GL MONTHLY e-NEWSLETTER - July 2004

Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM  

"People often say that motivation doesn't last.  Well, neither does bathing.  That's why I recommend both daily."  - Zig Ziglar

Ever wonder how to motivate others or encourage them to be more productive?  Did you know that 85-90% of what impacts future behavior comes from consequences (i.e. what happens after somebody does something)?  Effective leaders need to learn that sustaining performance requires understanding the effect of four consequences:

1. No response (most leaders are too busy themselves to be tuned into what's happening with their people).

2. Negative response.

3. Positive response.

4. Redirection.

Most leaders unknowingly focus on the first two when the biggest impact comes from the last two.

If Ken Blanchard - well known business consultant and author of numerous books including "The One Minute Manager" - had to choose just one thing to teach for the rest of his life, he has no doubt that "catching people doing things right" would be his lasting message.  Blanchard maintains that the key to developing people is found in accentuating the positive.  Research from the Gallup organization supports this assertion.

Here’s this month’s feature …

The Impact of Positive Leadership - Tom Rath

From Gallup Management Journal - May 13, 2004

Highlights from the article:

• Over the past decade, scientists have explored the impact of positive-to-negative interaction ratios in our work and personal life.  They've found that this ratio can predict - with remarkable accuracy - everything from workplace performance to divorce.  This work began with noted psychologist John Gottman's exploration of positive-to-negative ratios (PNR) in marriages.  Using a 5:1 ratio, which Gottman dubbed "the magic ratio," he and his colleagues predicted whether 700 newlywed couples would stay together or divorce by scoring their positive and negative interactions in just one 15-minute conversation between each husband and wife.  Ten years later, the follow-up revealed that they had predicted divorce with 94% accuracy!
    

• A recent study found that work teams with a PNR greater than 3:1 were significantly more productive than workgroups that did not reach this ratio.  Individuals on the productive work teams displayed more positive attitudes, had greater job satisfaction, and demonstrated a higher degree of engagement.
    

• Positive leaders are always trying to catch excellence in action.  When they spot a job well done, they call attention to what is right.  This in turn raises the entire organizations PNR and its productivity.  The litmus test of a positive leader is the espirit de corps they create within their troops.
    

• What differentiates positive leaders from the rest?  Instead of being concerned with what they can get out of their employees, positive leaders search for opportunities to invest in everyone who works for them.  They view each interaction with another person as an opportunity to increase his or her positive emotions.  This attitude defines the servant leader.

For the full text article, go to . . .
http://www.greatmanagement.org/articles/256/1/The-Impact-of-Positive-Leadership/Page1.html

The Servant Leader as Performance Coach

Ken Blanchard advocates the "servant leadership" philosophy and provides the following framework for managing performance.  The goal: to help people produce results and feel good about themselves.

Three Parts of Managing Performance

1. Performance Planning

Goal setting.  People need to know what the expectations of performance are.

2. Day-to-Day Coaching

There are three things leaders must do to build positive relationships:

A)  Build Trust.  A leader’s actions with people either build trust or tear it down.  Leaders must love their people, help them to be successful, and work with them to help them find the right role for them on the team.

B)  Accentuate the Positive.  Catch people doing something right!  Don’t look for things that have gone wrong like a “sea gull manager.”  Sea gull managers like to fly in, make a lot of noise, dump all over everyone, then fly out.  Don’t wait for “exactly right” behavior; praise “approximately right” behavior and progress.  Blanchard says “good thoughts in your head not delivered mean squat!”  People love to be recognized - it’s a universal need.  Your greatest opportunity to mold future behavior as a leader (or as a parent) is to provide encouragement and attention when things are going well.  Accentuating the positive consists of four components:

• Praise people immediately.

• Be specific about what they did right or almost right.

• Share your positive feelings about what they did.

• Encourage them to keep up the good work.

C)  Redirection.  Focus minimal attention on mistakes, instead redirect by using a phrase like “next time … let’s do this …”  Focus on the future versus what’s happened in the past.  Redirection consists of five components:

• Describe the error or problem as soon as possible, clearly, and without blame.

• Show its negative impact.

• If appropriate, take the blame for not making the task clear.

• Go over the task in detail and make sure it is clearly understood.

• Express your continuing trust and confidence in the person.

3. Performance Evaluation

Most organizations put all their efforts here (the annual "performance review") and then wonder why morale is low and performance goals are not being met!

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