Don’t Take Away The Goody From Good Work
I heard this week about a manager who seems to be unable to say “Good job!” or “Thanks!” He always seems compelled to take the positive feeling out of even a compliment by pointing out a flaw or diminishing the good work of employees.
When an employee proudly reported that she finished a project on time, he said, “Yeah? Well, I just hope you didn’t rush to the point that you made mistakes or you’ll have to do it again.”
When someone told him about how well a suggestion was accepted by a group, he said, “That’s just one group. There are a lot more groups to worry about than just one.”
When an employee brought work to him that was creative and essentially flawless, the manager looked at it and said, “This is pretty good. So, how come you don’t do this kind of work all the time?”
It doesn’t hurt you to let others have successes.
Don’t be like that manager! Don’t be like that with anyone–whether it is people you supervise, people who supervise you, people with whom you work, your family or anyone else. Let people have victories–even small victories that don’t seem significant to you. It won’t hurt you and it may be the very thing that gives the other person the incentive to move toward larger accomplishments. It may be exactly what that person needs right at that moment, to give them a reason to keep going with work or with life.
The concept in Ken Blanchard’s books about catch people doing something right, has become a bit hackneyed, but it’s true. It’s especially true when someone has an obvious expectation that they will be praised or that their efforts will be appreciated. How sad when the goody is taken out of good work, for the sake of acting superior, to keep someone from getting a big ego, or for any other reason.
Anyone will notice gigantic achievements, but it takes someone special to recognize the small achievements that indicate attempts to grow, gain new skills, practice, or try to do something that is challenging. Encourage people to be proud of what they have done, even if you must guide toward improvement. The key is to leave the goody in what they have done right, while helping them make the rest of their work match that high quality.
Tomorrow, next week and habitually after that, look for small victories all around you and verbally applaud them. You’ll soon see even greater things to commend.
February 25th, 2010
Posted by
TLR |
Challenging and Problematic People, Life and Work, Supervision and Management |
12 comments
Pete Palmer is running for Sheriff of Chaffee County, Colorado.
What office are you seeking?
The other day I received a press release from Pete Palmer’s campaign, announcing his candidacy for Sheriff of Chaffee County, Colorado, a gorgeous county in central Colorado.
I’ve known Pete for about thirty years (oh my!) so I was happy to see him planning to use his tremendous knowledge and skills in that way. Instead of wishing him the best I will wish the citizens of Chaffee County the best: Pete Palmer!
Pete has a website that tells about him, his history as a police officer and commander, and his accomplishments in commanding and directing police training missions overseas. He was also the commander of the six hundred and five police officers with the U.N. Civilian Police in Kosovo. Check out his website and photos.
The website also provides an overview of what Pete Palmer promises to provide the citizens of Chaffee County:
Independence of Judgment and Action;
Transparency and Openness of Operations;
Professional Law Enforcement Management.
What do you promise to provide?
I often say that every day is an assessment center or that every day is a job interview. I could add to that, “every day is an election day.” The idea behind those thoughts is that we are continually building our reputations and relationships. Every day someone is observing us or interacting with us and forming opinions or making decisions. We do the same thing about others.
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Every day is a chance to show others how effective we are in in our work, school or family.
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Every day is a chance to show what kind of spouse, parent, friend or coworker we can be.
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Every day someone we know or someone new, interacts with us and forms new opinions or reinforces old ones.
What three reasons to vote for you would you list on your website? If you were to develop a website to showcase your strengths, what three strengths would you list? What three promises would you make? What three things would you say are the hallmarks of the kind of person you are and will be?
Think about that this week and consider how much differently you might do things if you were trying to get votes to keep your job, get that new assignment or promotion, be considered a good friend, be thought of as a loving spouse or parent, or be voted for Loving Contributor Around the House or Great Asset To The Workplace.
Pete Palmer approaches it in the way we should: He doesn’t just say what he has done; he shows how what he has done can be used effectively in the future. If he is elected, he’ll need to live up to those promises–just like we have to do in our work and in our relationships. What we have done is important, what we say we will do, is important too. However, what we are doing has the most impact on how we are viewed today.
Pete Palmer will be voted on for Sheriff of Chaffee County, Colorado in November, 2010.
You are being voted on for something today and every day.
February 20th, 2010
Posted by
TLR |
Assessment Centers and Interviews, Personal and Professional Development |
5 comments
Three is a magic number. Well, at least, that’s what they said in the first video short in the Schoolhouse Rock series in the 1970s-1980s. (A cult classic kid’s show for many of that era.) The song on which the video was based was written by Bob Dorough, a jazz musician, at the request of advertising executive David McCall. Mr. McCall thought it and similar songs would be a good way to help youngsters (including his own son) learn multiplication tables and other educational concepts.
The song was given some artwork, animated, and used to help pitch the show to ABC, which produced it for twelve years. (I remember it at the time and wasn’t impressed with the song, because I thought the lines about three in a family didn’t fit with the rest of the song or with most of our society. Obviously my critique had no influence!) Here is the video and you can decide.
Three Items On Your Daily To-Do List
Three is not too many and not too few. Three things can be remembered easily. Three allows for two extremes and a middle ground. Almost anyone can develop three points for a speech or three ideas to present at a meeting. That may be why Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD, suggests writing three priority things to get accomplished as soon as possible every day.
Dr. Palladino says three is doable and won’t overload your to-do list or your mind. (That’s just a short version–her explanation is better, but that is the concept as I have applied it and it works well even with interruptions.) Her book Your Focus Zone is easy to read and gives you some ideas anyone can use right away to improve effectiveness. The subtitle is: An Effective New Plan To Defeat Distraction and Overload, and I think it can help with those issues for many of us.
It has several chapters about Attention Deficit Disorder in children and adults. I intended to only skim those chapters, but found them as interesting as the rest. Dr. Palladino, who works with those who have been assessed as having ADD, points out that the name of the disorder is misleading. It’s not that those with ADD give too little attention to the world around them–they are paying attention to an excessive number of things at once. (Many of us have a bit or a lot of that going on!)
Everyone I’ve met who has read the book has had positive things to say about it. One manager, who bought it for everyone on his staff and discussed it in a staff meeting, said it helped him get control over a few nagging tasks he had stalled on for months. He mentioned the concept of having a three item to-do list, which he said replaced his long-standing forty item to-do list and resulted in all of the forty items finally getting done.
While not every aspect of the book is easily applied to every reader, a good part of it is useful. I also didn’t care for calling the key concepts “key chains”. That way of describing them added nothing to the explanations and seemed to be more of a distracting gimmick than anything else. But, that was a quibble compared to my overall feeling that I could learn some helpful techniques, use them myself and share them.
If you find yourself going from one task to another, procrastinating on some things and never getting finished with others, consider reading this book and applying it to your work and home life. I found my copy of Your Focus Zone at a Big Lots store for only three dollars. You might want to check there before you pay full price for it elsewhere. Or, get it at a library (we need to support those more, if we want to keep them.)
Put it on your three item to-do list one day this week!
February 14th, 2010
Posted by
TLR |
Life and Work, Personal and Professional Development |
6 comments
Dare to Dream,
Never Give Up,
Don’t Let Others Destroy Your Confidence-
Do You Really Believe Those Things?
One of the enduring positive philosophies of our culture–and of people who want to succeed–is to not be defeated by the sneers and taunts of others and to not consider an initial failure to be a permanent one. Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” He also said to never, never, never give up.
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We enjoy hearing about people in history who achieved success even though they were mocked, ridiculed or persecuted because of their dreams.
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We applaud those with the courage to envision a better future, a better life or a better way of doing things.
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We commend those who have the perserverence to keep trying when nay-sayers tell them they have failed and should give it up and get out of the way.
Unfortunately, all of our praise usually stops when the person trying to reach a goal or achieve a dream is an enemy, adversary or competitor. Sophocles said, in about 400 BC, “Isn’t it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?”
Has It Happened To You?
You may have tried to change things at work for the better, only to have several people purposely try to block your success. When things didn’t go as well as you had hoped, some of those people chortled behind your back or to your face and you had a difficult time keeping on. You found out quickly why almost everyone with a task to accomplish has had detractors who seemed to enjoy watching problems develop, just so they could laugh with their supporters and say, “I told you so.”
You probably found out that some people enjoy the failures of others more than they enjoy their own successes. More to the point–some people are most happy when they can mock, kick, laugh at and disparage someone else. That is when they are in their element. It’s always been that way. William Paley (1742-1805) said, “Who can defeat a sneer?” Charles Simmons, British lecturer and politician in the 1940s said, “Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool.”
Do Unto Others……..
Have you ever wished some coworkers or employees you know would work harder at helping make things better than they do at tearing things down and blaming you for all of it? If you have worked around the barriers they placed to prevent you from being successful, you know how it feels and how it can stop forward motion, not only for you but for a group. That doesn’t mean their ideas are all wrong and yours are all right–but you get the sense that no matter what you tried to do they would knock it down.
Don’t do that to anyone else. Not even to those you dislike. Not even to those who you think really messed things up. Certainly not just because you want to seem better than them in comparison. That’s especially true if you had a chance to help make things work but you were too busy tripping them or refusing to lend support just because you couldn’t stand the thought of them succeeding.
Don’t support those who delight in mocking others. When someone’s communication primarily involves ranting, snickering, jeering and heckling, avoid them as though they have the Swine Flu. They probably have something worse–a mean spirit and a cold heart.
Be part of the solution. See if you can find it in your heart, mind and character to help–or at least to not to be a hindrance. If your help is rejected in a way that is demeaning, angry or unappreciative, focus on improving yourself and your area of responsibility and waiting until things change. Or, work in a positive, healing-not-hateful way to bring about change. If your ideas are appreciated and even a few are accepted, you may have forged a link that can help you, the other person and everyone else.
The bottom line: I am not suggesting that everyone who fails to achieve their goals is worthy of your sympathy or full-hearted support. Many times people fail because they are selfish, unskilled, lacking in knowledge or wanting achievement without effort. Sometimes they fail because they were approaching a problem the wrong way, weren’t prepared for contingencies, used poor judgment about the people they picked to get tasks done, or didn’t provide enough oversight. However, until you’ve thoroughly tidied up your own personality, knowledge, skills and effectiveness, don’t snipe at others, backstab them or show nastiness by high-fiving when they fall short of the positive things they were trying to accomplish.
Consider the advice you have probably given someone else: Don’t let others drag you down! Apply that to your actions–don’t drag someone down and don’t smile if you see it happening. Save your smiles for successes.
February 7th, 2010
Posted by
TLR |
Life and Work, Personal and Professional Development |
12 comments
