Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question, What Does Our Organization Really...

The difference between leaders is ears. Good leaders not only ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers.

Ask people in your organization: "What does our organization REALLY reward?" Listening to the answer may help you achieve marked increased in results.

Rewards and punishments make up the drive shaft of any organization. But my experience of working with thousands of leader during the past 21 years reveals that most of their organizations reward the wrong things.

Such organizations may pay lip service to rewarding people for what is viewed as the right things: getting results, getting the right results, getting the right results in the right ways. But what they may really reward, often in terms of promotions and job perks, are such things as the care and feeding of top leaders' egos, political conniving, tyrannical leadership ....

Here is a way to transform wrong rewards into right results.

(1) Ask people in your organization what your organization REALLY rewards. The answers may surprise you. But don't get caught up in those answers. Don't make value judgments. At this stage, you are just an observer. Simply compile the list.

(2) Gauge each item on the list against results your organization really needs. Does it help get results? Does it detract from results?

Do it this way: Pick out a single item from your list. Describe the problem in the item and identify who controls its solution. Execute a "stop-start-continue" process. What reward do you stop, what do you start, and what do you continue?

You'll get results, but don't expect overnight success. Not only are many of these wrong rewards ingrained habits but changing them seldom achieves quick results. Still, keep asking, What does my organization really reward? In the long run, when tackling the challenges that comes with listening to the answers, you'll be getting more results as well as sharpening your leadership skills.

(3) Ask, "What does your leadership really reward?" When your leadership rewards the wrong things, you're getting a fraction of the results you're capable of. However, since we see the faults of others more clearly than our own, it may be more difficult identifying and dealing with your own issues rather than your organization's.

Do a 360 degree assessment. Select a single item from the list and apply the start-stop-continue process. Don't simply eliminate the item. Such items can be grist for the results mill. Identify the problem in the item then have the solution be a tool that gets results.

Guaranteed you will get results. After all, you are eliminating a negative aspect of your leadership and replacing it with a results-producing one. When you make this a long term endeavor - going from item to item - results will come to you in new and often unexpected ways.

(4) Encourage the people you lead to question the rewards aspects of their own leadership. Be aware of their reactions to your encouragement. Do they see the questioning as meaningful to their jobs? Do they want their colleagues involved in such questioning? Do they want to have senior management question their own leadership?

If people want the questioning to be a regular part of their daily work, continue it. If they feel it has little value, call a time out. After all, if people believe they are powerless to change things in the organization, seismic questions like this will only frustrate and anger them, creating a hot house environment for cynicism to flower.

As you go forward:

--Cultivate among the people a common, self-reinforcing fervor for the questioning. Don't force things. Be an observer and a supporter. Observe their reactions to the questioning and support their efforts to make it succeed.

--Encourage the development of networks of people taking the initiative to engage in the questioning together.

--Now and then, and especially in the beginning, set aside special times and places to have them focus exclusively on such questioning, making sure they continually link the answers to getting increases in results.

--Keep that linkage alive. This is not an academic exercise. It's not meant to simply have people feel good or, on the other hand, vent their frustrations. It's sole objective is to get MEASURABLE INCREASES IN RESULTS. If results are not forthcoming, have people refocus on the need for the questioning; and if you still are not receiving results, curtail or even eliminate it for awhile. You can always reactivate it when the time and the environment are more conducive to having it succeed.

--Avoid having the process deteriorate into name calling and finger pointing. The idea is not to use the questioning to get the goods on people or as a platform for emotional outbursts against the organization but instead for what it is meant to be, a powerful tool to get more results continually.

Mind you, people shouldn't be spending inordinate amounts of time on the questioning. Nor should it be seen as a major, discrete effort, like an operations or marketing program. Just the opposite: It should be a natural part of everybody's leadership activities. Constantly asking, Are we rewarding the right things? should eventually come as second nature.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

---

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. ? and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com

---

Popular Business Misconceptions Cost You Money!

Faulty information costs you money! Which of these popular business... Read More

How to Create a Positive Work Atmosphere

Positive versus Negative WorkplacesWe have all worked in places where... Read More

Keeping Team Meetings Vibrant

Meetings can be the life-blood of an organisation or the... Read More

A Journey of a Thousand Miles

You can't build a reputation on what you are "going"... Read More

10 Fundamentals for Effective Meeting

Here are ten fundamental concepts that characterize an effective meeting.Definition:... Read More

Innovation Management ? changing the world!

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

More Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 2 of 2)

Does your company need to retain the services of a... Read More

Coaching Can Get The Boss In Shape

Who tells the boss that they can improve their management... Read More

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Dont Leave Your Key Stakeholders Guessing

Communicate! Don't leave you key stakeholders guessing.We are generally not... Read More

The Top 10 Things They Don?t Teach You In Business School

Here are 10 subjects that academia should be teaching their... Read More

Managing Client Relationships

Managing Client Relationships: Even the best run organizations occasionally run... Read More

Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration

The steps need to be taken to prepare an organization... Read More

Project Management - I Want It ALL

The knee-jerk response to prioritizing requirements is to mark everything... Read More

Selecting a Business Broker or Intermediary to Help You Sell Your Business

As crazy as it seems, some people spend more time... Read More

How to Help Your Company Become a World Class Company

Most people think real change in an organization occurs as... Read More

Middle Managers Behaving Badly ? How To Stop This Damaging Your Results

More and more I hear and read about a looming... Read More

Book Summary: Mind Your Own Business

A maverick is an independent person who will not go... Read More

The Crisis of Modernity

Since the beginning of the industrial era our world has... Read More

Recognition: A Quick, Low-cost Way to Motivate Employees

Recognizing good performance through praise or other positive action is... Read More

The Inferno of the Finance Director

Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial... Read More

Measuring Creativity, DIY style

Creativity measurement is often required in order to benchmark existing... Read More

Managing Motivation

"Without the chance to meaningfully participate in steering one's own... Read More

Managing Group Meetings

MANAGING SMALL MEETINGS: Keep the size of the meeting as... Read More

Avoid Outsourcing Pitfalls in the Injection Molds and Stamping Dies Markets

When looking to outsource overseas for Plastic Injection Molds or... Read More

Enable Continuous Improvement of IT Services through ITIL

One of the major benefits, if not THE benefit of... Read More

Sarbanes Oxley 404 Compliance - How Nov. 15, 2004 Deadline Affects You

Fast Relief for Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 ComplianceSection 404 of... Read More

How to use NLP for Business?

What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?Neuro-Linguistic programme is nothing but the study... Read More

Hire Winners: Ask the Right Questions

How do you as a manager, supervisor or team leader... Read More

Diversity in the Workplace

As you look around your office, is everyone just like... Read More

Outsourcing Problem Analysis

As an HR professional, you have responsibilities in several broad... Read More

The Importance of Business Goals

For you to get where you want to go, there... Read More

Get Meeting off To a Great Start

When asked what part of their job they find a... Read More

Help Your Employees Prepare for a Performance Appraisal

PREPARING EMPLOYEES FOR THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL INTERVIEWS: Remind employees to... Read More