Sales tips, leadership communication skills insight and more from Steve Giglio, sales training professional for more than 25 years.

Eight Tips for Calming Warring Teams

“I’ve got to have these two teams work together in harmony but, they’re at each other’s throats now!”

While companies strive for internal harmony among associates, often that’s not realty.  Teams feeling territorial, threatened or jealous take aim at the source of this stress which could be another team. And a power battle ensues.

As a leader, it’s your job to mollify the teams and get them focused on the whole, not just their area. But how do you do that?  I’m glad you asked…

Here are eight essential steps for calming warring teams:

1. Know the compelling challenge

Too often leaders will put their teams together to brainstorm what needs to get fixed. Generally, this is done as a band-aid that often backfires. You must know the core issue that is bifurcating your teams.

2. Know the politics involved

There are always politics. It’s important to read the tea leaves on who is doing what to whom. Who is the leader? Who is the muck-raker? If you can neutralize their efforts, you have made great strides.

3. Meet with each team leader

You do this to establish trust and a clear understanding of their “side” of the issue. This communicates a nice level of empathy and respect. And give you some inside information to stem the tide of confrontation.

4. Is integration possible?

This is not an easy question to ask, but ask it you must. You’ve got to honest with yourself and see the possibility before you can facilitate it in this plenary session. If these teams are just not going to blend well together, find another way to impact the way they work with each other.

5. Prioritize the issues

You won’t solve all the issues at once. So, which of them are having the greatest impact on the teams involved and preventing collaboration. Address those first. As you move further down the list, others may be willing to take on the smaller issues.

6. Determine what issues need to be vented

Politically through this diligence you’ll discover what issues need to be vented to clear the way to a new normal

7. Present clear behaviors that each team must accept

A debate is healthy provided each team understands the ground rules for successful communication. Rule #1: Listen without bias. Rule #2: Do not interrupt someone. Rule #3: Stay open to new ideas and trust each other.

8. Create the “New Normal” with joint authorship

Each team member wants to feel they made a difference and contributed  to the solution. Nothing works better than for each side to co-author how they will operate going forward. Once they realize that they’ve created it, they’ll own it. LET THEM. It’s their show, not yours. Co-authoring is a great action to facilitate to show the entire team how concerned you are for their buy-in and homeostasis.

Is there a ninth…or tenth…tip that has worked for you? Let me know in the comments. Thanks!

 

Investors Need Love Too

Q4 is often a quarter for investor meetings hosted by Private Equity firms. The good ones understand the importance of presenting their transformative actions in a relational, clear fashion. The bad ones go through the motions without taking the right level of responsibility for what they generated and especially, what they didn’t generate.

Deliver Results with Confidence

Committed PE firms take the time to carefully engineer their results in such a way that investors understand not only the mathematics behind their MOI (multiple on investment), but also the care they took in delivering their news from their investor’s frame of reference, not their own. The best PE firms also take the delivery of their annual report card as seriously as the content they have created. They realize the important adage: “People buy people first, product second.”

It’s Not Just About the Math

I’ve had the pleasure of coaching many Private Equity executives and CEOs in their delivery of their core messages. Being conversational and confident is mission critical here. What you say is important but, how you say it may be even more so. An investor once shared with me how important he felt delivery was.

“I expect the mathematics to be correct. What I look for now is how at ease the team is in their delivery of their information. If they are comfortable in front of me (and 100 other investors), then I’m confident that their comportment inside the “engine-room” of their portfolio companies will drive the team effort required to profitably scale them.”

Be a Master Presenter

Therefore, every time you and your organization has an important presentation to deliver, be impeccable with your content but also be responsible in your mastery of the delivery required to confidently and clearly deliver your message.

What’s your biggest challenge as you prepared to deliver 2016 recommendations? Let me know below in the comments. 

Teach Your Children Well

Hear Ye, Hear Ye…Don’t wait until an executive MUST be coached, shape them early and well.

As a coach, I believe everyone is a candidate for executive coaching, from associates/managers to managing directors/vice presidents to “C” suite executives. Everyone can develop and transform their behavior to fully succeed and prosper in business. But if you wait until they “need” coaching, it could be too late. The longer an organization waits the potentially longer the transformation process may take.

The Good Get Better

Noticing an associate/manager with high potential and giving them the gift of coaching demonstrably affects their behavior and, in turn, your success in business. Your direct report grows and, as an organizational leader, you’ve shaped their ability to comport themselves as you desire.

Bringing in a coach gives you the opportunity to gain a different perspective. Through the coach’s trained eyes, you will understand HOW your direct reports approach their work, what their values are and what they say their developmental gaps are that are dear to them. It’s a lot of information they might never divulge to you.

Leaders Connect

Providing leadership coaching to your directs essentially strengthens your connection with them because of the investment you’ve made in their careers. The coaching covenant speaks volumes about your values as a leader, your commitment to high potential people and a collegial environment.

Get started today.

Great Leaders Listen…But to Who?

I often coach new leaders to listen as though their life depends on it. But to who? Not everyone can provide valuable input, right? Perhaps not but, there are some key groups to whom you should pay special attention. Listening comes in many forms. You’ve got to listen to your Board, your direct reports AND their direct reports and a host of other groups, collectively they will make or break your leadership.

Your Board

When I say listen to your Board, I mean understanding their goals for your organization and what is important to them. What is their legacy going to be? How do you fit into that? Communicating that you understand and respect this affirms a Board member and you get to shape their involvement in the organization, as they feel a nice degree of authorship from your alignment with them.

Your Direct Reports

Naturally listening to your direct reports is essential. You will come to understand their POV and how they see shaping your organization from their position. This gives you a great window into how to contribute to their growth and development. Check in with your directs regularly and lead with questions that give them an opportunity to let you know how things are. You’ll learn a lot and not just their input/insight but, how much they are paying attention “out there.” Those who are truly aligned with the collective goals will have much to say versus those who are “calling it in.”

THEIR Direct Reports

How often to you have meaningful discussion with those in the trenches? As you skip down to your direct’s staff you gain an important perspective. You get a window into how your executive team is leading and contributing to their respective teams. This is essential work. It presents you as an inclusive leader versus an arms-length leader. It also lets their superiors know that YOU value their directs’ input so, they better value it too!

People know when you are removed from them and when you are connected to them. Make sure its the latter.

Mastering alignment with each group drives your acceptance on a personal level, professional level and coach level.

You Don’t Get a Free Pass

football-5-1186483-639x416In our instant access, instant disclosure world, it’s important to bear in mind that as a leader you don’t get a free pass on inappropriate behavior.

What you get is a write up in the National Inquirer that you lost your cool. Of course, I don’t mean this literally, I mean it figuratively. But the point is that you will have shone a light on your bad behavior and lots of people will notice.

Remember Tom Hanks’s famous line in the movie “A League Of Their Own”… “There’s no crying in baseball!” Well, there’s no aberrant behavior that come from emotions in business. Being emotional, and making rash decisions based on those emotions, gives you a scarlet letter you don’t need. It says to people you’re not as stable as they thought you were.

Practice Patience

An example of what I mean is making a personnel decision after being provoked to do so. Rumor disguised as information may come your way and you quickly react, thinking that that is what a good leader does. No, it isn’t.

To neutralize this behavior, it’s important to have forebearance, meaning having patient restraint when provoked. I often coach leaders to catch their emotional moments and substitute the emotion with foerbearance and an illustration of a higher level of groundedness than the issue merits.

Keep Your Cool to Win

Think of an NFL Quarterback. Those who lose their cool, who overreact to what’s happening instead of anticipating it, those who get flustered when things don’t go their way…well, you won’t see them in the Hall of Fame any time soon (or ever!). But those who maintain a steady composure, work the problem at hand instead of fretting about it and keep their emotions in check, you’re likely to see one or more championship rings on their fingers before their career winds down.

Act calmly and appropriately. Because remember…the Inquirer is always watching!

New Leaders…Stay Insecure For a While

The opportunity has arrived! You’ve been anointed as the heir apparent. Congratulations…you are now the boss. You can start telling everyone what to do.
NO! Keep your humility, drop the swagger… I said drop it! Keep a clear head as you proceed.

Lead First…Delegate Later

Sorry to be so immovable on this point BUT, in my experience coaching new leaders, far too many executives move from being in the weeds to only touching them. Too often the first skill they hone is delegation when they should be leading by example. People know when you haven’t done the required homework for important corporate events/moves.  You can’t fool them!

Collaboration Builds Their Confidence in You

The reason I recommend remaining insecure a bit longer is that it forces you to collaborate with everyone and gather feedback in whatever form or tone it takes. This illustrates your humility and forbearance with people. It says their voice is important to you. It affirms people. And in turn, they gain confidence in your abilities.

Avoid Forcing Change

As you start your new leadership position, act as though everyone around you will remain as they are both in character and in their ability to guide your leadership actions. By operating this way, you can adapt your style to fit how they work best and persuade people from the character they have presented, not the one you want them to have. Eventually, you can affect the change you want but first, you have to see things from their perspective. They’ll make note of that effort and are more likely to accept your future plans.

Are you new to your leadership role? Let me know what your biggest challenge is below in the comments. Thanks!

Leaders…Think Before You Email

Communication of any type is always open to interpretation. Even face to face conversations are influenced by body language and other factors. Email is perhaps the most prone to misinterpretation as there is no auditory tone nor physical delivery. It’s just text.

So before you fire off an email, especially one that contains potentially tough information, here are four key To-Do’s BEFORE sending to insure that your intent is understood and accepted the way you want it to be:

#1: Know the Climate

You’ve got to know the climate into which you are sending your email. Is it friendly, hostile, or indifferent? And you’ve got to take responsibility for this environment. Ask yourself, if I’m him/her how would I react to this message? What would I intimate from it? Is there a deeper message here? You need to know where your reader is relative to your message. Will they still understand the “you” you want them to understand?

#2: Link Your Purpose to Your Reader’s Purpose

Often what you want and what your reader wants are two different things. By starting out with their purpose, you show your empathy. For example, if you want someone to stop procrastinating with an issue, initiate your message from the value moving it forward will have to them. What this does is it credentials you as an empathetic individual, reminding them that you are there to help achieve THEIR goals.

#3: See Their Reaction Before Their Reaction

You can do this. First, visualize how they’ll read your email, what they’ll think, and how they will react. Then, write it based on this visualization. Once you’re clear on how they will react, make sure they can self-realize your positive intent. If you see too many ways in which the message could be interpreted as counter to your intention, start over!

#4: Tailor Your Next Response

Yes, just like a chess match, know your next three responses from this communication. The more you understand your reader’s world, the easier it is to determine how they will respond. Remember, you are not communicating to yourself; you are communicating to another person with a different agenda than yours. Are you ready for resistance?  What do you believe it will be and what will be your reaction? Conversely, are you ready for acceptance and have your next steps lined up? This level of anticipation will increase your agility, building your reputation as a valued partner.

Try out these tips before your next difficult communique and let me know how it goes. At the very least, you will feel better as you send it, eliminating some of the anxiety that might have accompanied it otherwise!

Don’t Orphan Your Board Members

They don’t get it.

Why do they still ask the same questions?

I really have these issues handled.

Many a President/CEO I’ve heard utter these laments. And each time I hear them, I begin x-raying the situation. Most often I find that a set of Board members have been unwittingly orphaned by the exec. By orphaned I mean excluded from a leader’s strategic plan or vision.

Build a Board Relationship…Individually

Job #1 is to develop a relationship with EACH Board member. Every Board member is different, no matter what they purport.
Remember, every person in business wants to be affirmed, board members are no different. They enjoy speaking their mind and explaining their values and what’s important to them.

Let them.

Acceptance First…Convincing Second

The more you understand their values the easier it is to persuade them to embrace your ideas and recommendations.
I believe that people buy people first and solutions/product/services second. That means that you need to be accepted as a confident and respected ally BEFORE you present your ideas for your organization.

Enjoy the breakfast meetings with each Board member, you’ll learn a lot about who they are and what’s mission critical to them.

You just have to ask…and listen.

Restructuring Saves Lives

“I think the world of Jane but she seems to be in over her head. But, I’ve got to advance her division.”

These decisions are tough for many leaders. On one hand, you know, trust and enjoy working with Jane. On the other hand, over the past six months, her area has significantly declined in ROI. It’s time to sit down with Jane and find out her level of understanding regarding her, and her team’s, lack of performance along with determining what is important to her now.

Understanding the Pressure

People change. Business changes. Pressures remain.

It is essential to create an environment of empathy and curiosity regarding Jane’s situation. Have her detail her view. You should commit to listening without bias, without a predetermined agenda. Notice how she speaks about the issues, her degree of responsibility to them and her desire to cure them. Each of these three areas can be quite telling. She may reveal an awareness of the problems and a well thought-out plan to resolve them. However, she may be confused and frustrated, not understanding what’s going on or resigned to the problem with an air of defensiveness. At least now you know what you’re working with here!

Caring by Restructuring

One solution can be restructuring Jane’s area along with restructuring her. Determine an area where you believe Jane can make a difference and that will get her confidence back. This demonstration of YOUR loyalty to her could save her for a time. Look for others who can take on some of her responsibilities and/or assist her as she gets the department back on its feet. You get to hit the “reset” button with someone you believe in, and she gets a new lease on life. She’ll also see who on the team is there to help her and who is not. Throughout this time, though, create a formalized coaching plan for her. Meet with her regularly with specific metrics of success that you both create together.

Have a situation like this on your team? Tell me about it in the comments below. Thanks!

 

I’m Ready! No, You’re Not.

Your View: I am ready for a seat at the executive table.

Your Boss’ View: Nope…not yet.

Your Reaction: What’s wrong with me?

There’s Nothing Wrong

I certainly understand the feeling that there must be something wrong or you’d be getting the call to go up the majors. That call will come. You just need to be patient and in the meantime, work on your skills so you are ready.

When your manager recommends a development program based on your 360 evaluation, it means he believes in you and wants you to succeed. He wants you at the table…and is ready to give you the tools you need to get there. You’re in a process of transformation. What that means is you have been given a profound opportunity to transform certain behaviors that have precluded you from the executive table and/or voice you want to have heard.

You Have Work to Do

It’s akin to the AAA league in baseball, known as “the minors.” Players at that level are given the opportunity to work on their skills, develop good habits, work with other exceptional players/coaches and learn. If they apply themselves daily to the goal of getting to the major league, they will be ready when the call comes and take advantage of it. A guy name Derek Jeter started that way. Ever heard of him?

Get Ready and Be Patient

Like with Jeter, your development process and transformation won’t happen overnight. Typically, it happens over a year or more. Be patient. Jeter spent three years in the minors! Being anxious or worse, feeling entitled to a seat the executive table, will only set you back. Being genuine and relationally tenacious with your executive recommendations will win the day and solidify your transformed image.

Stay with it. People need time to change their mind; you need time to change their thinking.