Valuing Individual Differences - Key To Team Success

Seeing things in a different way can be the road to success. Leaders place a high value on being able to see things through different lenses. Successful problem solving teams and project teams value individual differences as the means of arriving at innovative ways to meeting their goals.

Most of us - based on our personal set of values, experiences, and a wide variety of other factors, develop a unique view of whatever we come in contact with. We each see things a little differently. In those differences lies tremendous value to ourselves and to others. It can be our greatest strength.

The keys in valuing differences as key to team success involve two dimensions.

The first is the external dimension - the overall team dimension. It's the team's ability to encourage, listen to and use the differences of team members to arrive at solutions and processes that far exceed in value and impact what any one member could provide. It can get messy. There is no learning without conflict. The ability to focus that conflict constructively is the highest order of skill in a team.

The external team dimension requires three critical elements to maximize the value of individual differences.

1 - Clear unambiguous structure focused on the goals of the team. Clear goals, sufficient resources, and effective team composition that recognizes cross functional contribution are all crucial to team success.

2 - An investment in team development of communication skills and the development of an understanding and acceptance of different behaviors, values and skills as essential to the best possible outcome.

3 - It's crucial that leadership and sponsorship of teams be assigned to the top line leaders who will directly benefit from the team's contribution, as the means of keeping focus on results.

The second dimension - the internal dimension - is the ability and willingness of qualified individual team members to value differences and share their unique perspectives.

This internal dimension requires the following from individual team members

1 - The conviction that the power of the group is greater than the power of any single individual.

2 - A willingness to share with others - and the communication skills to do so.

3 - An attitude and belief in plenty - plenty of opportunity for contribution, plenty of recognition for participation, plenty of reward for accomplishment.

4 - Having trust in their own perceptions - and believing their view is as valuable as anyone else's.

5 - Persistence in presenting individual views - while at the same time broadening individual views through listening and interacting with the views of others.

6 - A climate and culture that accepts and encourages differences.

7 - The maturity to persist even after individual views are not accepted as part of the solution.

8 - A respect for leadership and a respect for followership. In any team, as the process of solving problems and defining projects evolves, different people often take leadership.

9 - The optimism and conviction that the answer to most team challenges is right around the corner - getting around that corner requires looking at things differently.

There are few more powerful ways to leverage talent in any organization than through the use of teams. And yet, in many cases, teams don't meet expectations. In my experience, failure to value and build on differences is one of the main reasons for poor performance.

Take the internal and external dimension requirements from this article and see how team efforts in your organization can be improved. Maximize the unique value every person brings to the table.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Treasure The Wonderful Todays

I searched for an old friend from college. It has been my intent to renew our friendship for some time. I put it off - waiting for - I don't know what. I just found out he died last year. It was like a kick in the stomach.

This morning I read my " Positive Quote Of The Day" that I receive daily from AttitudeMedia.com.

The Quote is so timely - it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm a tomorrow person - I have to guard against it every day. Sometimes I succeed - in the case of my college friend, I failed. I have copied this Quote - it will be part of my daily reminders.

Here it is:

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are... Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in a pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

Mary Jean Iron

It's so true. Waiting for that rare and perfect tomorrow leads to regret for the treasure we missed in normal today.

I get "Positive Quotes For The Day" from AttitudeMedia .com at http://www.positivepress.com/saying/subscription.php3 . They are free, I have no business interest in the organization - I do enjoy them. If you're looking for a Daily reminder for your own needs - I highly recommend this service.

And hold on to that treasure we call today - those rare and perfect tomorrows are so tempting.....

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Ten Steps To Empowerment

Jack and Suzy Welch answer a question relating to empowerment in their back page column in the Business Week August 25, 2008 issue. That particular definition deals with empowering leaders and emerging leaders in companies to take risk as a means of accomplishment- using Google as a model.


Empowering people can take many forms. In most organizations, there are many actions that can be taken, without financial risk to the organization, to start empowering people.


From the biggest for profit corporation to the smallest non - profit, there are empowering behaviors that can add tremendous amounts of energy and leverage.


Here are ten behavior driven actions to take to empower people.


1 - Create the opportunity for trust. Trust comes from results. Results come from a combination of opportunities and actions. That climate can be established at every level. The quicker trustworthy people are identified, the better. Same goes for the untrustworthy.


2 - Provide recognition for contribution. Many managers rationalize not doing this by saying the person was just doing their job. Question: Since when is delivering a product, error free, on time and to a customer spec just " doing their job?" Or giving up a weekend and a family picnic to recover a schedule? Or working double shifts to correct an error on a time sensitive assembly for a customer? Or flying to a jobsite in a foreign country with 4 hours notice to deal with an angry customer? Recognition for a job well done is empowering at every level.


3 - Minimize the rules. Structure is important, no doubt about it. But in most organizations, the rules are either not clear, ignored or out of date. Procedures provide guidance - and discretion - and they empower people by providing a pathway to accomplishment. Why waste time and opportunity constantly reinventing the how - do - we - do - this wheel?


4 - Develop meaningful goals and involve the people who can contribute to the process. This can be messy - it's so much easier to just write down what is to be done. But involvement empowers people, and provides so much valuable input to setting goals. And in most cases, the goals will be more aggressive than if the boss had just written them down. Empowered people work harder and smarter.


5 - Recognize results. This is different than recognizing contribution, but just as valuable. When a goal is met, empower the people involved to go out and do more by recognizing the goal accomplishment.


6 - Develop boundaries for action that allow for some risk. Risk averse organizations don't like to hear that "some level of risk" talk, and for good reason. No one wants to be bagged and tagged by a rogue bond trader, an unethical lawyer, an dishonest accountant, an overly aggressive sales person. But creating boundaries based on the worst possible scenario so limits individual initiative that empowerment can't survive, let alone flourish.


7 - Use opportunity as a reward for accomplishment. This should be done anyway, but it's amazing how many organizations and people don't view opportunity as a reward, but as a jeopardy. Pessimists have their place in every organization - they provide valuable control points and healthy skepticism. But the future belongs to the optimists - the seekers of opportunity.

8 - Ask people what they think. And then listen to their responses. I've written before about the most feared words in business - " What do you think?" To the command and control managers, those words sound like they're giving up their God given right to lead. The truth is those words empower their opportunity to lead. And they empower their people. If the managers can't see that, it's time for a change.


9 - Don't let the bums wear you down. How often have people's sharp edges been described as " just needing a little rounding off'"? But too much rounding off results in a blunt instrument. Every manager and leader has had multiple experiences within their" universe" of people that has the potential to reduce their own effectiveness - to make them a blunt instrument. Poor managers, bad or non existent role models and mentors, dishonest and double dealing peers, bad situations - all have the potential to wear a person down. That's why having positive and optimistic ideals and expectations are so important and empowering. They guard against letting the inevitable negative incidents become the driver of behavior.

10 - Seek out and encourage differences. There is no learning without conflict. Empowerment comes from differing points of view - and respect for those points of view. It's often tempting to brush off the dissenting opinion or observation or suggestion, but providing the opportunity for inclusion of differences results in more empowerment - and more effective decision making.

Inventory your own behavior against these ten steps. Then act to implement the steps that make sense for your situation and the situation of the people around you. Increased empowerment will be the product of those actions.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

How To Set SMART Goals - Start With The Ideal In Mind

Setting worthy SMART goals can be a real challenge. SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time framed. For a lot of people, getting to goal statements that meet those criteria is tough.

So where to start in this process of establishing SMART goals?

Start with the three to five most important things that cannot be left to chance - the things that are most important - the things that action and focus can make happen - right now.

Then identify the ideals. The very best outcome, the best that could happen, the best possible solution. Write down, in detail, what you believe to be the ideal solution to a problem, the ideal spouse or partner, the ideal vacation, the ideal boss, the ideal client, the ideal outcome of a sales campaign.These are the "perfect world" descriptions that we all have about many different things. We're reluctant to share them - we don't want to be seen as dreamers. And yet, creating the ideal - whatever it may be - is the first step to goal setting and accomplishment

The following is the process we use in helping clients define goals to use in people selection. It's an example of how starting with the ideal and then working to a clear set of expectations works - in all kinds of goal areas.

The very first step is to have the client stakeholders state the goal for the selection process- a SMART goal.

The next step is to create a model of the ideal candidate. Start by listing the key accountabilities for the position, then the technical skills, attributes, education, experience, behaviors, values and personal skills the ideal candidate would have.

When that process is completed ask if anyone has ever met a person who could fill the complete description just developed. None ever say they have. But taking the time to arrive at this description is crucial. Without agreeing to the ideal the chances of arriving at the best selection decision are very low.

What the ideal does is set a bar to focus on and strive to reach. Without it everything is relative. "They are the best we could find, given the circumstances." Those words describe the rationalization used to make some perfectly awful selection decisions.

At the same time that it's critical to start with the ideal, it's also critical to not let the ideal become the expectation. As Peter Senge states in The Fifth Discipline, "Scratch a cynic and you'll find a person who made the mistake of letting their ideals become their expectations."

When using this process to identify candidate requirements, once the ideal is established, most stakeholder groups are tempted to make all of the requirements top priorities. That's unrealistic - it's also a copout. Making everything a top priority is just a way of avoiding tough decisions. This is when the hard work of prioritizing the must have's, the want to have's and the nice to have's is done. This is always the toughest step in the process - regardless of the type of goal involved. Different stakeholders have different views of the requirements - and different views of the desired outcome.

But when prioritizing and valuing is done, a clear set of expectations emerges, and everyone can work on the same page - and increase the probability of successfully hiring the right person for the right job by thirty percent to fifty percent. Most organizations would kill for that kind of return on the level of investment involved. The same kind of increase in effectiveness can happen in other goal areas as well.

And the door remains open to modifications based on the experience and action of striving to meet the goal. And modifications happen frequently. But since the process started with the ideal, modifications are kept at a high level.

The next time there is a situation requiring action, create the habit of thought of starting by identifying the ideal - the best possible outcome. Then use that to set goals. Starting with that ideal results in accomplishments far beyond what might otherwise be achieved.

Written by Andy Cox

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Your Attitude Is Showing - Now What?

Your attitude is showing - and it's not good. What to do about it?

A story about an attitude needing adjustment - and about critical personal decisions.

A very close friend had her position cut from full time to 3 days a week. Her duties and responsibilities didn't change - just her hours and her compensation - which was cut by 40%. She was given 24 hours to decide whether or not she would accept the change. She decided to stay and work through the situation. But it hasn't been easy. Three months into the part time situation, she received her annual review - by mail. Her boss has marked her attitude as "meeting standards" toward her job and toward her fellow workers. All of her previous reviews were "excellent." It's red flag time.

She works in a branch location - and with all the things she has to do there, the reduction to three days doesn't allow for face time with her boss and peers at the main location. She's disappointed that peers who were not affected by the reduction in hours and pay haven't reached out to talk to her. She feels hostage to the feedback her boss receives from other members of his staff. Her boss spends no time with her.

She feels she is being poorly dealt with - and she's right - and it shows.

But the reality is that it is her attitude that is the key issue in her review - not how she's been dealt with. And there is no more damning thing to be said about a person in a leadership role than to be described as having a "bad attitude."

Her attitude has changed - from being a key member of the leadership team dedicated to making a new enterprise work, to being a part time worker who is expected to remain a dedicated leader of the new enterprise. It's easy for her to feel like a victim. Her boss notes in her review that she is not the same person since the "temporary setback" and that she needs to talk to him about how to remediate her attitude. The implication is that should things stay the way they are, her attitude will be considered unacceptable. And we all know what that means.

A tough place to be - but it happens more often than we would like to think.

What should she and the thousands that find themselves in similar situations do?

There are two sets of issues to be deal with. The first has to do with the situation - be it a job, a relationship, a career - and it does need to be dealt with first. The second has to do with attitude.

The first issue deals with the situation. Whether to stay or go? There are so many factors in that analysis that are specific to each situation that there can be no easy answer - but it's absolutely critical that there is an answer. Too many people just stagger along, feeling some weird kind of comfort in the status quo, and then waking up years later, as Thoreau describes it, finding themselves "leading lives of quiet desperation." So the first order of business has to be the decision to stay, or to leave - and the terms and conditions for either alternative. The realization that there is a choice can, by itself, be tremendously liberating.

Then the attitude issue needs to be addressed. Once again, choice is the key. Our manager may not be able to control or choose the circumstances that led to her cut in pay and hours, but she can choose how it affects her - and how she expresses how it affects her. It's perfectly human to be angry, depressed, and feeling victimized when negative changes happen, but after the appropriate "mourning" period, it's time to choose the best response - the one that affects behavior positively. It's important not to fall into the victim mode. Victims show negative behaviors, and in addition to being repellant, very little good ever comes from them.

In our manager's case, she has decided that some projects in her job are near and dear to her heart. They are in process now, they require her full attention, and they keep her involved and associating with people outside her organization who she really enjoys - three good reasons for her decision to stay. Longer term still needs to be decided, but the success of the projects will be good for her organization, and of long term career benefit to her. Plus she can feel good that she has kept her word and her integrity and not left commitments undone. The act of making that decision has helped her dig out of most of the negativity she had been feeling. She's no longer a victim - she's in charge of herself.

The attitude issue needs work - but the stay or leave decision has made that issue an easier one to deal with. It has made her inner attitude much more positive. She is reaching out to friends, to her boss and to associates to better understand how others perceive her attitude, and to adopt behaviors that accurately express her much improved inner attitude. She wants to be positive, and focused, and optimistic, and she knows she owns the rights to those qualities. She's going to make it happen.

If you see yourself or someone else in this kind of situation, use the two issue approach to get back on track. Situations change, so can attitudes and behaviors.

Written By Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved