the people who get things done. They turn the team’s ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. They are typically conservative, disciplined people who work systematically and efficiently and are very well organized. These are the people who you can count on to get the job done.

On the downside, Implementers may be inflexible and somewhat resistant to change.

Completer – Finisher (CF)
Completer-Finishers are the people who see that projects are completed thoroughly. They ensure there have been no errors or omissions and they pay attention to the smallest of details. They are very concerned with deadlines and will push the team to make sure the job is completed on time. They are described as perfectionists who are orderly, conscientious, and anxious.

However, a Completer-Finisher may worry unnecessarily and find it hard to delegate.

People Oriented Roles:

Coordinator (CO)
Coordinators are the ones who take on the traditional team-leader role and have also been referred to as the chairmen. They guide the team to what they perceive are the objectives. They are often excellent listeners and they are naturally able to recognize the value that each team members brings to the table. They are calm and good-natured and delegate tasks very effectively.

Their potential weaknesses are that they may delegate away too much personal responsibility, and may tend to be manipulative.

Team Worker (TW)
Team Workers are the people who provide support and make sure the team is working together. These people fill the role of negotiators within the team and they are flexible, diplomatic, and perceptive. These tend to be popular people who are very capable in their own right but who prioritize team cohesion and helping people getting along.

Their weaknesses may be a tendency to be indecisive, and maintain uncommitted positions during discussions and decision-making.

Resource Investigator (RI)
Resource Investigators are innovative and curious. They explore available options, develop contacts, and negotiate for resources on behalf of the team. They are enthusiastic team members, who identify and work with external stakeholders to help the team accomplish its objective. They are outgoing and are often extroverted, meaning that others are often receptive to them and their ideas.

On the downside, they may lose enthusiasm quickly, and are often overly optimistic.

Thought Oriented Roles:

Plant (PL)
The Plant is the creative innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. They thrive on praise but criticism is especially hard for them to deal with. Plants are often introverted and prefer to work apart from the team. Because their ideas are so novel, they can be impractical at times. They may also be poor communicators and can tend to ignore given parameters and constraints.

Monitor – Evaluator (ME)
Monitor-Evaluators are best at analyzing and evaluating ideas that other people (often Plants) come up with. These people are shrewd and objective and they carefully weigh the pros and cons of all the options before coming to a decision.

Monitor-Evaluators are critical thinkers and very strategic in their approach. They are often perceived as detached or unemotional. Sometimes they are poor motivators who react to events rather than instigating them

Specialist (SP)
Specialists are people who have specialized knowledge that is needed to get the job done. They pride themselves on their skills and abilities, and they work to maintain their professional status. Their job within the team is to be an expert in the area, and they commit themselves fully to their field of expertise. This may limit their contribution, and lead to a preoccupation with technicalities at the expense of the bigger picture.

Figure 1: Belbin’s Team Roles

How to Use the Tool:

The Belbin Team Roles Model can be used in several ways: You can use it to think about team balance before a project starts, you can use it to highlight and so manage interpersonal differences within an existing team, and you can use it to develop yourself as a team player.

The tool below helps you analyze team membership, using the Belbin team roles as checks for potential strengths and weakness.

Use Belbin’s model to analyze your team, and as a guide as you develop your team’s strengths, and manage its weaknesses:

1. Over a period of time, observe the individual members of your team, and see how they behave, contribute and behave within the team.
2. Now list the members of the team, and for each person write down the key strengths and characteristics you have observed. (You may also want to note down any observed weaknesses).
3. Compare each person’s listed strengths and weakness with the Belbin’s descriptions of team-roles, and note the one that most accurately describes that person.
4. Once you have done this for each team member, consider the following questions:

Which team roles are missing from your team? And from this, ask yourself which strengths are likely to be missing from the team overall?

1. • Is there are prevalent team role that many of the team members share?

1. Once you have identified potential weakness, areas of conflict and missing strengths, consider the options you have to improve and change this.Consider:
   • Whether an existing team member could compensate by purposefully adopting different a team role. With awareness and intention, this is sometimes possible.
   • Whether one or more team members could improve how they work together and with others to avoid potential conflict of their natural styles.
   • Whether new skills need to brought onto the team to cover weaknesses.

Tip 2 – Prevalent team roles:
Among teams of people that do the same job, a few team roles often prevail. For example, within a research department, the team roles of Specialist and Plant may prevail. A team of business consultants may mainly comprise Team Workers and Shapers. Such teams may be unbalanced, in that they may be missing key approaches and outlooks.

If the team is unbalanced, first identify any team weakness that is not naturally covered by any of the team members. Then identify any potential areas of conflict. For example, too many Shapers can weaken a team if each Shaper wants to pull the team in a different direction.

Tip 3:
Remember not to depend too heavily on this idea when structuring your team – this is only one of many, many factors that are important in getting a team to perform at its best.

That said, just knowing about the Belbin Team Roles model can bring more harmony to your team, as team members learn that there are different approaches that are important in different circumstances and that no one approach is best all of the time.

Using Locke’s Theory

Goal setting is a powerful way of motivating people. The value of goal setting is so well recognized that entire management systems, like Management by Objectives, have goal setting basics incorporated within them.

In fact, goal setting theory is generally accepted as among the most valid and useful motivation theories in industrial and organizational psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior.

Many of us have learned – from bosses, seminars, and business articles – to set SMART goals. It seems natural to assume that by setting a goal that’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, we will be well on our way to accomplishing it.

But is this really the best way of setting goals?

To answer this, we look to Dr Edwin Locke’s pioneering research on goal setting and motivation in the late 1960s. In his 1968 article “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives,” he stated that employees were motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback. Locke went on to say that working toward a goal provided a major source of motivation to actually reach the goal – which, in turn, improved performance.

This information does not seem revolutionary to most of us some 40 years later. This shows the impact his theory has had on professional and personal performance.

In this article, we look at what Locke had to say about goal setting, and how we can apply his theory to our own performance goals.

Goal Setting Theory

Locke’s research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people’s performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals.

Telling someone to “Try hard” or “Do your best” is less effective than “Try to get more than 80% correct” or “Concentrate on beating your best time.” Likewise, having a goal that’s too easy is not a motivating force. Hard goals are more motivating than easy goals, because it’s much more of an accomplishment to achieve something that you have to work for.

A few years after Locke published his article, another researcher, Dr Gary Latham, studied the effect of goal setting in the workplace. His results supported exactly what Locke had found, and the inseparable link between goal setting and workplace performance was formed.

In 1990, Locke and Latham published their seminal work, “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance.” In this book, they reinforced the need to set specific and difficult goals, and they outlined three other characteristics of successful goal setting.

Five Principles of Goal Setting

To motivate, goals must take into consideration the degree to which each of the following exists:

1. Clarity.
2. Challenge.
3. Commitment.
4. Feedback.
5. Task complexity.

Let’s look at each of these in detail.

1. Clarity
   Clear goals are measurable, unambiguous, and behavioral. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded. You know what’s expected, and you can use the specific result as a source of motivation. When a goal is vague – or when it’s expressed as a general instruction, like “Take initiative” – it has limited motivational value.

   To improve your or your team’s performance, set clear goals that use specific and measurable standards. “Reduce job turnover by 15%” or “Respond to employee suggestions within 48 hours” are examples of clear goals.

   When you use the SMART acronym to help you set goals, you ensure the clarity of the goal by making it Specific, Measurable and Time-bound.

2. Challenge
   One of the most important characteristics of goals is the level of challenge. People are often motivated by achievement, and they’ll judge a goal based on the significance of the anticipated accomplishment. When you know that what you do will be well received, there’s a natural motivation to do a good job.

   Rewards typically increase for more difficult goals. If you believe you’ll be well compensated or otherwise rewarded for achieving a challenging goal, that will boost your enthusiasm and your drive to get it done.

   Setting SMART goals that are Relevant links closely to the rewards given for achieving challenging goals. Relevant goals will further the aims of your organization, and these are the kinds of  goals that most employers will be happy to reward.

   When setting goals, make each goal a challenge. If an assignment is easy and not viewed as very important – and if you or your employee doesn’t expect the accomplishment to be significant – then the effort may not be impressive.

Note:
It’s important to strike an appropriate balance between a challenging goal and a realistic goal. Setting a goal that you’ll fail to achieve is possibly more de-motivating than setting a goal that’s too easy. The need for success and achievement is strong, therefore people are best motivated by challenging, but realistic, goals. Ensuring that goals are Achievable or Attainable is one of the elements of SMART.

1. Commitment
   Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective. Employees are more likely to “buy into” a goal if they feel they were part of creating that goal. The notion of participative management rests on this idea of involving employees in setting goals and making decisions.

   One version of SMART – for use when you are working with someone else to set their goals – has A and R stand for Agreed and Realistic instead of Attainable and Relevant. Agreed goals lead to commitment.

   This doesn’t mean that every goal has to be negotiated with and approved by employees. It does mean that goals should be consistent and in line with previous expectations and organizational concerns. As long as the employee believes the goal is consistent with the goals of the company, and believes the person assigning the goal is credible, then the commitment should be there.

   Interestingly, goal commitment and difficulty often work together. The harder the goal, the more commitment is required. If you have an easy goal, you don’t need a lot of motivation to get it done. When you’re working on a difficult assignment, you will likely encounter challenges that require a deeper source of inspiration and incentive.

   As you use goal setting in your workplace, make an appropriate effort to include people in their own goal setting. Encourage employees to develop their own goals, and keep them informed about what’s happening elsewhere in the organization. This way, they can be sure that their goals are consistent with the overall vision and purpose that the company seeks.

2. Feedback
   In addition to selecting the right type of goal, an effective goal program must also include feedback. Feedback provides opportunities to clarify expectations, adjust goal difficulty, and gain recognition. It’s important to provide benchmark opportunities or targets, so individuals can determine for themselves how they’re doing.

   These regular progress reports, which measure specific success along the way, are particularly important where it’s going to take a long time to reach a goal. In these cases, break down the goals into smaller chunks, and link feedback to these intermediate milestones.

   SMART goals are Measurable, and this ensures that clear feedback is possible.

   With all your goal setting efforts, make sure that you build in time for providing formal feedback. Certainly, informal check-ins are important, and they provide a means of giving regular encouragement and recognition. However, taking the time to sit down and discuss goal performance is a necessary factor in long-term performance improvement. See our article on Delegation for more on this.

3. Task Complexity
   The last factor in goal setting theory introduces two more requirements for success. For goals or assignments that are highly complex, take special care to ensure that the work doesn’t become too overwhelming.

   People who work in complicated and demanding roles probably have a high level of motivation already. However, they can often push themselves too hard if measures aren’t built into the goal expectations to account for the complexity of the task. It’s therefore important to do the following:

• Give the person sufficient time to meet the goal or improve performance.
• Provide enough time for the person to practice or learn what is expected and required for success.

The whole point of goal setting is to facilitate success. Therefore, you want to make sure that the conditions surrounding the goals don’t frustrate or inhibit people from accomplishing their objectives. This reinforces the “Attainable” part of SMART.

Key points:

Goal setting is something most of us recognize as necessary for our success.

By understanding goal setting theory, you can effectively apply the principles to goals that you or your team members set. Locke and Latham’s research emphasizes the usefulness of SMART goal setting, and their theory continues to influence the way we set and measure performance today.

Use clear, challenging goals, and commit yourself to achieving them. Provide feedback on goal performance. Take into consideration the complexity of the task. If you follow these simple rules, your goal setting process will be much more successful. Bonus: your overall performance will improve.

Hiring the right people for the right job can be like throwing darts at a board. Sometimes, you get a bullseye. Want to increase your percentage of accurate hires? Read on my turnover troubled friend…..

Today in the Wall Street Journal there was a great article on how companies are using behavioral surveys to identify and match up in individuals work style and behavior with company needs. “It has helped me to learn how to interact better with work teams and to leverage my strengths in the workplace,” said Dana Lund a client-relations manager with Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing firm. These days about 25% of midsize and large hospitality companies use personality and behavioral surveys for entry and mid-level decisions as either a pre-employment or new employee orientation tool.

Ultimately these tests aim to help the company hire a specific type of person for a job that might require particular traits. Or conversely, to rule out traits that are likely to lead to job failure. “Companies understand that the right personality fit is a critical criteria for good performance,” says Scott Erker, a senior vice president at a global human resources consultancy. Getting that right person in the right job, reduces turnover costs (which are typically a lost employee’s one-year salary) required to recruit and train a new professional. “You can reduce turnover up to 50% with the right pre-employment assessment,” Mr. Erker says.

Companies are also using these tools to screen candidates as they apply candidates won’t even get an interview unless they match the behavioral job model for the position. By simply outsourcing this process companies can save money and a valuable employee time pre-screening applicants that would not make the first cut. As young people face the hurdle of behavioral surveys many may be tempted to try and manipulate their answers. While it may be tempting to study up on what kind of answers, you should give to score well, experts caution against doing so. “Don’t try to psych out the test,” says Jo Bennett, an executive recruiter from New York. Be honest and open in your answers. If you lie or try to manipulate your answers to land a job and doesn’t fit you or your personality, you’re more likely to be miserable at work.. If you land a job and then try to fudge a companies new employee orientation tool, you could find yourself misunderstood by your boss.

Some applicants may be a bit anxious when asked to take, a behavioral survey. “I didn’t really know where the behavioral assessment factored into the application process,” says Matt Rion, a 29-year-old marketing and operations manager who now realizes the incredible benefits, such surveys offer. ” I understand now that we just want to make sure that someone has the capability to do the job.”

Many companies choose not to share the results of the pre-interview assessments. However, if your assessment was given after you agree to take the job as part of a new employee orientation, then the results should be shared. This gives the new employee valuable insight into their future coworkers. A few companies have even taken the behavioral survey data and incorporated it onto an employee’s name tag. if the employee is working with a person who is a high extroversion than they would know that they should communicate with friendly comments, present things persuasively and as beneficial to people, give them a recognition and avoid being harsh or insulting. And employee communicating with a person who is high pace would understand that they need to give the person time to think about the process and present the benefits of change, showing that it is fair and reasonable and to give concise and clear priorities and directions.

“We see the assessment as an opportunity for our professionals to better understand themselves,” says Debbie Pyle, a human resources training and development leader. Bottom line, behavioral surveys assist you and your company in making better hiring decisions. There are a variety of behavioral assessments and surveys on the market. Here are some key factors to take into consideration when looking to implement a behavioral survey into your company:

• In general,, stay away from companies that use the term assessment or test. A behavioral survey is not a test, it merely measures the four cornerstone behavioral traits that all of us possess. There is no pass or fail, there is no right or wrong. It just gives an insight to where your natural strengths maybe.
• Ask the company for documentation on their initial research. Many of the tools on the market, used college students as their base research. Look for a company that has based their research on a cross-section of working adults-not students.
• Asked the company, the number of people included in the initial research. If it is less than 1000, you may want to look at other companies. There is currently on the market, a company that is currently marketing it’s behavioral assessment as a “highly accurate” report. Yet, when you look into the number of people they used to conduct their initial research study…it was 40. That’s not a typing error, only 40 people. How accurate could that really be?
• Research the ease of use. This is huge. Many of the behavioral tools on the market take anywhere from 10 minutes to 90 minutes. There is one well known assessment tool on the market that is 298 questions! That can be intimidating to an applicant.

A behavioral report can be a powerful tool in hiring, training and developing high performance teams.

Jim Cramer, the outspoken and outrageous financial author, advisor and host of the popular CNBC show “Mad Money” reminds his viewers that, “there is always a bull market out there, somewhere”. Well, I’m going to tell you there’s a great opportunity in the hospitality industry right now! All business go through a cycle, you can’t just ride the good times all the time. Like surfing, even the big waves eventually die out. We can easily focus on the bad things occurring during this recession. However, I want to look at the upside. Upside to a recession? Are you crazy? Yes I am. Crazy like a fox.

The Upside to the Restaurant Recession:

• Yes, some restaurants are below projections on sales and many have been closed down. Yet, many are thriving! With over$550 billion in projected revenue for the industry, trust me, someone is making money this year. Think of the recession as economic natural selection. The operations that poured millions into advertising when they should have been putting that money into hiring the right people and training them are getting shaken out of the tree. This industry is saturated with restaurants that get by with mediocre service and food. When money is tight a customer won’t pay for mediocre. Here is a case in point. I went by Clio restaurant the other night. It’s an incredible fine dining restaurant in Boston from Chef Ken Oringer and on the upper tier of price points. Well, the dining room was full. The food and service there is excellent. Three doors down was a place I had eaten at about six months ago and the food and service was mediocre. They had only two tables. The recession will get rid of the weak.
• Top talent will be looking for better companies. In almost every restaurant there are a couple superstars. With uncertain time these people will be looking for companies that understand business cycles and are still investing in training and development. The companies that are going to come out of this recession stronger are the ones actively recruiting hard to hire the right people and placing them in the right jobs. Many companies are investing in programs that create behavioral job models and match candidates to those positions. A wise investment for long term growth.
• One of the big mistakes companies make when times get tough is cut the training budget and throw it into marketing. So, they attract new customers and then lose them because the staff is not trained to provide excellent service and food. Stupid move. The companies that are booking training workshops to develop their people and using the slower times to work with the staff will be the winners. They will have their company in an excellent position when the economy turns back around (like it always does).

Oh, one thing that economic fear and panic brings out….the vultures. Consultants and others will tell failing restaurants that they can save them. They pray on your fears. Be careful. Hire a consultant that has experience owning a restaurant, not just operating one. The mindset between being on the payroll and being responsible for the payroll, makes a world of difference. I know, I’ve been on both sides.

To sum it up:

• If your establishment is mediocre, I have good news and bad news. Okay, maybe just bad news. Your saving grace is this: get rid of the staff that is pulling your business down and hire better people!
• Train your people! Inspect what you expect. If you call the restaurant and the hostess cannot answer easy questions about your food and how to get there, drive to the restaurant and fire that person.
• Don’t hire on just a resume. Use a behavioral survey tool (there are many available on the market) to back up your intuition. A good behavioral survey will tell you how a person reacts to stress, how they lead (or if they can), and most important….how they communicate. I’ve seen it time and time again. I get a call from an owner who hired a person who seemed so calm during the interview and then turned into a yelling, foul mouthed jerk that caused more turnover in six months than he has had in two years. Owners: of course a person is going to be presenting their best when interviewing, they want the job.

If you and your team are working everyday to improve something, even a little thing….you are practicing what the Japanese call Kaizen. And that will put you in a great position when the recession is over.

As competition rises for top talent, many companies are simply filling positions without following a solid hiring practice and procedure. Here are a few tips to make sure your company is getting the very best:

• Do not panic hire! Filling a position, just to fill an empty position is one of the bonehead moves that are so common today.
• You have to get the right people hired and get them in the right position that plays to their strengths.
• If possible, try using a pre-hire behavioral screening program. The system first creates a job model, which defines the position in terms of the behavioral dynamics most likely to succeed in the job. The behavioral survey is easily made a part of the application process. These systems help managers match people to positions, increasing hiring success and decreasing turnover

Recently I had a project where I was hired to come in and work with the company’s corporate executive chef. He had not been performing up to the expectations of upper management. One of the tools I use when doing such work is a behavioral survey called ProScan. After going over the report, first with the corporate chef and then with his supervisor it became quite apparent that he was placed in the wrong position. The ProScan survey revealed that while he could perform the duties of a corporate chef, it went against his natural strengths. After discussions with all the parties involved we decided it best to move him into an executive chef position at their highest-volume unit. In the end, it was a win-win situation all around. The employee repositioned flourished. He reported reduced stress and increased job satisfaction. We created a job model for a corporate executive chef and used the ProScan survey with the new applicants. We located and interviewed a candidate with the traits most likely to succeed. So far, it’s been quite a success. The owners are happy with the new chefs results, the new corporate executive chef thrives on the challenge of the job as it parallels his natural strengths.

I have always had a saying, that hiring in the hospitality business is a lot like mining for gold. You have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the gold nuggets. However, when you find one treated for what it is… gold.

As a consultant, I get paid to produce results. Nothing is more frustrating for me then to waste valuable resources. Trust me, when you are on a week long survival exercise in Iceland and you only have food for 4 days, you appreciate the resources you have……big time.

I did a consulting project recently and the so called “director of operations” was not schooled in resource allocation. For a few hours I went along with his time wasting requests and then I reminded myself what a consultant’s job is: to protect the owner’s investment. Sometimes we also need to protect people from themselves. In this case the owner had no background in the food service industry. Let’s just say he had a more medical background. Now, I’m a big believer in “support the team you play for or play for another team”. Owners also need to subscribe to the belief that “if you don’t trust the people you hired to do their job, hire people you do”. So I had the what I call the “consultant’s reality” talk.

I explained how his operations director was tearing apart his operation and gave supporting data on the turnover and unrealized financial opportunities overlooked by his upper management team. The directors “old school” management style was not getting positive results. Sometimes the problem when companies bring in an outside consultant is some managers feel I’m there to show them up. The truth is I am an impartial observer there to get their operation back on track. The issue is one that is prevalent within the hospitality industry, they don’t think they need to change their behavior or management style. Unfortunately most managers are still using techniques that were designed for the 1990′s worker.

During the 1990s, several trends influence the way American managers did business. At the beginning of the decade, rounds of layoffs led to sweeping reductions in employee numbers. Positions were eliminated and managers were told to increase productivity instead of hiring someone for the vacant spot. Somewhere along the way, either because of excessive efforts to retain workers or because of the excessive elimination of organizational structures, managers lost their ability to lead. In an effort to remain profitable corporations asked managed to make do with what resources they had. This has led to the high burnout, turnover and low satisfaction ratings the hospitality industry is currently experiencing.

In the end, the owner of the restaurant could not see past the friendship and incompetence of his director of operations. I finished the objectives that we had established for the consulting contract and was asked if I wished to extend. It would have been easy just to stay and take the money. Unfortunately, I am a big believer in getting paid to produce results. When you take a job or a commitment, remember you’re getting paid for results. To deliver less is not fair to the owner or yourself.

We all know that hospitality professionals are working more, longer, and harder than ever before. It’s often presumed that while the demands in productivity that today’s workplace have ushered in may be good for business, they are wreaking havoc on the social and emotional lives of those in the industry. The truth, however, is not quite that simple.

In fact, each one of us has our own unique stress threshold. For everyone who starts to feel worn down and emotionally depleted after a few weeks of double shifts, there’s another who only truly starts to feel engaged and invigorated when the pressure’s really on. According research done by Professional DynaMetrics Systems if the demands of your natural energy level doesn’t line up with your work schedule, it’s very likely that you’ll reach burnout much sooner in your career.

What Does Life Balance Mean To You?

Just as each person has their own idea of what defines the perfect job, most people also have a unique conception of the type of schedule that their dream job would entail. Whether your idea of the perfect job is a leisurely part-time position with virtually no “on-call” expectations, or a demanding dawn-to-dusk role with lots of opportunities for overtime and double shifts, it’s important that you define your unique work/life balance needs and perhaps have a behavioral assessment done before you begin your next job search.

By including work/life balance priorities and your natural energy level on your list of job-search criteria, you’ll be better-positioned to find a role that you can thrive in. Here are some tips to help you land the job that will be a perfect fit with your unique work/life balance needs.

• Assess yourself.
  Take a ProScan survey*. It unlocks the key to your natural strengths, energy levels, leadership style and how you tend to make decisions. It also helps you identify what motivates your actions and defines your primary needs. Truly understanding yourself is the first step to finding work/life balance.

• Do a reality check.
  After you’ve gotten some insight into your natural strengths, make sure that they are compatible with the type of work you’re looking for. For example, if you’re the easily-stressed type who prefers a laid-back work schedule, it’s going to be very hard to find a position that meets your criteria. If you identify a potential mismatch, it may be best to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm a few alternative career directions that offer schedules more in keeping with your preferences.

• Bring up work/life balance in performance reviews.
  Talk to your supervisors about the priority environments that are causing stress. Remember that you place some if this on yourself (that’s called eustress). Does the company have any productivity or performance training programs already in place? Who can you speak to in getting a “life coach” to help you achieve balance?

Your work/life balance needs are as unique as your fingerprint. By pinpointing your personal motivators and needs, you can use them as a road map to help find the fulfillment you need at work and at home. It’s a smart play for companies that want to retain top talent.

*ProScan survey is a non-threatening, quick, easy and reliable tool that is one of the most advanced instruments available. It takes statistical research of working adults that accurately gives feedback to a person’s basic and preferred work styles. The ProScan survey also examines combinations of specific traits that affect how a person works most effectively and reacts to stress. The survey focuses on strengths and motivators to help employers create an enviroment that reduces employee stress while increasing energy and morale. You can get more information on other culinary driven programs at our website:

http//:www.dbperformancemgmt.com