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2006

The Wake-Up Test ( Jan/Feb 2006)

The Wake-Up Test or How Engaged Are You?:

In early 2005, a Gallup poll found that 20per cent of Australian workers are actively disengaged at work and this costs the economy an estimated $31.5 billion per year. Actively disengaged employees are less productive, less profitable, less loyal, less likely to provide excellent customer service and are often disruptive at work. The survey of 1,500 Australian workers, however, found that only 18 per cent are engaged at work and providing their employers with high levels of productivity, profitability and customer service.

Managers who focus on their employees’ strengths or positive characteristics have the most engaged teams, with 43 per cent being engaged and only 4 per cent actively disengaged.

Managers who focus on their employees’ weaknesses or negative characteristics in feedback have teams that are 33 per cent engaged and 24 per cent actively disengaged.

Absence of any feedback is produces abysmal results as managers who fall into this category have the least engaged workgroups with only 2 per cent engaged and 43 per cent actively disengaged.

[ Gallup reached its $31.5 billion estimate of the annual cost of actively disengaged employees through calculating the number of actively disengaged employees in Australia and then applying published statistical guides to the $39,400 per year average Australian salary. This yielded $3,316 in losses/worker (for the total population) that, multiplied by 9.5 million workers in Australia who are 18 years old or older, produced the $31.50 billion estimate.]

Now, in order to quickly assess if you are at risk of being disengaged, I often employ the " Wake Up Test", This is rather useful in executive coaching as well. As we move from the state of " death" or unconsciousness to consciousness, I might ask you to consider what are your first reactions to the new day ( and your recovered consciousness ). If you wake full of vim to tackle the new day, with more ideas and things to do gladly, you ' pass' the Wake Up Test. if your feelings range from dread to lethargy, you at risk of turning up to work with a less than committed attitude ( after all, The London Evening Standard reported in 2005 that 60% of Londoners " dread" going to work ).

Coach yourself. Ask yourself what feelings affect you when you think of going to work. Address each emotion to help you discover root causes for your emotions. If a big one is the uncertainty of how you will be judged at work, a certain fogginess of actual goals, and a lack of engagement with the boss - then you may well be one of those people who aren't getting appropriate feedback at work.

Leadership Feedback ( Mar 2006 )

Leadership Feedback Skills/ How Engaged Are You? [ PART 2 ]

In early 2005, a Gallup poll found that 20per cent of Australian workers are actively disengaged at work and this costs the economy an estimated $31.5 billion per year. Actively disengaged employees are less productive, less profitable, less loyal, less likely to provide excellent customer service and are often disruptive at work. The survey of 1,500 Australian workers, however, found that only 18 per cent are engaged at work and providing their employers with high levels of productivity, profitability and customer service.

Managers who focus on their employees’ strengths or positive characteristics have the most engaged teams, with 43 per cent being engaged and only 4 per cent actively disengaged.

Managers who focus on their employees’ weaknesses or negative characteristics in feedback have teams that are 33 per cent engaged and 24 per cent actively disengaged.

Absence of any feedback is produces abysmal results as managers who fall into this category have the least engaged workgroups with only 2 per cent engaged and 43 per cent actively disengaged.

So the key for creating and retaining motivated staff lies in the quality and frequency of feedback.

Organisations commonly use benchmarks to quantify results and sales performance. But how many actually consider using benchmarking to highlight behavioural traits? When coaching, I ask, on a regular basis, if my clients are experiencing or doing specific behaviours that help their interests ( vs 'old' less productive behaviours ) since the coaching sessions began. This is only ways to tell if my coaching intervention is having a positive effect. This is where so many performance appraisals and training programmes fail. They do NOT measure changes in behaviour that are desired.

Unless you have a way to measure/benchmark changes in behaviour leading to desired new behaviours, there is no real benefit accruing. One practical way to benchmark behaviours is to facilitate a meeting where a series of key behaviour pertaining to your specific work environment can be observed as ranging from " abysmal" to " fantastic". By identifying these behaviours in eg customer service, quality of feedback , we can begin to to produce a co-created outcome with our peers and staff as to how we should behave to get the co-desired work outcomes.

By having a numeric scale, we can give feedback addressing if the present specific observed behaviours are adequately ( or not ) practised. Imagine such a system covering the giving and receiving of feedback skills. Typical skills needed for good feedback reception would include: listening, acknowledging, asking for details, offering scope for improvement that is mutually agreed and celebration. Typical behaviours that represent good feedback giving include observing specific behaviours instead of generalising, less judging, more observation, working towards a co-desired goal. There are more specific behaviours related to this skill not in the scope of this month's newsletter. However, once you prioritise and scale these behaviours to your team's needs, it creates a much safer and effective environment in which to work.

Past editions of LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS ( 2001 - 2005 ) can be found for FREE on http://www.everestmotivation.com/mustread.html - and include topics on The Genius Game, What to do with Anger, and Resilience Awareness. You will need to click the header " year" to access the whole year's worth of articles instead of clicking each article header.

WHY ORGANISATIONS HAVE PROBLEMS CREATING GREAT TEAMS: ( April 2006 )

In the thousands of facilitator man-hours I've put in together with the Everest Motivation Team, evidence ( empirical and anecdotal ) suggests that there are some key ways that do not cost the earth an organisation can get enhanced Return on Investment ( ROI ) in their efforts to build great teams.

78% of organisations* want ROI, yet only 11% of them have any learning and development measurements in place to find out the value they are getting. Have you ever been to a fun teambuilding event where you learned little and applied even less at the workplace? How about an expensive training programme that had the same results? In either case, much of the monies spent was wasted - if a ROI was expected. But most critically, people have a tough time creating great teams because they haven't learnt how to adopt key steps in developing a winning team. Depending on what you need, you can do a number of things to create great teams. It starts with rigorous focus on outcomes desired:

First - ask your team - who are they? How well do they know their relative workplace values, work preferences and risk orientation ( do see more opportunities or obstacles in a given scenario? )

Second - ask - where are you going? Are they near and medium terms goals crystal clear?

Third- what are your resources, and this includes leadership and more physical assets

Fourth - what kind of rewards can they expect for their performance

Fifth - How are you going to get there/ meaning - what strategies will be employed, how will you measure progress and ROI

Factor #1 +#2 will probably have the biggest impact on the rest, and in this months newsletter, the focus will be on these two points

Most teams seem to muddle through and are satisfied with ' good' results. If the team can spend more time figuring out who they are, acting authentically - and before focusing on specific goals, it is well on its way in achieving greatness. Knowing who you are needs to happen first. if you already have your personal values and beliefs aligned with your
professional ones - fine. If not, you might want to spend time asking if the kind of work and values of the business you are in are very nicely aligned. If it isn't, the ' disconnect' will eventually cause great personal unhappiness ( no
matter how much the job pays ) and poor performance. You can find out by some quiet time on your own, and a pen paper to jot down your thoughts about who you think you are ( NOT what you ' do' ).

External aids like certain personality profiling tools like the Motivation Profile™ or TMS's Team Management Profile can help in determining work type preferences and key motivational drivers. Second, define your goals, especially how you know when you've achieved them. It seems silly to cover this point but you'd be amazed at how many people fail to pinpoint when exactly they know they've achieved their goal. Wooliness does not help. Be rigorous. Are the goals exciting? Will they stretch your talents and abilities? Are there key timelines to follow?

These are key ingredients to creating a motivating environment in which to operate.

* information from Dr Jack Phillips, ROI Institute

Leading An Outcomes-Driven Life( May 2006 )

Here's your monthly tip on how to lead an outcomes-driven life. 'Wait' - you may think- I'm already stressed out and tired. This ' outcomes-driven life' seems too much like another effort to make!

My answer to your thoughts is " YES' and " NO'. There will be some effort on your part. But once you realise how little it takes, and how much return you can get, you'll want to embrace this life skill.

In whatever we do, motivation must exist. It is the emotion that must precede action - from picking up a book to read, driving to a place - anything. But when we are in that process of ' doing', we sometimes lose focus on our outcomes. Here's an example: You go out with an aim to have an enjoyable dinner that night with an old friend. Another driver in the multi-storey carpark drives inconsiderately, and the two of you get into a eyes-like-daggers encounter, exchange words or various finger signs. You get mad, and go about expending a lot of negative energy. NONE of this - Repeat - none of this is helpful to your ultimate outcome - having a pleasant evening with a friend. Instead, the encounter will be on your mind, you may complain about the driver to your friend, and you may encounter the same driver again that evening.

The point is that as we go about our daily lives, look at what energy is being expended negatively (e.g. worrying about things we can't control, getting unnecessarily angry ), and see how this might be taking away the quality of our desired outcomes, and delaying our time-to-goal . By recognising the unproductive behaviour immediately, you may notice its intensity or impact on your actions and thoughts quickly dissipating. You can further speed this up by focusing on what you want instead - your final outcome. Embrace this practice - and let me know if it works for you. I would love to hear about your success

The Fine Line Between Success and Failure: 3 Tips in Helping You Re-define Success ( July 2006 )

Barely a month ago, two men were given up as lost on Everest. One died, and one eventually made a near-miraculous recovery to return home safely. Both men were known to me personally. For David Sharpe, he did not return home. He had climbed alone, with little support from his erstwhile team-mates, who were themselves splintered into a number of sub-teams, with no social compact to work together. On his descent via the north ridge on Everest in Tibet, he weakened and lay dying on a day when 40 climbers from around the world walked by . some later claimed ignorance of his true physical condition; some claimed knowledge but professed a lack of ability, or resources to organise a rescue. But most appeared to have enough drive and energy to plod on to the summit.

The other climber, Lincoln Hall, was given up as lost and unable to survive further by his exhausted sherpa team-mates'. He was declared dead shortly after - only to be found still alive by American guide, Dan Mazur and his team. Dan cancelled the summit attempt, contacted Lincoln's team , which then organised a massive, and dramatic rescue operation. This eventually saved Lincoln's life. Would you say Dan's team was successful? Probably not if you defined the goal of success of the expedition as getting to the top. In rating ourselves as ' successes' or ' failures', here are THREE tips in helping you keep your morale in the face of any obstacle.

1) You decide what your parameters of success are going to be.

For most serious mountaineers, the quality of the experience ( the " journey " bit ) which might include good companions, technical challenge, beauty of the route/peak - counts for a lot. The summit us important too, at times. But as so many things beyond our control can thwart us from this, we have to ask ourselves ' what else is important. By NOT defining success too narrowly, we aren't trying to kid ourselves or to blur the line between failure and success. Instead, we are creating MORE options to consider in the greater scheme of things

2) You decide your timeframe of success

How time sensitive is your goal? If you fail at a set of examinations, is it truly 'final' and no re-sits are possible? Or are their other choices? Stretching your timeframe in accepting a set of results allows you to re-frame failure as merely a lesson in how to succeed next time or to do things better. As mountaineers sometimes say, " There is no failure, just a lack of time [ to get to the top ] ". Unless you have an open return airticket home, many expeditions have to quit a climb because many climbers need to return to their everyday jobs and responsibilities - and not due to a lack of ability to climb to the top.

3) You decide what you accept as your higher values.

On Everest this year, many climbers chose to go for their personal goals at the expense of time and effort to participate or share in rescue efforts. Much of these decisions were not necessarily cold-hearted, but more to do with the 'bystander paralysis effect' - everyone hopes someone else will pick up the responsibility and burden/sacrifice in helping. A lack of cohesion between teams and decisive leadership were also contributing factors. Before any major life challenge, you have choice - to live your life, and express daily behaviours based on your higher values. I hope these values are aligned with your calling, and that you have the wisdom to make the right decisions.

You may notice that each of those THREE tips have nothing to do with anyone else but YOU. Life is about choices and self-accountability. Did Dan Mazur make the right decision? I think he did. As was described afterwards, Lincoln Hall had only one life, but you can always go back to Everest.

Doing More With Less, The ROI of the Alpinist Attitude ( AUGUST 2006 )

Here are three stories, and three tips on how to make your team or organisation leaner, and more effective.

AGI Schutz, a division of American Greetings Company, makes custom merchandising displays for greeting cards. After a financially difficult time a few years ago, they knew it was vital to regain stability and efficacy. Dennis Tarlton, director of manufacturing, had heard about lean manufacturing and consulted a number of experts , and applied the learning to the organisation. Results from just five months of these activities included freeing up 10 percent of the labour force for other efforts, creating excess capacity for growth, and releasing up to 15,000 square feet of floor space. Tarlton was quoted as saying that in the period, ROI was 2.5 times the cost of the consulting and training programmes

BusinessWeek and IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Awards)this year announced their winners in a variety of categories, and Apple won a number of Gold and Silver awards. Judge Pierre-Yves Panis said this: "The iPod's Shuffle's simplicity comes from drastically narrowing choices (or making them for us). We get to give up responsibility of having to navigate and choose and with that comes freedom and lightness". Fellow judge Tucker Viemesiter said
"Today Apple is the leader ( of the design world )..... Their design philosophy is getting close the ultimate "less is more."

In Feb 2000, two Singaporean mountaineers made the first successful all-Singaporean ascent of Aconcagua 6962m, the highest summit of the Americas, in lightweight style. It was the first, after five attempts by other parties. From planning to execution, the team relied on working what could be left behind or given up, in order to make the ascent swift; and this included stripping down to lightweight, detail free packs, smaller rations, giving up margins of safety in terms of supplies, reserves and backups common in major expeditions.

Three stories, the last being a personal one, my being the organiser of that landmark Aconcagua expedition ( alas, the success of which has yet to repeated by a Singapore group ). After a decade in the corporate world, and 55 expeditions and ascents , including many ' lean' and hungry ones, what have I learnt about going lean?

We learn that we can, in spite of ourselves, produce the same ( or better ) results with fewer resources. How do we do it? Central to the theme of climbing ' light', the speedy mountaineer has to adopt what I call the Alpinist Attitude. Excess weight is the enemy , as declared by legendary French mountain guide Gaston Rebuffat. But go too far, and results will , inevitable suffer. Teams pounded by hostile corporate and climatic conditions will not survive without reserves. Whole expeditions fold up and go home because of supplies being pared too thin. Winning using the Alpinist Attitude carries a degree of risk, but a whole new horizon about achieving big goals with far less than your nearest competitor.


Lesson #1: Determine the scale of the objective, and assess the actual minimum of resources to achieve this goal; practice on less critical intermediate goals first, then apply to the big game. You may surprise yourself with the margin of spare capacity you end up with at the end. Most critical is the initial commitment to do it with less. Don't ' try' it with less, just commit to doing without certain things not truly critical for success

Lesson #2: Divide your resources into " must have" and " nice to have"; and consider what you need to ditch to go lean. Also consider whether some " must have' items, can double up to be a ' nice to have feature '. For example, spare headtorch batteries ( ' must have ' ) can double as camera ( nice to have ) batteries , if your camera uses the same type of battery.

Lesson #3: Calculated suffering may be required . In order to succeed in getting to the top. the final push may demand great SHORT TERM sacrifices in terms of effort, suffering, deprivation discomfort to a team or individual. Classic examples include going all out to meet or exceed quarterly deliverables of a critical new product; and going for the summit of a peak with very limited time left to climb the mountain. Warning: Don't expect to keep repeating this practice repeatedly without an opportunity for teams and resources to recharge - or face total collapse of your venture.

If you liked this, you can read an archive of FREE leadership and motivating articles from 2001 to 2005 at http://www.everestmotivation/mustread.html

Simple Strategies For Doing What You Know( October 2006 )

OK, you've heard it before - thirty minutes of solid cardiovascular-based exercise per week is the minimum a well adjusted adult should be getting. How many of you out there do it? That letter or note that you wanted written last week is still sitting, half -finished in your drafts folder. Sound familiar?

We know that we should be doing quite a few things. But these things are the best reasons for keeping us away from accomplishing them: " no time", " too busy" , "too tired", " My TV programme is on in a minute", " I have a dinner to go to tonight ". Here are some simple strategies which like all simple things just need a little practice before you start seeing some results:

1) Set Yourself a Personal " To-DO" list in Writing e.g a Post-It inside your organiser. You will get great satisfaction as you tick off the items you SHOULD have accomplished by your set time-frame. Always have a time frame or you will be a victim of time-drift. Since your truly has been doing this, things get done AND there's the added bonus that you've done somethings you've put off for a while

2) Massage the Right Side of Your Brain: Spend a few seconds or a minute imagining the satisfaction of accomplishing a goal or fulfilling part of your weekly exercise routine. Wait - don't rush. Close your eyes, and FEEL what it would be like to be feeling healthier, fitter or have that note/proposal on its way to help you professionally ( or personally ). Imagine, just imagine. You'll find this a pretty good motivational tool with nice emotional juice. And when you achieve the goal, nomatter how small, you'll get a commensurate buzz for having done it.

3) Track -what you should be doing and external elements that derail your good intentions from becoming solid fact. When and where are you when your good intentions evaporate. A simple tracking process will allow you to find out if you are letting certain external elements which are irrelevant affecting your drive to achieved. Get support from colleagues or friends. Tell people who are distracting you from achieving a specific daily goal that you need some focused time, and that you'll have that chat/coffee/disccussion with them later. Prioritise.

If you can practise all of the above, you'll start getting to do things you know should be done, when they should be done.

The Five Lies About Teams( Nov 2006 )

Lie#1: Members of Great Teams Like Each Other
Nuh-uh. Since when did great teams have to like each other? Some of the best teams comprise prickly, high-achieving individuals who know how to let their energies and talents thrive in a group scenario, focus on corporate goals and drive themselves ( and others ) to it. Liking each other is a nice to have feature, but not essential. What is more important is mutual respect and acknowledging what the others bring to the equation

Lie#2: Great Teams Have Achievable Goals
I often talk about SMART-er goals. The time- tried " S.M.A.R.T." acronym that stands for Specific,Measureable, Achievable, Results-based and Time-driven doesn't create compelling goals. the big problem is with the " A" - Achievable. No team achieved greatness by picking ' achievable' goals. Great, exciting, compelling goals are always slightly unachievable

Lie #3: Performing teams' skills come first
You can train people in hard skills. What you have a bugger of a job doing is training attitude.
In our Five ' C's of great teamwork - concepts which some of you who have attended my workshops know - Commitment is described as the most critical. If you have an attitude to go and get the goal , and do everything else to get there, the job is half-done

Lie#4: Teamwork is a group skill
Here we go again. teamwork is NOT a fuzzy, feel-good, hard-to-describe skill. It boils down to individuals delivering their specific , observable competencies, and attitudes to a team goal. As researcher Dr Chris Avery puts it - Teamwork is an individual skill

Lie#5: Good teams value only team goals
Takeaway the " WIIFM" ( What's In It For Me ) factor from a team and you will find people drifting and being de-motivated. Why? Because everyone has a need for personal, individual reward - in tangible or intangible forms. Championing only team goals is a dim-witted leadership action that disenfranchises the team members to contribute their utmost. Find ways to keep personal reward firing up the team progress as well

Email me your thoughts ! office@everestmotivation.com

THE MAGIC OF GOALS ( Dec 2006 )
As 2006 avalanches off to a finish in couple of weeks; arising from the horizon is 2007. Instead of New Year resolutions which are often such a waste of time ( when was the last time you made one, or know of someone who made one and carried it through ? ). SelfHelp magazine states that only 30% are successful while others state 90%. Ditch New year resolutions.

What you want are goals instead. Goals transcend seasonality, and rushed- thinking. here are my Top Tips on getting your goals in 2007.

Tip1: Create Crystal Clear goals that you can own
Formulate goals which are exciting, framed positively in that you can state the goal as a positive and not something like " I dont want to be lazy ". Imagine a specific timeframe in which to achieve it. Then take responsibility ( as much as possible ) to get it done. Weak goals are those that rely too much on you getting, persuading other people to do this or that

Tip2: Plan ahead.
A goal that is worth and helps you is one which you have mulled upon for while and the New Year is a great time to sit down and put a plan, with intermediate stages and goals to get you where you want to go

Tip3: Decide you will do it
many of you will NOT succeed because you didn't decide to do it. You hummed and haw-ed, and mentally said you would " try" to do it. Putting "try" into this equation amounts to a sneaky and unproductive backdoor to excuse yourself from getting the goal achieved.

Tip4: Make a commitment to someone you respect that you will achieve the goal
Whoaaaa! This one will really make you feel accountable


Tip5: Create more than one goal in your plan
As you get closer to achieving the easier goals, the feeling of achievement will help you move more effectively towards your more challenging one

Good luck ( though I think you tend to create your own luck most of the time ) and let me know of your successes in the months ahead. Ready? Steady? Go!!!

Have a Happy Holiday and New Year!