loan

subject: Have You Taught Your Team That You Are Irrelevant? [print this page]

Have You Taught Your Team That You Are Irrelevant?

Humans THINK we deal well with ambiguity. Folks get pretty frustrated

sometimes with inconsistency, but we figure out how to muddle through with a

little muttering under our breath.

Yes, we can manage many of these situations. But it certainly takes more

energy, time, effort and takes away from successfully completing what we've

set out to do, or at the very least makes it harder and longer than it needs

to be. Here again we can learn from our dogs about our own needs and how best

to adapt our behaviors.

When you are working with your team, have you taught them to Focus on you and

what you want, or have you taught them that you are irrelevant? Dogs (and

people!) learn we are irrelevant by any number of actions on our part:

We are inconsistent in what we want and the performance we ask for, so

they stop trying to figure it out and just blow us off. Will you make up your

mind already?

We are ambiguous in what we ask for -- (we think) it is clear to us, so

therefore it is clear to our team.

We don't follow through. If I ask you to give feedback on a project or

person's performance, and you don't and I don't insist on receiving it (by

giving you a deadline or some other incentive), do you ever think I'm going

to get the input from you?

We get distracted. We don't stay on task, our attention and energy

wanders.

We don't get to the point. Have you ever been in a meeting with someone

who drones on and on and on? The first time you interact with that person,

you get impatient and wait them out, then realize what is happening. Next

time,you tune them out and hopefully check back in when they get to the

point. Or not. They have taught you they can be safely ignored.

One of the main applications of FOCUS, one of the key lessons from Be the

Lead Dog, 7 Life-Changing Lessons Taught by Sled Dogs is to become and stay

relevant -- with your team, in your relationships, even to yourself.

Questions always arise around applications of this principle in our

presentations and coaching programs, and the answer is always FOCUS on the

results you want, clearly and consistently. Our coaching clients time and

again presume their team "knows" what to do, and they wonder why they're not

performing up to their expectations. Why don't they do what I ask? How can I

motivate my team?

Be relevant. Focus on the desired end result and keep that focus throughout

the steps you need to take to achieve it. Be consistent in giving clear and

unambiguous directions. Relevance = Success!

welcome to loan (http://www.yloan.com/)