Posts from — January 2008

Amazing how fast time flies. On August 14^th 2007 we started this blog. Today, we have basically reached an anniversary of 5 months of delivering insights to our readers. We have been striving to give you lots of quality, food for thought and inspiration, spreading the focus areas of leadership, management, personal improvement, coaching, and performance management. Today is also the point where we are close to our 100^th post – depending how you count it could be a few more or less. In the last 5 months our readership has increased form about 100 per week to almost 3000 per week. Naturally we hope this trend will continue, but today it is important those of you who have come to this place to read, learn and participate. We really appreciate it very much. With these two milestones – 5 months and about 100 posts, I have decided to make a change – admittedly a small one. I have contemplated it for some time because I didn’t want to take away anything from what you have gotten used to. On the other hand I realize that very view people really have the time to read everything I create every day. That would actually mean that some postings are only seen by a small group of people.  To help establish a more realistic rhythm and at the same time supporting my efforts of teaching people, I will change the posting schedule starting today to three times per week. New posts will be available Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I will try to keep them interesting, high quality and informative. 

If you have any suggestions regarding the topics you like me to talk about, feel free to use the comments options. Because AMC is providing a graduate level class in the area of diversity in business in the next few months, there will be some more posts about this topic. Let me thank all of you again for coming to this blog and reading. Those who are new, please come back frequently and those who come and read all the time, I hope you will adjust to the new rhythm and continue the deepening relationship. Finally, since we talk about changes, I like to let you now that we are working on a book, an E-book, and some other materials you will be able to learn about in the near future. As soon as the information is available to us, I will post it here in hopes you will check it out and support our development.  Thanks for your patronage and onward towards the next 100 posts and the 1 year anniversary. Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

As you might know from my bio, my family and I are immigrants from Germany - legal immigrants. We came to the

US in 1995. I served in the German Air Force, then flew fighter jets for the US Air Force at Cannon Air Force base for about 1 year, and then became project manager for a multi-national training center in

New Mexico, before retiring in 2001. It took us almost 11 years to receive our permanent residency papers. In 4 years from now we will be allegeable to apply for citizenship and the right to vote.You might think that we are typically arguing for the immigrants who are in the news and the presidential candidates talk about. In reality, we are actually not. What we would like to see is a fair treatment for those who adhere the rules and laws – just as we did. My family and I realize that it isn’t practicable nor desirable to send 12 million illegal immigrants home. What is very frustrating are the exceptions that are discussed for illegal immigrants compared to those individuals who apply legally – and have to wait in line for decades. Even that could be swallowed if it weren’t for some representatives speaking on behalf of illegal immigrants who actually demand special treatment while we (all of us) are expected to adjust.You might ask yourself what this subject has to do with leadership. In my view, it takes leaders who don’t mind to speak their mind, use clear language and tackle an issue with common sense and historical perspective.

My friend Jack Vance recently send me a message, recalling a speech the former prime minister of Australia held abut the subject of immigration down under. I think it is an example of the kind of leadership we are missing. It is totally independent of political association either way. Here is the core of what he said and suggested: (shown in italic)

Australian Prime minister during a speech before the last elections Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of

Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques. Quote: ‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.’ ‘This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom’ ‘We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society…learn the language!’ ‘Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.’ ‘We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.’ ‘This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, ‘THE RIGHT TO LEAVE’.’

‘If you aren’t happy here then LEAVE. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.’ Well, that makes a lot of sense to me and I hope we would adopt at least a policy like that. It doesn’t solve the issue of illegal immigration, but at least it levels the playing field and puts the voices for this subject in a proper perspective.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

Today we get back to one of the subjects mostly used in the work AMC LLC provides to its clients. As you know if you have been reading this blog for some time, we do about as much projects management and leadership development work as we do coaching and performance management.

 

For our Performance and coaching work, we apply the Performance IQ®  System invented by Gary Morais and GPT3. My reason to use this area for today’s post was a recent message I received form BLR. It said: (shown in italic)

You know you should be coaching Terry, but you’re busy, and Terry’s doing OK.

Well, OK is overstating it, but what a hassle to get someone new, right?

So you give Terry a small raise and a “satisfactory” rating and life goes on.

Unfortunately, this all too common scenario is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Here’s how it’s going to unfold:Eventually, you’re going to let Terry go. Either there’s pressure to cut positions, or you just can’t stand the poor performance one more minute.

“It’s because of poor performance,” you say, as Terry heads out the door.Your problems are just beginning, however, because Terry’s not going home, but to the attorney’s office.

Later, in court, Terry says, “You fired me because I am … [choose one or more: disabled, black, white, old, female, male, enter nationality].” “No,” you protest, “it was performance. Terry’s performance has been terrible for years.”

Think that answers it? Think again … because here come the questions:

Did Terry get a raise each year?
“Well … yes, but …”

Did Terry get a bonus each year?
“Well … yes, but …”

Is this your signature on these appraisal forms that say Terry’s work was satisfactory?
“Well … yes, but …”

At this point, it’s too late for “buts.” The jury is just wondering how many zeros to add.

Clarify and Coach

The cautionary tale above should help you convince your managers to get their heads out of the sand and address performance issues. You can present the task as a simple “two-C” process-Clarify and Coach.

1. Clarify. First, clarify with employees what you expect of them and how you will measure their efforts. As a basic element of fairness, juries won’t hold employees to expectations they didn’t know about or that were too vague to be measured.

2. Coach. We’ll talk more about coaching in our next issue, but the main thing is that coaching is frequent, immediate, and specific. It’s a helping role, but it’s a performance management role as well.Follow the Two Cs and guess what? Come appraisal time, your work is already done. The combination of regular coaching and clearly defined goals lets the performance management system be the messenger of any bad news. The employee knows what’s coming-there’s no surprise.

Should termination ultimately result, that will be no surprise either, because you’ll have a string of coaching sessions and honestly-written appraisals to back you up.If an employee still tries to sue, it’s unlikely that an attorney will take the case. But if you do ever get into court, you will be able to show convincingly that expectations were clear, that the employee failed to meet them, and that you gave frequent assistance and guidance-every chance of success

I agree with what BLR has provided for us. It’s a great guideline and protects anybody in a management or leadership position asked to provide performance assessments of subordinates.

The one aspect that I believe is missing in this article is the third step. I can that  

3. Track. Keep track of the reports that your assessment system generated. Keep track of all the videos, comments, conversations you had during the coaching. And most importantly, keep track of the results of the homework assignments and exercises.

 

With tracking all this information, as a coach as well as the person who is being coached, there will be a great record of everything that happened, and to a large extent, whey it happened. In the Performance IQ® we use at AMC LLC, we have a complete record of everything, including what the coachee says about his/her own progress. It’s not, as it may sound, a very meticulous process. The system is developed and automated to a degree that the tracking is almost automatic.

Though this kind of racking is vital in case of a law suit, it is as important when you want to decide who to promote, where to spend you next budgeted amount for training, etc. Individuals who show during coaching that they are committed to improve themselves are prime candidates now only to become top performers but also to take full advantage of all the support a company provides to them. They deserve it because they show that they want to change and improve. As a coach there is nothing more gratifying than working with these individuals

In summary, BLR makes a good point ad shows tow important first steps. Adding the tracking and especially the automated tracking makes all the difference in the world.

If you ever want to take a look, go to this link,

http://hr.gpt3.net/hr/pxRegistration.asp?src=www-AMC 

take the free assessment and contact us for a consultation to discuss your coaching options.

 

 

If you are a supervisor, manager, or team leader and have to assess individuals, apply what BLR suggest but add the tracking. If you don’t have or like to use the system we offer at AMC LLC, please use some form of tracking to make sure you can show exactly what happened, why and how it impacted the performance of your worker.

 

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

A few days ago, when I was working on my newest graduate level class about diversity and pluralism, I saw a message form Michael Angier. I believe he does a great job at successnet.org. In addition he sometimes inspires me to think about some of the things he has to say or experienced. One aspect of his email and article help me understand how careful one needs to be when trying to satisfy customers. You will see what I mean later when you read Michaels stories.

What this also triggered in me regarding the writing of this blog post is the aspect of culture. How much does it make a difference to be in one culture or another? One of the books I use in the above mentioned class is titled: “Riding the wave of culture”. It helps any reader to have a much better appreciation about the differences you encounter when being exposed to a different culture.

In the past we might have said that this is really only important when traveling to a foreign country on vacation. Today, where we have more and more international and global companies, the chances of being send to a country or work with people in different countries are higher then ever. That makes having knowledge and awareness about habits, behaviors, expectations, and reaction so much more important and valuable.

If you haven’t realized it yet, I found a way to get awareness into this blog again. As you know from previous writing, I strongly believe that awareness of a circumstance is more then 50% of the solution.

When talking about different cultures, that is also true. In this case, awareness allows you to behave better, avoid foolish things and adjust your expectation to what the culture you are dealing with dictates.
What we will be talking about today is the term “trust”. As often before, I did some research in reference books, online and at Wikipedia and found the following:

In the social sciences, the subtleties of trust are a subject of ongoing research. In sociology (and psychology) the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, benevolence and competence of the other party. Based on the most recent research, a failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. You can exchange competence for skill or knowledge in most cases. Only if it can be shown that you knew about something and still didn’t use your knowledge would trust be at least as much violated, if not more, because it goes to honesty in such a case.

A second perspective in social theory comes from the classic Foundations of Social Theory by James S. Coleman. Coleman offers a four-part definition:

1. Placement of trust allows actions that otherwise are not possible (i.e. trust allows actions to be conducted based on incomplete information on the case in hand).

2. The person in whom trust is placed (trustee) is trustworthy, then the trustor (the person who is giving trust to the trustee) will be better off than if he or she had not trusted. Conversely, if the trustee is not trustworthy, then the trustor will be worse off than if he or she had not trusted (this is reminiscent of a classical prisoner’s dilemma).

3. Trust is an action that involves the voluntary placement of resources (physical, financial, intellectual, or temporal) at the disposal of the trustee with no real commitment from the trustee (again prisoner’s dilemma).

4. A time lag exists between the extension of trust and the result of the trusting behavior.

Now that we have an idea what Trust really means, let’s look at the stories Michael send me in his email regarding the impact of trust on developing and keeping your business:

Michael writes: “Over the past few days, I’ve had a chance to see just how skeptical people can be and how seemingly little things will cause people–especially new people –to question doing business with us.

It was quite eye-opening and bears some contemplation–for us.
The first experience was a phone conversation with a subscriber. He was inquiring about our Diamond Club program and it gave us a chance to get to know each other a little.

He mentioned that he was feeling better about our company after speaking with me. When I asked why he hadn’t before, he mentioned a Tele-seminar we had done last year. He had heard about it too late to attend live, but when he emailed me about a recording, I told him to stand by as it was going to be available soon.

Apparently, when we announced the availability of the audio file to our readers, he missed it. And in the process he felt that we had not followed through. It was perceived as a small breech of trust–but enough to cause a seed of doubt. I was glad for the opportunity to clear it up.

There was another event that occurred this week that further showed me just how careful you have to be when you do not yet have a relationship of trust.

One of our new members related to me that she was disappointed in a couple of things. It seems that during our Open House Conference call, I had stated there would be time for some questions and answers. And there were via the webcast. Participants could– and did–send in questions which we answered. But I forgot to leave a Q&A time for those on the telephone. Once again, my error caused doubt in her mind.

And this same person was troubled that a link sent to her was not hot-linked and seemingly invalid.
We now had two strikes against us.

These are two of Michael’s experiences about trust and building your business. At AMC LLC, we have experienced similar things. The connection to my class about diversity and pluralism comes in when we look at what the value of relationships is in different countries. The term created by Trompenaars & Hamptden-Turner talks about specific versus diffuse cultures. They say:

In specific cultures a manager segregates out the tasks relationship he or she has with subordinates and insulates this from other dealings. In diffuse cultures the life space and everything that happens in it permeates everything. If you would draw this difference in a graphic, a specific representative of a culture would have a relatively small core in the center of a circle that represents his or her private life. That’s the area they would keep away form others and don’t talk much about, other then with very close friends, spouses and family members. All the rest of the circle would be considered the public life, which is divided into a number of parts. Each part has relationships but they don’t really impact the inner core and relationships can exist in each part of the public life without touching or influencing each other.

If you drew the same circle (same size) for a member of a diffuse culture, the vast majority of the inner area of the circle would be considered the private life. Just a very small ring on the outside is public life. That causes almost every aspect of life to influence both public and private life.

As you might imagine, if a person from a specific culture meets or interacts with a person of a diffuse culture, the private life of the diffuse culture person is almost always touched. That makes the relationship much different. If one doesn’t know about these differences, mistakes are easily made and people can get hurt, not only physically, but also emotionally. Trust can get broken. The stories Michael Angier was referring to are more for people of the specific type, where the facts determine the relationship that forms. With people form diffuse cultures, you need to form the relationship first and then these small hick-ups don’t play a huge role in maintaining trust.

In the book an interesting experiment is described. Workers in different countries are asked if they would help to paint their bosses house. People form the USA, UK, Switzerland, and most northern European countries said “No”. These are the areas in the worlds considered to be of a specific culture. People form diffuse cultures, like China, Nepal, and several African countries (to name a few) would actually paint their bosses house. They see this as part of the relationship and commitment to their work, the company and the boss as a person. It touches their personal life and standing. They also trust that their help will be seen as a positive thing when their work at their employer is evaluated.

A funny ting about this test was the fact that 71% of Japanese respondents said they wouldn’t paint their bosses house, even though they are considered part of a diffuse culture. The researchers went back to the Japanese participants in the survey and asked them why they answered the way they did. The surprising (and funny) reply was: “Houses in Japan are never painted” – just showing that you need to be careful what you are asking to gain empirical data. In reality they would probably do it if it would be something that could realistically happen. Japanese workers are famous for their loyalty to country, company, and authorities. That makes developing relationships so much more important, especially in diffuse cultures.

In summary, trust is a very important thing in every culture. We need to realize what environment we are in to know what we should and shouldn’t do. This will also allow us to predict the consequences. Michael Angier wouldn’t loose or almost loose a client because he didn’t announce a posting or article, or didn’t allow for some Q&A sessions in a diffuse culture. Those that tune in and listen to him would have developed a trusting relationship to him before they would every spend considerable time in a tele-seminar. What his American clients, coming from a specific culture deemed a failure of trust or a strike against him would be forgiven because he probably had done many many more important things to gain the trust of his listeners and participants.

Small mistakes can drive people away and we all want to avoid them. When dealing with different cultures, being aware of how trust is build and how it can be lost is equally important if we want to be successful, especially in a more and more global marketplace.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

We can often attribute the fact that someone is successful to the reason that he or she is very motivated. When you really want to achieve something or reach a certain goal, you more often then not will actually get there or pretty close. In some cases this is also called ‘being driven’.

In business wanting to achieve something is more of a career goal while to corporate goals are often a matter of the strategy and vision or the company. In some cases those visions and strategies might be what you are looking for as well, but many times they are rather abstract and not written for personal consumption.

That makes it necessary to find motivation to achieve goals and levels and parts of the overall vision. People who are easily motivated enjoy taking charge and making decisions. They take risks and have an optimistic and self-assured manner of living life.

In case you don’t have the motivation you feel you need, the question becomes: What can I do about it? Hopefully the reason is not just boredom, but something in your way. You can refer back to the roadblock to success we discussed on this blog a while ago. It may also be a mindset that you need to change.

In 2006 the move “The Secret” gained much popularity. I liked it a lot for its message and ability to explain some concepts in an easy to understand way. Still there was a semi-scientific touch called “The law of attraction” that had some scientists worried that something unproven is portrait as a scientific fact.

Many people who accept the Law of Attraction as a guide for right living do so on the basis of their faith in the Universe and The Universe’s ‘Laws’; thus, to them, the nature of the ‘Law’ is not one to be settled scientifically, and the word ‘Law’ carries the same belief-based weight as non-scientific ‘Laws’ from other religions, such as the ‘Law of Karma’ and the Ten Commandments.

One way that is proposed in the movie and the associated book is also practices in the coaching we offer at AMC LLC. This is the practice of positive affirmations. Our clients are always encouraged to read and tell themselves their positive affirmations 3-5 times per day. It’s important to realize that these positive affirmations are developed in the coaching process and not a cookie-cutter template a person gets presented. Because of the customized nature they are much more powerful and have very quick and deep impact.

Some proponents of a more modern version of the Law of Attraction claim that it has roots in Quantum Physics. According to these proponents, thoughts have an energy that attracts similarly charged energy. In order to control this energy, proponents state that people must practice four things:

1. Know what you desires and ask the universe for it. (The “universe” is mentioned broadly, stating that it can be anything the individual envisions it to be, from God to an unknown source of energy.)
2. Focus your thoughts upon the thing desired with great feeling such as enthusiasm or gratitude.
3. Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is already acquired/present.
4. Be open to receiving it.

On the other hand, assuming this process really works as advertised, anytime you are thinking or asking for something you don’t really want to happen, would equally be delivered to you. The explanation is that the universe has everything you could ever imagine in ample supply. You just ask for it. That goes for positive as much as negative stuff.

With this in mind, assuming it is actually true, you would easily find a parking spot in a busy neighborhood if you keep telling and thinking to yourself: “I hope for a great parking spot right in front of my destination”. By the law of attraction and the positive energy you emanate, it will materialize right in front of your eyes. On the other hand, if you are more pessimistic on nature and word say: “I hope it’s not too crowded again so that all the parking spots are full” – the universe again would deliver, in the way of a full, crowded space with no parking.

I am sure the law of attraction cannot be taken this literally. On the other hand, I am an optimist and positive energy, optimism and confidence seem to play a role in what happens to us. To a large extent it is probably the fact that somebody who is optimistic, motivated and confident isn’t easily annoyed, or really cares that much if the parking spot or any other desire for that matter, is immediately available.

This brings us back to motivation and the question how motivation can help us become successful. Well, the word itself comes from the Latin word: motus , which stands for movement. Social sciences have further defined it as movement in the direction of your goals. This is not just physical movement, it actually is almost always psychological/mind movement. If you move your thoughts and desires in the direction of your goals, you are motivated. That often leads to success.

Here is a little more detail I found in reference books and online: (shown in italic)

Reward and reinforcement

A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of an action (i.e. behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to occur again. This is done by associating positive meaning to the behavior. Studies show that if the person receives the reward immediately, the effect would be greater, and decreases as duration lengthens. Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action to become habit.

Rewards can also be organized as extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic rewards are external to the person; for example, praise or money. Intrinsic rewards are internal to the person; for example, satisfaction or accomplishment.

Some authors distinguish between two forms of intrinsic motivation: one based on enjoyment, the other on obligation. In this context, obligation refers to motivation based on what an individual thinks ought to be done. For instance, a feeling of responsibility for a mission may lead to helping others beyond what is easily observable, rewarded, or fun.

A reinforcer is different from reward, in that reinforcement is intended to create a measured increase in the rate of a desirable behavior following the addition of something to the environment.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is when people engage in an activity, without obvious external incentives, such as a hobby.

Intrinsic motivation has been studied by educational psychologists since the 1970s, and numerous studies have found it to be associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students. There is currently no universal theory to explain the origin or elements of intrinsic motivation, and most explanations combine elements of Bernard Weiner’s attribution theory, Bandura’s work on self-efficacy and other studies relating to locus of control and goal orientation. Thus it is thought that students are more likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

Attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),
Believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by dumb luck),
Are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.
Note that the idea of reward for achievement is absent from this model of intrinsic motivation, since rewards are an extrinsic factor.

In knowledge-sharing communities and organizations, people often cite altruistic reasons for their participation, including contributing to a common good, a moral obligation to the group, mentorship or ‘giving back’. In work environments, money may provide a more powerful extrinsic factor than the intrinsic motivation provided by an enjoyable workplace.

The most obvious form of motivation is coercion, where the avoidance of pain or other negative consequences has an immediate effect. Extreme use of coercion is considered slavery. While coercion is considered morally reprehensible in many philosophies, it is widely practiced on prisoners, students in mandatory schooling, within the nuclear family unit (on children), and in the form of conscription. Critics of modern capitalism charge that without social safety networks, wage slavery is inevitable. Successful coercion sometimes can take priority over other types of motivation. Self-coercion is rarely substantially negative (typically only negative in the sense that it avoids a positive, such as forgoing an expensive dinner or a period of relaxation), however it is interesting in that it illustrates how lower levels of motivation may be sometimes tweaked to satisfy higher ones.

Self-control

The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset of emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition (as measured by many intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to certain tasks. Yale School of Management professor Victor Vroom’s “expectancy theory” provides an account of when people will decide whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.

Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that activates behavior that is aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are thought to originate within the individual and may not require external stimuli to encourage the behavior. Basic drives could be sparked by deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to seek food; whereas more subtle drives might be the desire for praise and approval, which motivates a person to behave in a manner pleasing to others.

By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in the example of training animals by giving them treats when they perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform the trick consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the process.

So when you really think about it, motivation helps you to know what you really want and then go after it. As we discussed when talking about roadblocks, nothing really happens if only your thoughts are pointing in the right direction. You still need to take massive action to get to where you want to go or achieve what you desire.

On the other hand, if your thoughts are negative, you aren’t motivated, but rather bored, stressed, and depressed, it is much much harder to ever take any action in the first place. Positive affirmations, spoken out loud, combined with motivation, good energy and confidence is the best formula to achieve success. And if you still run into problems, you refer to our list of solutions to get around and over those roadblocks, whether they are in your mind, where motivation resides, or physically in your way.

Be motivated, confident, use your affirmations and pass your positive energy on to others. They appreciate it and your life will that much more joyous.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC