4 areas to focus your attention to grant success

One of the hardest challenges to  deal  with,  when you  have to  engage people in working on something big  is dealing with  their boredom.  Everyday  we meet people who  start  with  enthusiasm,  just to  find out that  after several  hours of “hard work” these same people are not more interested in the subject  and want to  move to  something else.

It gets really  ugly  if part of those people are your company  senior leadership  team and you  need to  work  on your strategy  for growth But the same also  applies for people in your team,  your department, etc.

Imagine you  have invited some people to  work on a challenging project or task.  You  start  the discussion.  You  start  by  explaining what  the task or the project  requires and you  get nothing else, but a quit room with  no questions and reactions on what  you are talking.  You  get some questions from time to  time,  but they  are more just  polite ones,  aiming to  show that you  are not talking in front of a zombie auditorium,  and that  is all.  And finally , when you  get  to  the break  time,  you  see energized people,  talking to each other and discussing lively different topics, except from the one you  have presented.  “How is this possible?” “Was the meeting  a waste of time? ” you may  ask  yourself.

Well,  If I have to  be honest  to you –  YES. You  have waisted your and the people you  have brought together time.  Think how many  times meetings consist of a well  positioned and structured presentations, following one after each  other, while people sit in the room focused on answering e-mails,  texting on different issues, etc.  You  have collected brainpower around the table, able to  solve all problems, but you  couldn’t focus it to deliver results. That  is why,  if you conduct such  meetings,  you  need to  change your approach.  The old classroom ways do not work  anymore.  They  are part of the past.  You  need to  re-think the way  you  organize your meeting.  You need to  move from the material  projected in front of others to actions boosting conversations, controversy  and even conflicts, instead of just giving some updates on a powerpoint slide.  People you  have invited should not be focused on listening to  updates,  but working on solve difficult and challenging problems.

To  get there you will need to  create an environment in which people are vulnerable and brave with  each  other. This means to  create an environment where people you  have invited can show their weaknesses and engage one another with  challenging questions  and decisions.  You  must  create an energizing focus for your group  of people to  ensure they  will be engaged with  the problems and will be accountable when solving them.

One of the working solutions to  move to,  if you  want successful  problem solving is to stop  the slide projecting.  If your meeting is a decision taking meeting send the information prior to  the meeting and ask  anyone who  is invited to  go  trough  it and form it’s own solution. If you  have to  run a decision making meeting you  will need to  focus on 4 areas:

Decision that moves the ball

You don’t need to  waste  energy  talking on things you  have already  gave the information on.  You need to  move to  the problems and challenges others have identified when looking at the information sent prior to the meeting.  Investing time there is the most valuable element of the meeting and the turning point you must focused on.

The big picture

You  will need to  think  about your company or a team as a one direction moving structure that consists of many  small  targets and strategies.  The big picture is your long term goal. If you  want to  get laser focused,  answer yourself the question: “What  is the most important outcome to  achieve during the next 6 to  12 months?”. Department and senior leaders in the company  have the responsibility  to make decisions and act in ways that break  trough  silos and align everyone with  the strategic and cultural direction  of the company.  That  is how they  can ensure that the small  department and team strategies are following the big picture.

The next level of leadership

One of the main roles of the leader is to  engage others in decision making. During decision taking process teams grow as knowledge, skills and results and help  the company grow. But just engaging people into  a working group  does not always lead to anything positive.  If you  want to make impact and change the status quo,  you, as the leader,  need to  push  yourself to  the next  level leadership.  This next level  includes development of succession plans, pushing decisions to  a different and more challenging level,  out of the borders and limits set by  the team and the time now, including people into  strategic discussions and decisions to ensure not only higher level  of engagement, but also  higher level  of responsibility  and accountability.

Undiscussables

As the leader you  will need to have the highest level  of courage in this step.  Talking with  your team and others you  engage in the process of changing the status quo for things that  no one else talks about is an excellent way  to  improve team and company  performance at all.  The topics here can reflect the leadership style and behavior of other leaders,  or senior people,  even the CEO.  They  can be about performance, level of trust, etc. No  matter the area you  need to  discuss,  you , as the leader in the room need to  engage with it and give it time to  rise and be solved as a challenge.  That is what an emotionally  grown and courage leader must look like and that  is that  engages people to share more information without being scared of the after effect of this sharing.

IN CONCLUSION:

If a leader wants to  be seen as courage and emotionally  grown person who  sets the standard in the room, he or she  will need to  focus on ensuring fast decisions leading to a real  change and not being afraid to  discuss harsh  topics.  Positioning away from the harsh  topics and not being ready  to  moderate meetings toward global results you  need to  achieve,  lower people’s engagement and accountability  to  the problem you  are trying to  solve and weakens not only  yours and your teams,  but also  company  results as whole.