Posts Tagged ‘leadership’

I recently attempted to participate in a new, voluntary mastermind group.  This group was intended to be a supportive learning environment for life coaches. Let me make this clear, I am not a life coach. I coach business.  I joined the group to learn through observation, the skills of a life coach and because, like artists, the business of business is often difficult for life coaches. I thought I could help.

Sadly, this post will serve as my letter of resignation from the group.  Unfortunately, despite its promising beginning with a solid 10 enthusiastic participants, the group dissipated and dissolved within two months.

While it was painful to watch this group flounder and fall, as a business coach, I found the struggles of these 10 people as they worked to form a group to be a powerful reminder of some old but valuable ideas about team building.

Why is this Sad Story Important?

Knowing how to form a productive unit out those who help you in your business, be they employees, 1099 sub contractors or interns from the local community college, is a important skill for a business leader.

What is Right for a Life Coach is not Right for You

In this case – the case of the failed team – the original members of the group were all trained life coaches.  This is an important characteristic because it describes a world view shared by all members of the team (except me).  Life coaching is a relationship designed to help people make important changes in their lives. Life coaches are trained to respect the client’s agenda and never give advice.  Strong emphasis is put on the technique of asking powerful questions – instead of telling – so that the learning comes from the client and not the coach.

For life coaches this is a critical skill.  Imagine a life coach who sets the agenda for you:

• ·         you should lose 20 pounds
• ·         you should leave your spouse
• ·         you should quit complaining

And expects you to pay for it!

You can see how important it is to be, in coaching terms, “non-directive

But it is Wrong for a Leader

However, for the leader of a business being non-directive is the wrong skill.  Groups need leaders.  A leader cannot be non directive. A leader must deliberately set an agenda; a leader must skillfully force agreement on shared outcomes, a leader must hold group members accountable for meeting shared expectations. To fail at this responsibility undermines the process of Forming, Storming and Norming that leads a team to the final and hoped for stage of Performing.

Group Dynamics

Way back in 1965 is an American Psychologist, researching group dynamics. published a theory of team development called “Tuckman’s Stages“.   Bruce Tuckman’s ideas were developed long before virtual teams, like the ones so many small business owners manage today, were even possible, but Tuckman’s rhyming and elegantly simple model is still valuable today. 

The Stages of Team Building

According to Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development, a group goes through four stages on its way to becoming a team that works:

• ·         Forming
• ·         Storming 
• ·         Norming
• ·         Performing

“In the first stages of team building, the individual’s behavior is driven by a desire to be accepted … and avoid controversy or conflict. … people focus on being busy with routines, such as team organization, who does what, when to meet, etc. But individuals are also gathering information and impressions – about each other, and about the scope of the task and how to approach it.”  (Wikipedia)

Forming

In the case of my coaching/marketing mastermind group, at the on-set there was an unspoken and unacknowledged consensus about acting in a non-directive manner – that is what good coaches are trained to do.  The consequence of this shared value is that no leader emerged to establish clear expectations, set an agenda or hold people accountable.

As Tuckman points out, in the beginning of group formation, “People focus on being busy with routines, such as team organization, who does what, when to meet.” (Wikipedia) Without one person willing to make a final decision, this process took the form of “reply all” email conversations. Typical forming issues about purpose, meeting location and how best to structure the group were posed but definitive answers were avoided in favor of further questions. 

Statements like: “I am throwing these out as dialog starters and comments, thoughts, feedback is welcome and encouraged.” Or “(We will have) open discussion on … how we want to move forward. This can be kicked around and designed as a group. Please add what you would like to see.” derailed the process of forming. 

These are good relationship building and exploratory questions but if never definitively answered, there is no foundation for agreement; without agreement there is no group only a collection of directionless individuals.

Tuckman’s Forming Stage

Tuckman explains that, in the early stage of team development,  ”Members are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team.”  (Wikipedia)  At this stage, leadership is required to set specific expectations. Once the team has developed some understanding of each other and its purpose, they are ready to entered Tuckman’s next stage. “Storming”.  This is the stage where different ideas compete for consideration, new problems are uncovered and, perhaps, a new leader emerges.

The Leader Should be You

In business, as you hire help, it is your role to act as the leader.  While others may have skills far superior to yours; skills in bookkeeping, administration, marketing, the outcomes and expectations are yours.  You are the leader.  Failure to step into this role and lead your team to the outcome you determine will hamper your ability to build a business that runs successfully without your hands-on, micro managed attention and – say it – labor.

What Failure Looks Like

In practice the failure of my coaching/marketing mastermind team to successfully navigate the forming stage of team building looked like this:

• ·         Efforts to accommodate everyone’s individual schedule resulted in a failure to set a consistent meeting time
• ·         Inconsistent meetings resulted in irregular attendance
• ·         With poor attendance, members had no opportunity to get to know each other
• ·         With no little or no relationship between members in the group
• ·         There was no agreement about the task of the group or the process to be undertaken.



The Result

Members, failing to find value, began to drop out. Personnel changes added to the confusion over meeting times. Getting-to-know-you conversations never developed into discussions of  shared  reason for coming together.  After the final (for me) lackluster meeting, one member asked: “What could we do to make this worthwhile for (members) to devote their time and want to come?”

Storming

“What could we do” is exactly the right question to ask.  This is a storming question. This is the question that sets the stage for members to submit their competing ideas and build consensus about how and why they will function together as a group.

Unfortunately, in this case, by the time this question was asked there was no one left to answer.

Leadership

As a business owner stepping into leadership, your goal is to build a team that is “competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process” (Wikipedia).  Buckman calls this a “Performing” team and admits these teams are not the norm.  That is because, like my mastermind group, many groups fail to find a strong leader when one is needed.

Now that you understand a little about the early stages of the team building process, you are steps ahead of your competition when it come to leading your team where you want it to go.

I have studied time management since 1996 when I first taught a college class on the subject.  While day timer systems and high tech label makers have their place in keeping me moving toward my priorities, I find a Saturday morning dedicated to doing a Feng Shui assessment of my environment is as useful – and much more fun.

Feng Shui, for those who missed the trend, is an ancient and complex Chinese system of aesthetics dedicated to using the flow of energy, as understood by the Chinese and often called qi or chi, to help us improve our life by inviting the flow of positive energy. 

As we near the New Year, now is a good time to use the principal of Feng Shui to reassess all areas of your life and business; take a look at your Current Reality (see the Working Miracles Library for a Current Reality Check List) and set an intention for change. 

Stop for moment and, from a business leadership perspective, consider your satisfaction with the flow of energy in each of these areas of your life/business.

Caveat

I give you permission to define the following categories in any way that you wish.  For instance, children and creativity are considered similar because they focus on the future. Family and past are connected for similar reasons.  In general, remember these categories are translated from another language and culture, so don’t let the definitions hold you back.  Instead use this as a starting point for setting new and exciting intentions.

What are your intentions in these areas of your life and business?

• Fame
• Relationship
• Children or Creativity
• Helpful People
• Career
• Knowledge/Spirituality
• Family or Past: 
• Wealth

If you want to know more about Feng Shui, and the use of color and objects to direct the flow of energy, I recommend Feng Shui: Harmony by Design by Nancy SantoPietro.

 If you want to know more about how I use Feng Shui to reach my business goals, I have written an article on the subject.   I am happy to send it along, just email me with your request at coachdana@working-miracles.com or leave your request in the comments.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. It is lonely, risky and hard work. So why do it?  What is your motivation?

Pain and Pleasure

We are all born with two basic sources of motivation: to move toward pleasure and to move away from pain.

From Within or Without

Motivation also comes from different directions.  Intrinsic, or from within, and extrinsic or from without:  Each of us is hard wired to be one or the other.

If you work for recognition and validation from others, for external reward including the reward of avoiding an external pain, you are extrinsically motivated

If you work for a sense of personal satisfaction, including the pleasure of knowing you’ve done a good job in your own eyes, you are intrinsically motivated.  Clearly, given the hard, lonely work of an entrepreneur, intrinsic or self motivation is the most useful.

Personally Speaking

I am naturally extrinsically motivated to avoid pain. (I trace my world view to religious training that taught me to live my life so as to avoid the long term consequences of sin.)  Consequently, I am often afraid of perceived long term consequences: I am afraid of failure, afraid of success, afraid of potential problems.   I’ve learned to use my irrational fear as an intrinsic motivator

For many years I struggled to avoid the pain promised by external motivators. (Most recently a difficult boss.) Eventually I realized by confronting my fears I could release myself from the reactionary prison I had created.

The last job I accepted, before I became a committed entrepreneur, I took with this argument in my head. “I only need to do it for 10 years and if I am careful and save my money, then I can retire.”

I was avoiding the long term pain of a lonely, desolate and depended retirement.  This was the pain promised by various external authorities including the media, every financial adviser I ever met and my parents.

When I realized the price I was paying to avoid this anticipated pain, I made an internal decision to take charge of my own reaction.  I made a conscious decision to quit avoiding pain and instead to move toward pleasure by learning how to make money without working a job.

This learning to overcome my own fear has led me to absorb a great deal of knowledge and test my knowledge with real world experience.  Sharing my knowledge and experience as a business coach is the natural next step and a great pleasure.

My personal growth depends on making my life and learning have meaning by sharing it with those who can benefit.  This desire to grow and find meaning in my life is internal motivation.

I am still afraid: afraid of criticism; afraid of judgment; afraid of failure; afraid, if truth be told, of success since it will lead to criticism, judgment and the possibility of an even bigger failure.  Yet, on another level, an internal level, I am motivated to continue.

Self Motivation

For entrepreneurs and small business leaders there is little outside authority to wield the stick that keeps us pulling the wheel?  For entrepreneurs it is necessary to be self motivated.  To find and maintain self motivation you need to be emotionally attached to achieving the goal.

What motivates you to do the work that you do?