Heat control for office behaviours?

The automatic thermostat for our electric frying pan is labelled self control.
If that could be plugged into our behaviours in the workplace, I wonder how often it would need to self adjust.
What behaviours in office life raise the heat?
Setting deadlines? Not getting recognition? Unreasonable expectations or demands? Dealing with difficult colleagues? Abrasive management style?
What cools things down?
Feeling appreciated? Getting recognition? Being kept informed? Getting meaningful feedback?
What raises your self control setting to red?
And what ensures an optimum position for effective working? You know that setting don't you? It's the one that's neither in the frying pan nor in the fire.
Continued success!

 

 

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Curiosity in the workplace

 

A friend of mine, a former co-worker, turned natural curiosity to advantage and avoided a potential embarrassment.
What would you do if you saw an envelope labelled like this on a desk?
I couldn't resist it for long and so approached him and said, "I have to ask...what's in this envelope?" He asked me if I was sure I wanted to know. Then he said that before he showed me I must agree not to tell any of our co-workers. I agreed.
The envelope contained... A book of ballots! One of his children had asked him to sell some at work and that was something he really didn't like doing. So rather than ask around, he avoided embarrassment by posting this envelope near his desk where it would be easily visible. Colleagues saw it and approached him.
Of course I bought some, kept quiet and by the end of the day the envelope was down, mission accomplished.
Clever? I think so. I wonder in what ways middle leaders could arouse curiosity in their workplace. How might it be used in problem-solving? To support learning?
Curiosity, just the ticket!
Feel free to share ideas. I'm curious.

 

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Leadership: Looked at the mirror recently?

The driver side wing mirror on my car has a vertical split designed to widen the field of rear view vision and minimise blind spots. It's not 100% foolproof and sometimes other cars travelling alongside can remain hidden. Ever had that experience? Get it once or twice and we quickly learn to make other checks before an important manoeuvre such as a change of direction; it can be dangerous to rely on a single viewpoint.

Workplaces these days often call for decisive actions from middle leaders navigating busy roads ahead. Although speed is of the essence it is still wise to take the time to check and signal our intentions to others likely to be affected by our actions.

We don't have the advantage of a split lens to compensate for our blind spots but we should be aware of those we have. Checking blind spots might mean that we enlist the support of others to critique our latest good idea, pointing out plusses and minuses in our direction of travel.

Checking and checking without moving is like "analysis paralysis" but driving ahead without checking is careless and dangerous. The skill is to develop a judicious mixture of both.

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Like - Comment - Share

A recent report into managing teams made a case for using social networking to keep in touch. That got me thinking. Who would engage with whom? How naturally would people behave? Would workplace colleagues really see themselves as friends?

Let's give this some thought.

Bring to mind someone in your organisation or office with whom you have a good working relationship..Got someone in mind? Think of the last time you were with that person. Recall any exchanges you had. Stop reading and take a minute or two away from this to think about that. I'll be here when you get back.

Hold that thought.

You may have heard of the presupposition that states the belief that we are never not communicating. It holds that even if we don't verbalise what's going on in our heads, our physiology somehow conveys that to others. Now think of that last interaction as a status update on a social media site.

Would you click "Like" or simply scroll on by?

Whether you hit like or not, there is a button to click for comment. Take another moment and think what your comment would be about that interaction. If you have clicked "Like", just what was it you liked? That behaviour they were exhibiting? That attitude they were communicating? What was it that got through to you? If they were personal qualities you liked, are those qualities ones that you recognise in yourself? If not, are they worth acquiring through a process of modelling?

Okay, so you've liked and you've commented. Good. Now would you consider sharing? Would you tell others? Point up the positives?

My guess is that if we were to share each others positive attributes we could make workplaces more friendly, less of a squeeze. Of course we should be aware of and not delete any negative aspects but we should be careful about how we "unlike", comment and share these. Negative talk in an organisation should in my view be counterbalanced by sharing positive feedback. Children in primary schools these days are learning how to do this. They get praise for things done well coupled with suggestions for improvement. Teacher comments on their work are often expressed as "two stars and a wish". The children like to have their work critiqued in this way. You can see the results in their faces and their books.

Self explanatory really and in my experience works for adults too. Try it at your next feedback session.

Like? Comment? Share?

 

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Checked your workplace settings recently?

Like most smart phones mine has a built in camera. Recently I made some adjustments to the settings and the result was that my pictures were not as good as they used to be. I decided to look at them again and it was then that I noticed a check box that allows you to reset to default factory settings. Now I figure that the folks in the factory know a great deal more than I do about what the optimal settings are for a great picture so I restored to the default positions. Result? Brighter, sharper, more pleasing pictures.
This got me thinking about settings in the workplace. What maybe worked well a few years ago probably need adjusting now. Or perhaps we need to return to previous settings: honesty, integrity, service. Taking the camera as analogy I wondered how sharp my own settings are these days. Sharp? Am I up to date with what's going in my area? Or is my picture blurred or distorted in some way? How sharp would I look if someone were to take a picture right now? Poised and alert? Or tired and jaded?
The ISO settings on a camera determine speed and responsiveness to light. So how do I respond? Quickly or slowly? In the gloom of an economic uncertainty can I turn my lens to light from other sources? The "optimalist" effect.
The camera on my phone has a zoom function. So how do I focus on challenges at work? In detailed close-up or zoomed out to the big picture? Do I use the flexibility of the zoom function or treat it as a fixed focus which only sees the challenge from a single perspective?
There is a feature that I rarely use. You know the timer button on the camera that allows you to delay taking the picture so that you can move to be in it. This brings to mind terms used in NLP; associated and dissociated. In the first you you form a picture of your experience as if seeing it through your own eyes. In the second you experience it by seeing yourself in the picture. Association can be great if your experience is a positive one. Less so if it isn't. The ability to dissociate and see yourself in the picture may allow you to become more resourceful by zooming out from a negative experience to gain more information, insight and even objectivity into what's going on.
Allocating time and space to recalibrate settings is an important skill in today's workplace squeeze. Take a moment to consider your own settings? What is working well for you? What could you adjust, replace or tweak? What one thing do you do really well and could you upload and share that picture to appropriate people in your workplace? What would you like to set as your new default positions?
Got a picture of that? So do I. Worth a thousand words, isn't it?

Opting for trust in the workplace

This picture was taken in a gallery of the Roman Baths in Bath and shows a tombstone of an Optio in the Roman army. An Optio was a soldier chosen by the Centurion to assist with the smooth running and discipline of the 100 strong cohort. They acted as a second in command and their task was to work with the rank and file legionnaires to ensure that orders of the day were carried out. The role was a responsible one and Optios could expect to be paid twice as much as an ordinary soldier.
The picture shows the Optio holding a scroll, perhaps containing commands, and a staff. Looking at the ancient artefact I made a connection to organisational life today and wondered if 21st century middle managers are the new Optios? Their bundle of papers tucked underarm a symbol of today's orders of the day? The centuries have taken their toll on the tombstone and the head has not survived. Another link with today as so many aspects of organisational life can appear to have us running around headless.
Optios were an essential part of the Roman organisational machine, and it is interesting that they were chosen on the basis of trust. Optio is formed from the Latin word optare meaning to choose and you can see here the origins of the word options or choices. It struck me that many organisations these days are opting to remove the role of middlemanagers. Some contend that modern business systems and technology ensure that communication is effective and staff are well briefed on organisational expectations. Well, perhaps we still have a way to go. Meantime, we might reflect on the artefact's message. It is this; Optios were chosen on the basis of trust.
Stephen Covey deals with trust and trustworthiness in his Principle Centred Leadership where he makes the point that we must strive to become trustworthy so that we can be trusted. This in turn leads to empowerment and alignment. It seems to me that today's middle leaders should manage the business of trust.
Trust: a valuable attribute in any organisation and one for which the Romans did not mind paying double.