How to Help Your Team Move Faster

How to Help Your Team Move FasterHow to Help Your Team Move FasterYou have little control over the speed your employees create new ideas or solve problems. You can encourage or command individuals to work faster, however, when you are dealing with tasks that go beyond the mechanical or physical- those that involve knowledge work- the focus has to be on implementing processes and fostering an environment that enables faster group and individual learning. While you might feel compelled to cheerlead or even demand that people move faster, moral suasion or command approaches are significantly less effective than building an environment where people do their best work at their optimal pace. For better or worse, we are all wired to process information and generate output in our own way and on our terms and timetables. Effective managers understand this reality and adapt their styles accordingly to promote individual and team high performance. The Drive for Speed Often Breeds Dysfunction al Approaches ur fast-paced world places a premium on speed. We strive in our organizations to respond quickly to customer concerns and to move faster than our competitors. The pace of change in technology demands a corresponding response from our organizations or we risk rapid obsolescence. Unfortunately, too many managers strive to respond to unterstellung demands as if they were setting the pace on a rowing team calling for everyone to row faster in unison. While this might work up to a point on a rowing team, it is mostly ineffective in the workplace. Consider two very different vocations software development and sales. You might try and compel your software developers to code faster or badger your sales representatives to close deals faster. However, these commands ignore both the natural limits to creativity and the realities of the respective vocations. Writing software is a rigorous creative activity where each command has implications and often, unintended consequences for other commands or responses. Software development is comparable in many cases to simultaneously create and solving a jigsaw puzzle. The cry to create faster will both angelegenheit on deaf ears and likely rankle and slow down the target audience. In a sales situation, closing the deal requires the ultimate participation of multiple parties, including the buyer, frequently attorneys and the buyers financial authorities. Cajoling your representatives into closing deals faster is akin to asking the software developer to create faster. Other knowledge-work roles share these natural and vocational limits to speed. Instead of attempting to mandate faster performance, smart managers solve the need for a speed challenge by focusing instead on process and environmental improvements. Process and Environmental Changes Will Help People Move Faster In recent years, concepts including fast or lean start-up and agile project approaches have transformed the entrepreneurial and innovation world s enabling new business launches and new product development activities to move further faster. Both lean start-up and agile methods rely on streamlined processes that emphasize fast, iterative creation, testing, and refinement of ideas. Devotees of these approaches adopt a fail faster to succeed sooner mantra. The gains in speed from the process changes that emphasize short sprints of creativity and effort and then a pause to gauge feedback and determine next steps offer the potential for teams and firms to move faster. They eliminate the inefficiencies and ambiguities surrounding long-form creation activities such as waterfall software development, where a series of long successive stages slow down the learning process. Changes to Make to Help Your Team Move Faster Encourage team members to experiment with small portions of big ideas. Try chunking ideas from big projects to allow individuals to learn mora about the realities of solving the issue. Based on a series of smaller e xperiments, the team or individual will be better informed and able to tackle the larger initiative.Narrow your audience targeting and scope. While your idea might address a massive internal or external market, remember the phrase, There are riches in niches. Reduce the number of audiences you are striving to serve and focus on creating a solution or offering for a visible, well-defined group. Create a successful offering or program for one audience and then expand your reach based on the insights gained thus far. Encourage teams to focus on the work they can see in their headlights. The metaphor of a cars headlights at nights is clear to everyone on the team. Focus on the work everyone can see in the next few weeks. While the big picture is out there and bedrngnis completely invisible, the teams efforts and focus must be clearly in the near-term work to be created that will enable it to move to the next phase.Focus on supporting your team by removing roadblocks. One of the most imp ortant roles of the manager is to clear the path of obstacles that tend to slow individuals and teams down on their journeys. Whether the impending issue focuses on human, financial or equipment resources, your job is to ensure they are in place and accessible at the right time. Coach teams, dont cajole them. Observe your teams and employees and identify behaviors that either need to be strengthened or eliminated to improve performance. Use constructive and positive feedback liberally and always serve as a coach promoting performance and not a manager demanding compliance.Institute regular and timely lessons-learned sessions where you can build overall group knowledge on the insights gained from working on the initiative. Focus on what worked versus the more common, what didnt work as a means of stimulating creativity. Celebrate successes and embrace failures. The tone you cultivate for lessons-learned through failures and the energy you create for successes will both support an env ironment free from fear and focused on striving for success. The Bottom Line Timeliness is of the essence in our world of change. Adopt the behaviors of a high-performance manager and focus on enabling more efficient and stress-free performance and creativity and speed will follow.

Work-Life Balance With a Workaholic Boss

Work-Life Balance With a Workaholic BossWork-Life Balance With a Workaholic BossYou want to please your manager or the CFO, but it seems there just arent enough hours in the day. Youre afraid your workaholic anfhrer and your never-ending workday will destroy your chances for work-life balance.Its an ideal situation when you find a supervisor who is a good fit with your personality. But having a positive relationship with management doesnt necessarily mean you have to embody all the same traits. On the contrary, some bosses possess characteristics best avoided. One example is the tendency to work long and arduous hours, even when working smart is the better alternative.Workaholic bosses are complicated, because it seems like a good thing that theyre giving 100 percent all of the time. But it can also be detrimental to the office environment, the quality of work being done and the work-life balance of employees when they expect the same of you.If you find yourself in a job wrought with workaholism, follow these four tips to remain a productive and effective employee1. Talk to your boss about work-life balanceWhile supervisors may think a 60-hour workweek is the best thing for them, it might be the absolute worst thing for you. There are plenty of tactful ways to explain this to even the most work-addicted managers. Let them know youre more effective when you can get out of the office at a reasonable hour. Maybe you simply cant focus on work if you know you need to be home at a certain time to feed your kids, walk the dog or get to your spin class. If youre good at what you do, your boss will acknowledge that and will respect your approach.2. Give yourself a break (or two)Dont wait for your manager to let you get up for a brief break every hour or so. If your boss is a workaholic, chances are that he or she isnt taking many breaks. However, that doesnt mean you should chain yourself to your desk as well. Stretch your limbs and get re-energized with a snack or a cu p of tea. Stop to have a quick chat with a colleague, and you may find it gives you fresh perspective on an important project. If you give yourself mental and physical breaks throughout the day, youll be better able to focus on the tasks at hand.3. Know the value of time offTime off doesnt always have to mean two weeks on a tropical island. But chances are youve earned some vacation days, so ensure that you maintain a healthy work-life balance by requesting some time off. Even if you only take a day or two for a quick getaway, a break can leave you refreshed, recharged and more productive at work. If your boss doesnt take vacation time, dont follow his or her lead. Youve earned those days and its your right to take them.Stop to read How to Take Time Off and Unplug to Recharge Your Career.4. Honor your time out of the officeIt might be impossible for you to disconnect from your job completely, but you should protect your free time - especially if your workaholic boss tends to blur w ork-home boundaries. Never set a precedent that youre available 24/7. If you can, shut your phone off after a certain hour at night. The 9-to-5 workday might be outmoded, but that doesnt mean you have to be the first person in and the last to leave. At the end of the day, its all about achieving productivity while maintaining a positive work-life balance.Next time youre in the job market, be sure to read this Work-Life Balance Can I Ask About It in a Job Interview? Subscribe to our newsletterWhen you subscribe to the Robert Half newsletter, youll get articles and resources to help you build a successful career in accounting and finance - all sent directly to your inbox. Click the button below to sign up todaySUBSCRIBE NOW

Types of Listening Skills With Examples

Types of Listening Skills With ExamplesTypes of Listening Skills With ExamplesAre you a good listener? This is a highly valuedsoft skillsought by all employers. After all, people with this ability are more likely to understand tasks and projects, build strong relationships with co-workers, and also be able to solve problems and resolve conflicts. Employers will look for you to demonstrate listening skills during job interviews. Discover why good listening skills are vital in the workplace. Plus, see how to build this skill - along with bad habits to avoid. The Listening Process Listening within the work context is the process by which you gain an understanding of the needs, demands, and preferences of your stakeholders through direct interaction. A stakeholder could be anyone from your boss, a client, customer, co-worker, subordinate, upper management, board member, interviewer, or job candidate. There are two components toactively listenwith successin the workplace attention an d reflection. Attentive listeninginvolves holding eye contact, nodding, having good posture, and mirroring the speakers body language to show genuine interest in what they are saying. In addition to these nonverbal cues, you must also allow the speaker to finish their thought in its entirety.Reflectionis the repeating andparaphrasing of what the speaker has said to show that you truly understand what they are telling you. What Makes a Good Listener Good listeners always strive to fully understand what others want to communicate, particularly when the statement lacks clarity. Listening demands the attempt to decode and interpret verbal messages andnonverbal cues(e.g., the tone of voice, facial expressions, physical posture). Great listeners also show their curiosity and ask a lot of questions. Do this, and you will make a great impression. Through their body language and other cues, effective listeners subtly communicate to the speaker that they are listening. Additionally, they encourage and welcome the thoughts, opinions, and feelings of others. One way to demonstrate your listening skills is to allow the interviewer to complete each question and statement before responding. Do not interrupt and be sure that your responses genuinely answer the question. Remember that it is perfectly fine to take a few moments to frame the right response. Doing so shows that you have fully absorbed the speakers words and are considerate enough to formulate the best answer. What Makes a Bad Listener Interrupting the other party indicates that your listening skills are underdeveloped. Likewise, responding in a way that fails to answer the question will reflect poorly on your listening skills, especially in a job interview. Talking too much is also problematic, as proper conversations should be well balanced, with parties getting equal time to speak. Monopolizing a conversation prevents you from listening and the other party from fully expressing what they want to say. In the end, this will lead to you making a poor impression. Looking distracted is also a quality of a poor listener. That could involve anything from avoiding eye contact to checking your phone or watch while someone else is talking. Examples of Effective Listening A job candidate shares her understanding of an unclear question during an interview and asks if she has it right.An interviewer notices that a candidate doesnt look her in the eye when asserting a key strength.A customer service worker repeats a patrons problem or complaint back to her to reassure her that she has been heard.A counselor nods and says,I hear you, to encourage a client to continue to talk about their traumatic experience.A meeting facilitator encourages a reticent group member to share her views about a proposal. An interviewer asks a follow-up question to gain further clarification on the ways in which a candidate has applied a critical skill in a past job.A manager summarizes what her team has said duri ng a staff meeting and asks them if she has heard things correctly.At the end of a performance review, an employee restates the specific areas in which his supervisor asks he improve.At a client meeting, a salesperson asks an open-ended question like, What can I do to serve you better? and encourages his counterpart to express any concerns fully. A nurse informs a patient that she is aware of how scared they are about their upcoming surgery and says she is there for her.An employee pays careful attention to a speaker at a training session and asks clarifying questions on the information they are receiving. More Valuable Workplace Skills Having strong listening skills is essential at every organizational level and will improve ones chances of future promotions. However, there may be some soft and hard skills that are of more value than others, depending on the career field. To determine whichlists of skillsyou should highlight in your resume and interview, have a look atemploymen t skills listed by job.