Note from Art: Every week, I provide a few simple (but not simplistic) ideas for you to Do/Experiment/Explore in support of your professional development. Use them in great professional health and personal gain.
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Do:
Make the effort to align with your direct manager on her goals. One of the questions I ask coaching clients is, “What are your boss’s goals?” The most common answers include: “I don’t know,” or, “I haven’t asked,” or, “She hasn’t shared them with me.”
While not every manager is forthcoming about their own goals…and in essence, how they are being evaluated, it is worth inquiring. Armed with insight and context for your manager’s priorities, you are better able to support her efforts, and ideally, align your own goals with hers.
Great team members understand the importance of helping their boss succeed and they intuitively get that reciprocity is a powerful tool for gaining support, particularly in the manager-employee relationship. Today’s boss is tomorrow’s sponsor for your next promotion and a future peer. Forge a great relationship from the beginning by understanding and seeking out opportunities to help your manager succeed.
Experiment:
De-personalize brainstorming. Brainstorming is something that almost every group engages in at some time and while the intent is noble, there are more than a few issues that detract from the effectiveness of this technique in practice. One idea is to use what researchers describe as nominal group techniques to minimize socialization challenges in groups. That’s a $5 label for something that simply means finding a way to draw out input by keeping the source of the ideas anonymous. From loudmouths who dominate discussion to the boss participating and everyone agreeing with him, to the reality that the best ideas may be lurking in the gray matter of the quietest attendees, it makes sense to change things up in search of more value.
Try sending out the brainstorming question a day or two before the event and asking people to generate a list of ideas and then returning them anonymously before the session. (You’ll have to create the means for anonymity, but it is worth the effort.) On the day of the meeting, pre-draft flip-charts or fill a whiteboard with the ideas. Mix them up. Don’t provide any attribution. In the live session, encourage people to read and build and jump on existing ideas as well as to add new ones.
Explore:
Edward DeBono’s “Six Thinking Hats” approach to strengthening group discussion quality. Most of our group discussions are messy swirls of opinions, facts, questionable facts, biases and even political agendas. DeBono helps us quit arguing our way forward through meetings by teaching us a simple but not simplistic approach to conducting group discussions and gaining the benefit of everyone thinking and talking in the same direction.
I reference this topic in workshops, keynotes and my writing. I’ve quit counting how many people have looped back and described their success with the technique. Buy and read the book and practice with the approach. It’s currently under $10 at Amazon, and you’ve got the world’s best laboratory to put this to the test in your workplace. I’ll wager your favorite coffee drink you’ll find this an improvement over current practices.
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That’s it for this week’s idea prompters around Do/Experiment/Explore. Use them in good health, great productivity and in support of your own professional development. -Art
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An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.
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