Recently I’ve been thinking about the topic of Collaboration quite a lot. It comes up frequently in my conversations with managers and leaders from all organisations. It seems that organisations are requiring employees to show more collaboration in how they achieve objectives. There is much talk about the benefits of it (and I wholeheartedly agree – it IS the way forward). So what I find bemusing is that everyone understands the importance of it, leaders at all levels promote the benefits of it, organisations have invested in software tools to enable it and yet many organisations still struggle to achieve the level of collaborative working that they seek. So why is this?

There may be many reasons but here are a few which might resonate.

Organisational structures
Most traditional organisations are set up with defined hierarchies and department structures which group together all those doing similar tasks. These enable clarity of purpose and direction for each department or function and may even encourage greater teamwork within those defined areas. On the flip side these structures can lead to one department viewing another as ‘the opposition’ or ‘the problem’ rather than all being on the same side of delivering the company vision. I have seen and heard this all too often in my career.
 
Internal Processes
Most corporate environments these days will have processes in place for assessing an employee’s potential, appraising employees , promoting and rewarding the talent in an organisation. Whilst each of these processes can add value to an organisation – they can also lead to employees being ‘in competition’ with each other. People compete to have a better appraisal than their colleague,  to make sure their individual achievements are recognised, to achieve that promotion.  In most organisations (not all), these processes encourage the individual to focus on ‘I’ not ‘We’ and the reward structures then compensate them accordingly. It is not only HR processes – the annual financial budgeting process also elicits this competitive spirit – as each department ‘bids’ for the available resources.
 
Leadership culture
Where leaders promote an environment that encourages individuals to compete with each other, it can create a culture that is the opposite of the behaviours and mindset which enable collaboration. Our employees will follow what they see the leaders do. As leaders , are we displaying the right behaviours , or do we blame other teams and department, rather than try to understand their issues and challenges?
 
Start ups and smaller enterprises tend to have much more fluid structures , processes and culture and with it the agility to respond more rapidly, working with others to achieve the right outcome.

​Is it time for big business to learn from the start up when it comes to collaboration?
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Aspire HR Ltd is a training and development consultancy, specialising in leadership and management development. We offer MBTI profiling, leadership programmes, short workshops and coaching to support new and experienced leaders be successful in leading their teams to perform at their best.        www.aspirehrltd.co.uk  ​

 
Leaders in all organisations want their employees to be productive, motivated and engaged, so it figures that leaders will do whatever it takes to create the right environment for this to happen, right?  Sadly this is not always the case. It may be through a lack of understanding or awareness, or perhaps a lack of training for managers and leaders on what needs to happen.

I recently read an article by the Harvard Business Review and in their survey they found significant differences between employees in low or high trust environments. Employees in ‘high trust’ environments reported

• 50% more productivity


• 76% more engagement with the organisation
• 106% more energy

and 

• 74%  less stress

As a leader, YOU are the person with the greatest influence to create an environment of high trust for your team.  The evidence shows how important trust is – it motivates, creates loyalty and encourages the sharing of ideas and thus increase innovation in the organisation.
So how do we do it?

Here are my Top Tips on How to build trust with your team :
 
1)  Invest time in getting to know your team as individuals

How well do you know your individual team members? People are more likely to trust a leader who shows a genuine interest in them and the things which are important to them. Everyone in your team is a person who has needs, aspirations and challenges in both life and work. Discovering these can give you a huge insight into how to motivate them to increased performance and engagement.

2)  Be consistent in all your dealings

Employees notice what you do and how you act towards them and their colleagues. If you are inconsistent in supporting people, the team will remember this and as a consequence their level of trust in you will fall.
How well do you keep your commitments? If you book a team member 1:1 or agree a post meeting action – do you keep to these or do you fail to follow through.  This type of behaviour erodes trust between the leader and the team.
 
3)  Communicate openly and frequently

In this day and age of constant 24/7 information it is easy for leaders to assume people know the information or can find it out themselves. One of your roles as a leader is to share information freely and regularly. Your team look to you as the main source of communication, regardless of how many other channels your organisation offers. People want to hear from people, whether it is a business update, a change in process or a simple ‘Thank you’.  Your team also need you to listen carefully.

4)  Give trust to your team

If you want to be trusted and create trust in your team then give trust to your team members. Show them you trust their judgement, their initiative, empower them to try out new ideas. Naturally not everything will be successful and choosing your approach to experimental failures by your team is key to building trust. Blaming and shaming will damage their trust so instead support their learning from the process and encourage involvement.
 
5)  Admit to your own mistakes

As the saying goes – nobody is perfect and yet as leaders we often think we need to act as if we are.  It takes great courage and strength of character to admit to your own mistakes and failings when you are in a leadership position. However the impact of this action is both positive and powerful. Showing your team some of your vulnerability shows you are human and can also make mistakes. It builds respect, credibility and trust.

6)  Role model the behaviours you want to see from your team

It was Charles Handy who said ‘Leaders do not communicate the message, leaders ARE the message’ As leaders we need to role model the behaviours we want from our teams. The team will follow what they see you do, rather than what you say. If you want openness and honesty – you need to lead this, if you want high trust in your team, you need to create it.
 
Why not try out these top tips to build trust with your team members.  As always I’d love to hear how this works for you.
 
 

Aspire HR Ltd is a training and development consultancy, specialising in leadership and management development. We offer MBTI profiling, leadership programmes, short workshops and coaching to support new and experienced leaders be successful in leading their teams to perform at their best.        www.aspirehrltd.co.uk    

Have you ever found yourself running team meetings where only SOME of the team seem to be engaged and contributing? And no matter what you try in the meeting, some of the team members, particularly the quieter ones, never seem to have ideas to offer?  You are not alone, it is more common than you think.

Now there can be many reasons why people don’t feel engaged in meetings - maybe the subject matter is dull, perhaps the person has other matters on their mind. However it is also quite likely, that some of your team members are not contributing because they don’t feel included.

Meetings, by their very nature, do tend to favour those with a preference for extraversion, who can think out loud and are willing to speak up in a group situation. Being inclusive as a leader also means considering all the different personality styles within your team and ensuring that everyone feels able to contribute.

If you have a diverse team, with a mix of Introversion and Extraversion preferences* – you need to rethink how you manage your team meetings to get the best out of everyone in your team.

​Here are some Top Tips:

1. Send out Agenda Topics in advance of the meeting, allowing people to think about their ideas in advance of the meeting
2. Ask individuals, in advance of the meeting, to prepare a contribution
3. Rotate who chairs the meetings around the team members
4. Use different techniques in the meeting to encourage individuals to contribute 
   - Ask for individual ideas and responses to something on post it notes or on a white board
   - Split into smaller groups for discussion and gather collective feedback
5. Facilitate large group conversations to avoid repeated points
6. Give your own opinion after everyone else
7. Appreciate all the contributions, evaluate ideas after the meeting

 
Why not try some of these for your next team meeting and see if it improves the contributions from your team members?
 

*Introversion and Extraversion are terms from MBTI -  a personality tool which can assist teams and leaders improve their communication, working relationships and decision making.

Aspire HR Ltd is a training and development consultancy, specialising in leadership and management. We offer MBTI profiling, leadership programmes, short workshops and coaching to support new and experienced leaders be successful in leading their teams to perform at their best.        www.aspirehrltd.co.uk    

In such busy and uncertain times, with organizations and leaders so fervently focused on the bottom line, it’s easy to ignore “softer” goals, such as listening well. All that ‘touchy-feeling’ stuff is a waste of my time, you might say or think.

On the contrary! A focus on listening can lead to more effective teamwork, higher productivity, fewer conflicts and errors, enhanced innovation and problem-solving, improved recruiting and retention, superior customer relations and more. As authors on leadership development have noted through the years, listening is not just a nice thing to do, it’s essential for success in your organisation.

“Make the human element as important as the financial or the technical element,” wrote Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. “You save tremendous amounts of time, energy and money when you tap into the human resources of a business at every level. When you listen, you learn.”

As long ago as 1966, Peter Drucker, author of The Effective Executive and numerous other books, emphasized the importance of listening to both self and others as an essential step in bringing to light everyone’s role as contributors to the organization’s overall success.

Likewise, studies in Emotional Intelligence (EI) over the past couple of decades have found that leaders actually “infect” the workplace (for better or for worse) with their attitudes and energy. To understand and influence these flows of emotions and motivational states, leaders need to be able to practice empathic listening skills.

It takes time and conscious practice to become adept at listening empathically. Here are some tips for sharpening your listening skills:

• Develop your curiosity: Remember the first of Covey’s Seven Habits: Seek first to understand’. Genuine curiosity is felt by others and helps to open up their communication to you and your listening skills.
• Pay attention to your listening: How well are you really listening? Replay conversations you’ve had and assess whether you listened well.
• Practice your listening: Even 5 minutes a day of conscious practice will lead to an improvement in your listening skills.  Try listening to an audio recording (this could be a radio show, a podcast, an audio book) and then try to write down what you remember hearing. Re-listen to the recording and see how well you listened.
• Seek feedback. Ask colleagues, employees, bosses, clients/customers and suppliers to assess your listening skills. Ask them to give you specific feedback on how well they perceive you listen
• Work with a coach or mentor. Coaches can help you discover ways to listen better not only to those you work with, but also to yourself.

Listening better will reward you with an entirely new level of communication and problem-solving skills, for empathic listening requires the ability to see multiple points of view in any given situation.



Aspire HR Ltd offers Training programmes, Workshops, Personality profiling and Coaching to support new and experienced Leaders be successful in leading their teams to perform at their best. Contact us to enquire about how we can help you.

www.aspirehrltd.co.uk                        

Fear …. such a small word but what a massive impact it has on our lives.

Fear is that nattering voice inside our heads that says, "you can’t, you shouldn’t, what if…." Fear keeps us from taking risks that might enrich our life and career or holds us back from doing some things we need to do. Fear can stand between you and achieving your dreams
This isn’t to say that fear is all bad. At its best it’s an instinctive, natural ability to help us survive, however many fears are literally in the mind.

So what are we really afraid of ? 
Dr Karl Albrecht did some work on classifying the types of fears we all experience and what may trigger it:

1. Fear of Extinction.

The fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist. It strikes at the very heart of our fear that we would simply  no  longer BE or Exist.
Triggers: The dark, flying, heights, fatal diseases.  Consider the panicky feeling we get if we look over the edge of a tall building. I know I recognize this one as I have a fear of heights and can get the wobbly legs!

2. Fear of Mutilation or Bodily Invasion.
The fear of losing a part of our body, having our body’s boundaries invaded, or of losing a natural function. Feeling physically unsafe or under attack.
Triggers:  Anxieties about creepy crawlies (spiders or snakes), animals like dogs or sharks or any animal you consider harmful. Everyday anxieties about crowds, needles, germs, surgical procedures or going to the dentist can all come under this one.

3. Fear of Loss of Autonomy.
The fear of being restricted, confined, trapped, suffocated. As Dr. Albrecht puts it “the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, overwhelmed, entrapped, imprisoned, smothered, or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control.”. This can be whether in a physical or emotional sense.
Triggers: Commitment, poverty, debilitating illness, aging. Any situations where we feel helpless or powerless. (work , home, relationships). As a leader and employee - this one happens frequently in our workplaces during times of change and uncertainty.

4. Fear of Separation, Abandonment or Rejection.
The fear of abandonment or rejection – we humans have a strong need to belong. Dr. Albrecht refers to a “loss of connectedness; of becoming a non-person—not wanted, respected, or valued by anyone else.” which literally threatens our wellbeing and survival.
Triggers: A relationship ending ie, divorce, death of a loved one, loss of friendship/colleagues. This type of fear can also be triggered when a relationship deepens and we experience more vulnerability – so a fear of intimacy. Giving a difficult employee message, introducing a changes or  a major disruption to the team, or type of work we do can trigger this.

5. Fear of Humiliation, Shame or Worthlessness.
We all need to feel lovable, worthy of love and of value in the world order to have healthy relationships with others and with ourselves. Shame or embarrassment can be an excruciating feeling and something many of us will go great lengths to avoid. It can leave us feeling physically sick, or flush or in extremes give us stabbing pains, we want to disappear. When we are shamed and humiliated it can threaten or destroy our belief in our worth, our lovability and our value in the world.
Triggers: Failure, criticism, bullying, victimisation, mistakes, public speaking.
Making that presentation to people at work, not achieving work objectives, being unable to perform new tasks or requirements, feeling unsure how to manage a particular situation with a team member can trigger this fear.


Here’s the surprising fact – 99% of what we worry about never happens, according to Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. “There’s a voice inside our heads that’s always heralding doom and disaster even before we get started on something,” she says.
Yet despite this – we allow FEAR to stop us moving forward towards our dreams and goals

• What are you afraid of as a Leader?
  
• What is your FEAR stopping you from achieving as a Leader?

Aspire HR Ltd offers Training programmes, Workshops, Personality profiling and Coaching to support new and experienced Leaders be successful in leading their teams to perform at their best. Contact us to enquire about how we can help you.