WorkPuzzle

How to Coach in Five Minutes

Among the many management topics out there, people tend to feel the most confusion about one in particular...coaching.  Despite the plethora of material available on the subject, there are some managers out there who continue to exercise coaching methods used by their childhood sports coaches.  Well, if you're like me, you'd be duplicating behavior that wasn't very pleasant in the first place.  I never really liked any of my coaches.  Why?  There are a multitude of reasons...  They never really knew me, for one.  They didn't ask me questions, and if they did ask, they weren't meant to be answered:  "Why didn't you block your man?"  Because I'm 20 pounds lighter and I don't like the feeling of getting my clocked cleaned!

At the heart of effective coaching lies something much simpler and so much more rewarding for everyone.  Coaching is first and foremost based on the formula that if I, the coach, ask the right questions, I can elicit information from the coachie that he/she hasn't even thought of before.  When this happens, people follow through, set better goals, and come to you again and again to help them achieve the same magic advice that came from their own mind.  It's a wonderful formula that we all forget too often.  I know I do.

If you've come to this article, hoping to figure out how to do all of your coaching in five minutes...I'm sorry, but it can't be done.  Nonetheless, for those occasions when you don't have more time, below is a good blueprint for coaching others...in five minutes.  Remember, with the following questions, your job is to ask, listen, and ask them to tell you more.

Here are the questions I found in an article by Scott Eblin (potential follow up questions are in parentheses):

1. What’s the most important meeting or event coming up on your calendar in the next week?
2. If that meeting or event is a complete success, what happens at the end?  (What do people know, think, do, feel or believe?)
3. How do you need to show up to make that outcome likely?  (What are you going to say and how are you going to say it?  What kind of energy, body language, tone of voice, and demeanor do you need to demonstrate?)
4. (What else?)  This is the all-purpose coaching question, because it draws out the extra ideas.

Pretty simple, huh?  Well, the hard part is keeping your direction, your agenda, your ego in check, and your mouth shut.  This is about them, not you.  This is a problem for most of us.  Let the process work and get back to me on how it went... 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

What's An Elevator Pitch and Why Do My Agents Need One?

In the WorkPuzzle post I wrote last week, I suggested you develop a short elevator pitch, explaining why agents have the highest chance of attaining "happiness at work" if they work on your team.

How did you do on this assignment?  Hopefully you've been able to quantify this illusive yet important set of qualities.

After suggesting this, it occurred to me that some of you may not have much experience with elevator pitches.  If you've never started a business from scratch or had to raise money to fund a new venture, it may be a new concept.

So why circle back on this topic?  In addition to helping you retain your best agents, an elevator pitch can also be a very powerful tool for those you coach.  Agents need to be able to quickly articulate "what they offer" to perspective clients. 

I'd like to reference an outstanding article written by Michael Hyatt a few months ago.  Here is an abbreviated and slightly modified version of what Michael wrote regarding elevator pitches:

"What's an elevator pitch?  The name comes from the idea that you should be able to deliver a succinct, compelling description of what you offer in the time it takes to ride an elevator up a few floors—approximately 30 seconds to two minutes.

The idea originated with entrepreneurs who needed to pitch their business proposals quickly to potential investors in order to secure funding.  This enabled those same investors to quickly eliminate ideas that were ill-conceived or simply didn’t fit their investment profile.  The elevator pitch has become so effective that it is used in other fields as well." 

Why do you need an elevator pitch as a real estate professional?  It forces you to achieve clarity yourself and understand your prospect's perspective.

"An elevator pitch should consist of four components:

Component 1:  Your product name and category.

Component 2:  The problem you are attempting to solve.

Component 3:  Your proposed solution.

Component 4:  The key benefit of your solution.

Here’s an example from a person who is writing a book:

'I am writing a new business book called Platform [Component 1].  It is designed for anyone who is trying to get attention for their product, service, or cause [Component 2].  I teach my readers how to build a tribe of loyal followers, using social media and other new technologies [Component 3].  I explain that it has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now [Component 4].'

Obviously, pitches can vary widely, depending on your offering.  Regardless, you want to create an elevator pitch that is clear and compelling.  This is a prerequisite for attracting the partners and prospects you need to succeed.

Once you get your elevator pitch fine-tuned, don’t deliver it like a mechanical parrot.  Instead, use it as the foundation of a meaningful sales conversation."

Do you have any thoughts on constructing a good elevator pitch for a real estate agent in your office?  Start noodling on this and write down the thoughts that come to your mind.

Of course, an agent would need to conceptualize their own elevator pitch if it is going to come across as authentic, but being able to provide examples is a great place to initiate the conversation.

Here is an elevator pitch that I came up with, pretending I’m an agent in my hometown of Woodinville, WA (a suburb of Seattle).  It is partially based on a discussion I had with one of the top performing real estate owners in the Seattle market.

“I am a real estate financial advisor who focuses on real estate investments in the community of Woodinville [Component 1].  Because the process of making real estate investment decisions is so heavily influenced by emotion and personal preference [Component 2], I’m the neutral third party who understands the psychology of making an important financial decision [Component 3].  By personally coaching those involved in the decision, I help each individual gain clarity at a point when their emotions and feelings often point them in the wrong direction [Component 4].”

You’re welcome to use this as an example with your agents or make up one on your own.  If you make your own, you’ll have the added benefit of experiencing how it feels to put one of these pitches together.  It is not as easy as it looks.

Once you come up with a few of these (collected from multiple agents going through this process) send me one or two of your team's best elevator pitches.  We’ll publish a few examples in an upcoming WorkPuzzle.  

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Psychology at the End of the World

I love true adventure stories.  I can't tell you exactly why, but at the very least, they help me resist becoming complacent with living a risk-free life.  Another reason is that these stories typically tell me something about how courageous people are wired...how they think, feel, interact..and most importantly, how they respond to inevitable setbacks, disappointments and fears.

These stories also attract the scientific eye of research psychologists, who are interested in what happens to the human mind and human relationships under such extreme conditions.  I've posted several articles based on real life stories of adventure, with all the trials and tribulations that go along with the experiences.  I believe these stories offer insight for us all into ourselves, our organizations, and most importantly, how we can successfully navigate difficult times.  In a post written by Christian Jerrett for BPS Digest, I found a fascinating story that illustrates some great principles we can all learn from.  I trust that you will thoroughly enjoy the research findings below...and in the next edition, I will follow up with my own insight regarding how all of this applies to you and your team.

"A new paper by Gloria Leon and her colleagues has gauged the psychological profile and experiences of two polar explorers - given the pseudonyms Bill (age 32) and Andrew (age 35) - who in 2009 became the first team from the USA to reach the North Pole without outside support.  Starting out from Ward Hut Island in Canada, they reached their target in 55 days.  Personality profiles of the men prior to the challenge were largely as you might expect - they were both high-scorers in leadership and extraversion and low scorers on harm-avoidance.  Andrew also scored low in conscientiousness, which may be unexpected given the preparation required for an expedition, and had a tendency to become highly engrossed in his own thoughts and surroundings.

The challenge itself was grueling, with each man hauling a 300 pound sled.  Temperatures ranged from minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the start to zero degrees Fahrenheit at the end.  Both men lost significant amounts of weight.  At one point, Bill fell through ice and was submerged up to his neck, only narrowly escaping hypothermia.  The final leg of the trip was the most arduous as the duo fought to reach their destination before their helicopter arrived on Day 56 (it was to pick them up whether they'd reached their target or not).  For the last 66 hours, the pair had just one hour of sleep for every 16 hours on the move.  Throughout, the men filled out weekly questionnaires about their coping methods, their relationship, and their mood.  They were also interviewed a few weeks after their return, and again six months later.

For the duration of the expedition, both men scored high on positive mood and low on negative mood.  They survived and succeeded by supporting each other and communicating effectively, and by adopting flexible coping strategies, including positive re-interpretation of challenges and use of relaxation and meditation.  Their relationship hit a low point around day 40 when Andrew aired his grievances about planning for the trip, but they worked through this constructively.  These observations contradict some earlier research suggesting that all-male groups suffer from excess competitiveness.

'We were basically one persona when it came to goal orientation,' Bill said.  'We had a high degree of self-care for each other and ourselves,' he explained.  Andrew said: 'Anytime we expressed ourselves it brought us closer... We talked more about recognizing differences and embracing our similarities and we celebrated that it was really fun.'  Based on this, the researchers said it was important not to overgeneralize the effects of gender on group processes.  'By focusing their interactions on supporting each other, competition between them was minimized or essentially eliminated,' they said."

So what was the long term impact?  Both men "experienced a greater sense of unity with nature and a reduction in their need for conventional achievement, in terms of social status and prestige."

Reflect on this for a few moments... and please add your comments or email me personally with your thoughts...

Source:  Leon, G., Sandal, G., Fink, B., and Ciofani, P. (2011).  Positive Experiences and Personal Growth in a Two-Man North Pole Expedition Team.  Environment and Behavior, 43 (5), 710-731 DOI:10.1177/0013916510375039

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Retaining Your Agents: Make Sure You Understand Happiness

Yesterday, I was waiting for a printing job to be quoted at Kinkos and started to browse the paperback books in the display near the counter.  I expected to see the usual self-help books regarding how to construct a resume, handle interviews, and ask intelligent questions at your next interview.  What I didn't expect to see was a nearly equal number of books about how to attain happiness.

Over the last few years, it seems the "happiness industry" has exploded.  It is tough for me to go even a couple of days without reading something about how to attain happiness--particularly in the realm of business and work.  Maybe this is a sign that we're all miserable and having a hard time coping! 

Whatever the reason, you can bet that those whom you manage are reading some (or a lot) of this material as well.  If you're responsible for retaining and coaching a team, you may want to spend some time becoming proficient on this topic.  

If someone on your team asks you the question..."How do you find happiness and fulfillment in your work?"  How would you answer that question?

I know that if I was one of your competitors and I was "having coffee" with one of your agents, it would be one of the first questions I would ask.  Why?  Because I would try to tap into the negative emotion the person is potentially feeling.  Giving someone hope they will be happier somewhere else is a powerful motivator and can help open an individual's mind to considering change.    

So, do you have an answer to this question that you can proactively offer to your agents?  If not, I'd like to share some commentary that I recently read in the Wall Street Journal on the topic.  The article highlights research conducted by the iOpener Institute for People and Performance on how people find happiness and engagement at work. 

Jessica Pryce-Jones oversaw the research that began in 2006 and had more than 9,000 participants from around the world.  The data suggests that most people feel less confidence, motivation, loyalty, resilience, commitment and engagement in their jobs in recent years.

But, there is a smaller group of people who counteract this trend and report feeling a sense of well-being and "happiness."  If an individual happens to be in this group, he/she will display behaviors that employers find very beneficial, such as:

• Staying twice as long in their jobs as their least happy colleagues
• Spending double the time at work focused on what they are paid to do
• Taking ten times less sick leave
• Believing, at twice the rate of their peers, that they are achieving their potential

Jones also notes that the science of happiness at work has big benefits for individuals too.  If you’re really happy at work, you’ll solve problems faster, be more creative, adapt fastest to change, receive better feedback, get promoted quicker, and earn more over the long-term.

The research goes on to suggest that there is a strong correlation between a person's happiness at work and the characteristics of the work environment.

This is where things get interesting... The research unveils clear characteristics (what Jones calls the underlying drivers) that need to be present in your organization if those on your team are going to feel engaged and happy at work.  So, according to Jones, here are the "underlying drivers" that you should strive towards in your organization: (Editorial Note: These are written in the first person, as if Jones is giving advice on what type of organization to pursue as an individual, in order to find happiness at work.)

1. A Sense of Contribution.  This is about what you do, so it’s made up of some of the core activities which happen at work...like having clear goals, moving positively towards them, talking about issues that might prevent you from meeting your objectives and feeling heard when you do so.  You’ll do all this best when you feel appreciated and valued by your boss and your colleagues.  So it’s not just about delivering; it’s about doing so within collaborative working relationships too.
2. A Sense of Culture.  Performance and happiness at work are really high when employees feel they fit within their organizational culture.  Not fitting in a job is like wearing the wrong clothes to a party—all the time.  It’s hugely draining and de-energizing.  If you’re in the wrong job, you’ll find that the values mean little to you, the ethos feels unfair or political, and you don’t have much in common with your colleagues. 
3. A Sense of Commitment.  Commitment matters because it taps into the macro reasons of why you do the work you do.  Some of the underlying elements of commitment are perceiving you’re doing something worthwhile, having strong intrinsic interest in your job, and feeling that the vision of your organization resonates with your purpose.  We’ve seen commitment decline for the majority of employees, post-recession, as leaders and organizations think that tuning into this soft stuff is a waste of time.  It isn’t.  It’s how you enable your employees to understand why they should make a greater discretionary effort for you. 
4. A Sense of Confidence.  Confidence is the gateway to the other three drivers.  Too little confidence and nothing happens; too much leads to arrogance and particularly poor decisions.  Without greater levels of self-belief, the backbone of confidence, there will be few people who’ll take a risk or try anything new.  And you can’t have confident organizations without confident individuals inside them.

Here's your homework:  Develop an elevator speech on why agents would have the highest chance of being happy and finding engagement in your organization.  Your speech should contain all the components listed above.

Next, work the thoughts from this speech into both your coaching sessions and your interviews.  By doing so, you'll tap the emotion that not only has the power to retain, but also has the power to attract competitive agents to your team.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Failure Leads To Success

Over lunch today, Ben and I discussed the fairly well know eternal truth:  "Suffering produces endurance, endurance builds character, and character gives one hope."

Wow, what a concept...character produces hope.  This flies in the face of most myths we are fed through the media, movies and modern day parenting practices, doesn’t it?  It certainly makes us reconsider serving up the gravy train for our kids.

But it got me thinking...What value do most organizations truly place on character?  Do you fall into the fallacy of style over substance?

Riverdale Country School is one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools, earning itself a place among the city’s most elite private-schools.  Tuition starts at $38,500 a year...and that’s for prekindergarten.  The headmaster, Dominic Randolf, is drastically changing the way high potential kids are assessed and screened.

Paul Tough of the New York Times writes:

“Randolph is surprisingly skeptical about many of the basic elements of a contemporary high-stakes American education.  He did away with Advanced Placement classes in the high school soon after he arrived at Riverdale and he says that the standardized tests that Riverdale and other private schools require for admission to kindergarten and to middle school are 'a patently unfair system' because they evaluate students almost entirely by I.Q.  'This push on tests,' he told me, 'is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human.'

The most critical missing piece, Randolph explained as we sat in his office last fall, is character — those essential traits of mind and habit that were drilled into him at boarding school in England and that also have deep roots in American history. 'Whether it’s the pioneer in the Conestoga wagon or someone coming here in the 1920s from southern Italy, there was this idea in America that if you worked hard and you showed real grit, that you could be successful,' he said.  'Strangely, we’ve now forgotten that.  People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s...I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great.  And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure.  When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest.  I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.'

Instead, he is determined to figure out how to instill character traits and virtues in these privileged kids he is entrusted to educate.

'The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure,' Randolph explained.  'And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything.' "

My guess is that most of you who continue to “experience hope” in the real estate industry, have developed character through failure at some point in your life...long before conditions in the real estate market worsened.  Those who were riding the success on the coat tails of everyone else’s hard work over the last couple of decades, couldn’t handle the recent adversity, and hit the road.  It may not be wise to hire through that same lens again...

So, how can you identify character in interviews?  How can you alter your discussions with those you coach and mentor to help build character, and therefore build hope for the future of real estate?

In the next edition, I’ll share with you some interesting research findings and an assessment that might help get to the heart of the matter.

But for the next few days your homework is very simple:  Simply memorize or recite 100 times...“And Character Produces Hope.”

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Breathing Life into a Tired Business-Part 2

Have you figured out what "dying city" I was referring to in my blog earlier this week?  If you guessed Grand Rapids, Michigan, you're right!  Newsweek (later republished in The Daily Beast) chose Grand Rapids (often referred to as "Bland Rapids") for this dubious honor among other cities such as Detroit, New Orleans, and Cleveland.

While such negative reporting is often brushed off as insignificant or unimportant, a 22-year old in Grand Rapids took it very personally.  Was his hometown really as bad as the media was reporting?  He didn't think so...  

Free-lance author, Stephen Kloosterman tells the story of Rob Bliss, an Internet Coordinator for a local TV station, who decided to pull together over 4,000 individuals from the community to paint a different picture of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Their picture of Grand Rapids is one where a diverse group of indivuduals, while appearing to be quite ordinary, prove to be very interesting.  Each of these individuals make an important contribution to the community.  These contributions add up to something that the third party observer might call odd or eclectic, but definetly not "dead."  There is energy and life in Grand Rapids--outsiders are just not aware of it.

To communicate this story to these disbelieving outsiders, Rob decided to develop a lip-dub video.  A lib-dub video is a low-budget production where a  stream of indivuduals are shot in one continuous take as they are lip-synching a song.  For his video, he decided to use Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie."

The result..a viral internet success receiving over 4 million views on YouTube.  After the video started to gain traction, it got another siginificant boost when film critic, Roger Ebert, called it "the greatest music ever made."  This is amazing commentary for a place that was supposed to be dead!  Take a look for yourself and see what you think:

While the video was a huge success, Rob didn't stop there.  He went on to help Grand Rapids organize the world's largest pillow fight and construct the world's longest water slide.  The common thread...he has as knack for helping a bunch of "ordinary people" realize that they have something special and significant when they work together.

What is the lesson for your company or team in all of this?  I believe there are several:

1. Don't listen to the national critics.  If Rob would have just focused on what the national media told him, his creativity would have never taken root.  Yes, the real estate industry market is depressed in many areas, but what is the reality on your team?  Make the good things that are happening right in front of you your focus.
2. People love to see others working together.  This is the genius of what Rob discovered.  Are there opportunities in your community where your company (or just your team) can be seen working together?  Last summer in the Seattle market, Starbucks coordinated an event where their employees all pitched in and cleaned up the morning after the 4th of July celebration at Gasworks Park in downtown Seattle.  The local media noticed and highlighted their efforts in various news venues.  This is exactly the type of press you want to receive.
3. Don't think you need a big budget.  None of the ideas presented in this discussion required a large budget.  How much money does it take to pick up trash or start a pillow fight?  Not much.  There are lots of low-budget ideas out there--you just need to find them.

You can't run a business or a team unless you have a sense of purpose, excitment and energy.  People will not be drawn to or stay with an organization that does not have this critical component. 

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Breathing Life Into a Tired Business

As I talk with owners and managers in different parts of the country, I’ve noticed a sense of fatigue among those who are continuing to work hard to make their organizations and teams successful.  This is especially true for those who spend a lot of their time recruiting.

As the housing market continues to be in turmoil in many parts of the country, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince people that working in the real estate industry is full of hope and promise.  A recruiting manager’s will to persevere can start to wear thin and before you know it, a sense of malaise can even begin to infiltrate your team.

This type of despair is deadly.  If the leader of a team is not legitimately excited about the prospects for the future, it is nearly impossible to keep this attitude from poisoning the recruiting process.   

In consulting with owners, often we see wide differences between the recruiting results of the various offices within a given company.  I recently reviewed the results of one company where an individual office converted nearly 40% of their interviews into hires, while a second office in the same group only converted 3% (in this case, 2 hires out of 70 interviews) of their interviews into hires!  I believe it is safe to say that the second hiring manager is not painting a picture of the future that his/her candidates are buying.

Can this be fixed?  It can, but it has to be addressed from the inside out.  In essence, leaders need to instigate actions that will legitimately increase the excitement, energy, and hope for the future within their own teams.  Once you’re truly enthusiastic about what is going on in your environment, the energy and excitement will then naturally flow into the recruiting process.

While this sounds overwhelming, it may not be a hard as you think.  In our next discussion, I’ll share a case study about a city in the Midwest that was experiencing the same sense of despair that many of you are feeling.  This city was recently (January 2011) named one of the ten “dying cities” in America, yet over the last nine months, their prospects have significantly changed.  

How?  Through the efforts of two young professionals (one 22 years old, and one 29 years old) who recognized that some creativity and the coordinated efforts of many “ordinary” people can truly breathe life into almost any tired organization...     

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Vulnerability and Leadership

My previous post addressed the far reaching negative impact of rudeness on a culture's performance and creativity.  In contrast, today I'd like to discuss an alternative to that type of leadership...the vulnerable leader.

People want to be led by real people.  We respond best to leaders who don't have all the answers, who admit mistakes, and who are willing to apologize when appropriate.  The following excerpt, written by John Baldoni, expresses this idea very well:

"No one aspires to leadership to reveal vulnerability.  In some ways  this may be the antithesis of our expectation that a leader remain always in control.  We want our leaders to be strong as well as bold; we don’t like to see them weak; we don’t want them to be humbled.  But at the same time, we need them to show humility.

Showing humility is an acknowledgment that you are first and foremost human, capable of doing good things but also aware that you have your shortcomings.  Yes, dealing with those failings is a sign of vulnerability, but doing so reveals courage rather than cowardice.  Aspiring to self-perfection is a fool’s errand; admitting to falling short and resolving to do your best is a sign of strength.

There is another aspect to vulnerability; it has mass appeal.  The leader who is willing to admit he or she does not have all of the answers but still tries, is one that seems more believable than someone who pretends to know it all.  It has been said many times that dictators are those who have all the answers.  Leaders by contrast have answers but are smart enough to understand what they know and what they do not know."

Finding that delicate balance between confidence and vulnerability is a life-long balancing act.  But, if you make it a personal challenge, it's worth the effort...

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

How Rudeness Impacts Performance

You probably have concluded by now that Ben and I share a strong pet peeve regarding the practice of rudeness and arrogance, especially concerning managers' attitudes and behaviors toward new agent candidates.  Like an abusive individual who is dating, an arrogant manager might attract a few desperate, insecure partners, but they're guaranteed to miss the cream of the crop.

Furthermore, new evidence suggests that rudeness impacts even more than successful hiring:

In three experimental studies, the simple act of being a witness to rudeness displayed by a peer or an authority figure toward someone, significantly reduced the observer's performance in routine tasks, as well as creative tasks.  In addition to this, rudeness appeared to be contagious.  The observer became less civil to others.

So why does rudeness persist?  Why do we allow people, especially managers, who impact so many, get away with it and set the contagious behavior in the office?  My hypothesis is that when the economy was booming, some arrogant-prone people attributed the success of their office to themselves, rather than the profound amount and frequency of money changing hands.  And, like an abusive spouse, people became so attached to these people that everyone just accepted their behavior.  Some of these people may never revert back to a spirit of humility and kindness to others, while some will hopefully change.

A few years ago, I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing this phenomenon first hand, while I watched the performance of my son's high school varsity basketball team over a period of three years.  No one doubted the coach's knowledge and strategy when it came to basketball, and everyone was aware that he had inherited some excellent players and had the opportunity to do very well.  But, the coach was a bully.  Not to everyone...just to the players who weren't the stars.  He clearly disrespected the players that he didn't see as huge contributors.  The result was a team who consistently underperformed.

This research confirms what all of the parents suspected:  The bullying of some players impacted the performance and creativity of all players.

The implications of these studies are too important to ignore.  It's not just the victims of rudeness who are impacted, rather everyone.  Much as second hand smoking impacts everyone within inhaling range, rudeness impacts everyone within earshot.  In these current times, where we must squeeze out as much performance and creativity as possible, how much rudeness can we afford to ignore?

Source:
Porath, C. and Erez, A. (2009). Overlooked but not untouched: How rudeness reduces onlookers’ performance on routine and creative tasks, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109 (1), 29-44

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

The Progress Principle: How Small Successes Can Make a Big Difference

I’m picking up a new book this week—it is called The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.  I learned about the book from an interview I read recently by Daniel Pink.  In the book, Pink interviews the book’s authors, Harvard Business School Professor, Teresa Amabile, and Developmental Psychologist, Steven Kramer.

You may recall that Daniel Pink is the author of Drive, a best-selling book that I reviewed last year in WorkPuzzle, and he is an expert on the topic of motivation.  He called The Progress Principle the best business book he has read in many years.  Because there are more than 11,000 business books published each year, that got my attention!

The basic premise of the book explores the questions:  

How and when are people most engaged and motivated at work?

To research this important topic, the authors recruited 238 people across seven companies and had each of them complete questionnaires and diary entries over a period of time.  In total, they amassed over 12,000 days worth of data.  In addition, they connected with more than 700 business managers to get their perspectives as well.

What were their findings?  

What motivates people the most, day-to-day, is making progress on meaningful work. 

I’ll share parts of the interview below.  Hopefully, it will spur you on to learn more about this important topic as well.

1.  Focus on small wins and incremental steps.  

Q:  Lots of business books talk about the need for bold, audacious goals — and deride those who “think small.”  But your book, which is based on research far more rigorous than its counterparts, takes a different stance.  You emphasize the power of “small wins.”  Why are those so important in the performance of individuals and organizations?

A:  Try to remember the last time you – or anyone you know – had a truly enormous breakthrough in solving a problem or achieving one of those audacious goals.  It’s pretty hard, because breakthroughs are very rare events. 

On the other hand, small wins can happen all the time.  Those are the incremental steps toward meaningful (even big) goals.  Our research showed that, of all the events that have the power to excite people and engage them in their work, the single most important is making progress – even if that progress is a small win.  That’s the progress principle.  And, because people are more creatively productive when they are excited and engaged, small wins are a very big deal for organizations.

2.  95% of managers igore the most potent motivators. 

Q: In addition to examining 12,000 daily diary entries from workers, you also surveyed a few hundred leaders — from CEOs to project managers — about what they think really motivates employees.  What did you find out?

A: Our survey showed that most leaders don’t understand the power of progress.  When we asked nearly 700 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators (incentives, recognition, clear goals, interpersonal support, and support for making progress in the work), progress came in at the very bottom. 

In fact, only 5% of these leaders ranked progress first – a much lower percent than if they had been choosing randomly!  Don’t get me wrong; those other four motivators do drive people.  But we found that they aren’t nearly as potent as making meaningful progress.

3.  Negative events significantly outweigh positive events. 

Q: Negative events have a more powerful impact than positive ones.  Why?

A:  We were pretty shocked to discover the dominant effect of negative events on inner work life – people’s mostly-hidden emotions, perceptions, and motivations at work.  Setbacks have a negative effect on inner work life that’s 2-3 times stronger than the positive effect of progress. 

When we checked into whether other researchers had found something similar, we learned that it’s a general psychological effect; “bad is stronger than good.”  The reason could be evolutionary.  Maybe we pay more attention to negatives, and are more affected by them, out of self-preservation.  So – because positive inner work life is so important for top performance, leaders should do whatever they can to root out negative forces.

4.  Time pressure only helps those who are working on legitimate, mission-critical deadlines.

Q:  I was especially intrigued by your findings about time pressure.  Sometimes it helps; other times it hurts.  Tell us what you found.

A:  The typical form of time pressure in organizations today is what we call “being on a treadmill” – running all day to keep up with many different (often unrelated) demands, but getting nowhere on your most important work.  That’s an absolute killer for creativity.  Generally, low-to-moderate time pressure is optimal for creativity.

But we did find some instances in which people were terrifically creative under high time pressure.  Almost invariably, it was quite different from being on a treadmill.  Rather, people felt like they were “on a mission”— working hard to meet a truly urgent deadline on an important project, and protected from all other demands.

These are all important topics that I can apply to my personal performance as well as working with those on my team.  I’ll provide an update to what I’ve learned...after I finish the book.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.