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The #1 Essential Belief for Coaches and Managers

I’ve been following the work of Stanford Professor Carol Dweck over the past few years concerning the research topic she calls “growth mindset.”   Her research on this subject is about as compelling for a coach or manager as anything that I have ever seen.

Simply stated, she has shown that people who have a growth mindset believe that they can increase their level of ability and intelligence through hard work.  This is especially true if a person believes they are at an initial disadvantage compared to others.

Dr. Dweck has consistently demonstrated that people who believe their intelligence and abilities are fixed respond dismally to failure. They often feel hopeless and depressed because they believe there is little they can do to change the outcome of their futures.

In the realm of education, she has even discovered that students who are taught about the growth mindset do remarkably better than those who receive traditional skills training (ex. study skills, time management skills, etc.)

It is not difficult to make the connection to the business world.  As a manager, you’ll have a much greater return on the time you spend with your direct reports if you apply these principles.  This may seem counterintuitive, but it is better to assess and build the growth mindset in those you coach than spend time teaching them the skill-based steps to success.

Check out this interview with Dr. Dweck for some interesting perspectives:

Note:  If you're an email subscriber, see the Dr. Dweck video by visiting WorkPuzzle. 

Like anything, you’ll need to internalize these ideas to effectively teach them to those you coach.  Here are some questions you can ask yourself on this topic: 
Do I have the growth mindset or a fixed mindset?

Do I feel anxious and depressed after failing?

Do I avoid tasks because of the fear of failure?

Do I put less effort into tasks because I feel hopeless about making progress?

Do I find that when I’m carrying out a task, I am worried about how good I look at it, rather than what I am learning from it?

Do I miss learning opportunities because of fear of failure?

Coaching in Tough Times: Stop the Worry

Scientists at the forefront of research on happiness and positive functioning have discovered that negative emotion always has the ability (as Martin Seligman describes it) “to trump” positive emotion. He and other researchers suggest that we have to “learn” to keep negative emotion in check and amplify positive feelings.

How do we do that?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who I’ve referenced in past articles as the researcher who prominently studies the brain’s state of flow) believes that unless we occupy our minds with directed thoughts, defined goals, and meaningful work, the brain defaults to a state of worry.

He states that in order to escape such psychic entropy, we must build lives that strive to control our thoughts and guide our attention to activities which provide psychological flow.   These are the activities that give positive feedback, demand concentration, require skill development, and strengthen our sense of purpose and achievement.

“… with nothing to do, the mind is unable to prevent negative thoughts from elbowing their way to center stage. Worries about one’s love life, health, investments, family, and job are always hovering at the periphery of attention, waiting until there is nothing pressing that demands concentration. As soon as the mind is ready to relax, zap! The potential problems that were waiting in the wings take over.” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

This evidence is consistent with every study done on resilience and survival. The only way to stave off worry and depression is to do build meaning and purpose into your life.   This means setting goals and building an action plan to reach those goals.  Not only does this make us less worrisome, we’re also happier under these conditions.

If you’re coaching or mentoring, build this belief system into your philosophy.

If you’re the one worrying, then spend some time reconnecting to your with your own sense of personal meaning and purpose.  Then get busy putting that purpose into action.   Remember, relaxation is only as good as the work you put in to truly feel you deserved it.

Coaching for Focus, Attention, and Success

Yesterday, I described the neuroscience regarding the importance of maintaining focus.  Brain research confirms that we can shape how our brains operate and perform by training them to focus intently on the desired end-result.  To do this with the most positive results, we must help the brain stop doing what its oldest parts are trying to do-- keep us alive!

You see, above all else, the brain's primary purpose is to keep us from dying.  How?  The brain does this by focusing on what can go wrong; by focusing on the dangers; by focusing on the obstacles; by focusing on the negative.  This is the brain's default position.

But, unlike other animals, we have this enormous cerebral cortex that surrounds the oldest part of the brain (the lymbic system).  If we always give in to the danger signals that the lymbic system is sending out, we'd rarely take chances, innovate, face rejection, or progress in our development.

Here's an example of how performance can be enhanced by training the brain to filter out obstacles and focus on the goal at hand:

I've been mountain biking for the past 14 years.  I'm by no means an expert, but I get by...  The first thing anyone learns in mountain biking technique 101, is that your bike will go where your eyes are looking.  If your eyes are looking at a tree, you'll hit the tree.  If you're looking at a rock, you'll hit the rock.

Now, your brain actually wants to look at the rock... it's literally screaming at you.. "There's a rock you idiot!  You'd better look at it...and while your at it slow down for crying out loud!" 

There are some people who will never progress in single track mountain biking because they can't train their minds to not look at the rock.  The people who become proficient bikers, are able to train their brain, over time, to focus ahead, around the upcoming curve, toward the open trail...to where they really want to go. 

This task takes discipline and repetition.  Soon your brain has realized, "I am not only staying alive by looking beyond the trees and rocks, I'm having pleasure and success by doing it this way!"

I've heard this same principle applies to race car driving.  At those speeds, you can't look at the wall.  If you do, your dead!

Success for you and those you manage is no different.  If your team is constantly looking at the obstacles, you'll inevitably hit them, head-on.  Likewise, if you're constantly looking at the "bad market," you'll be dragged down by it. 

Success comes to those who can train their team (self included) to look toward the vision, the goals, and the opportunities.  A culture built on this mind-set, is one that will survive and thrive, while the "others" out there will continue to hit trees...  

Coaching For Confidence

It's no secret that managing and coaching those around us can feel futile if those being coached lack confidence in their ability to succeed.  We've all witnessed talented people lose their spark and confidence, begin to wilt, and eventually begin to drop below performance standards.

A few nights ago, on "American Idol" (OK, I admitted I watch it.)  Simon asked a contestant, "Do you think that you can win this?"  Her answer, or lack thereof, proved that she clearly had serious doubts as to whether she could!

An expert on the subject of confidence explains:

"Confidence consists of positive expectations for favorable outcomes.  Confidence influences the willingness to invest - to commit money, time, reputation, emotional energy, or other resources - or to withhold or hedge investment.  This investment, or its absence, shapes the ability to perform.  In that sense, confidence lies at the heart of civilization.  Everything about an economy, a society, an organization, or a team depend on it.  Every step we take, every investment we make, is based on whether we feel we can count on ourselves and others to accomplish what has been promised.  Confidence determines whether our steps – individually or collectivity – are tiny and tentative or big and bold."  (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Confidence: Leadership and the Psychology of Turnarounds, 2004)

In light of this information, I predict that our American Idol contestant won't make it much further in the competition!

Recruiting people is only the first stage of an ongoing process.  It's your job as a coach, manager, and/or mentor, to bring out the best in others, and that begins with assessing their confidence.  They have to believe that they can succeed in order to succeed.

If they lack confidence, here are some things you can do:

1. Ask them: "Do you believe that you will succeed?"  If they don't, or if they say yes in a tentative manner:

2. Then ask them what they believe the outcome will be if they don't really believe they can achieve their goals?  (Even though my graduate courses were over 23 years ago, I can tell you that those who believed they'd finish and do well, did!  Those who didn't have that confidence, failed!)

3. Once you have them talking about their uncertainty and its impact on their performance:  Ask them to remember a time when they did succeed - big time!  Get them to remember their attitude going into the situation.  What was their level of confidence?  Did they expect success?

5. And lastly, remind them that their best confidence comes when they aren't taking on important tasks and projects to bolster their ego, rather when they are doing it to contribute to clients, co-workers and society at large.  Only under these conditions can one sustain great performance.  Because when things don't go well, it's not about your ego, it's about your contribution!

Coaching to Remember Greatness

"It's a strange, strange time we're living in right now, where we've lowered our standards, in general, and we've gotten used to living with mediocrity.  And it bothers me.  Maybe you gotta be as old as I am to remember it, but growing up in the '60s, standards were set very, very high.  If I do nothing else, I want to remind people what greatness sounds like."

The words above were uttered by Steve Van Zandt, long time guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's "E  Street Band" and founder and host of "Little Steven's Underground Garage Show." 

Although Steve is comparing the music of today with the music of the 60's and 70's, we can all relate to times when mediocrity is present among us. 

Think back to the times in your life when you've achieved tremendous success....those moments when you've realized, "I have the capacity and the will to do something great."  This isn't a conceited or narcissistic statement.  It's a window into a chance to shine and contribute in a way that's at your highest potential.

If you've had any access to the media over the last few weeks, you've certainly witnessed Susan Boyle's phenomenal performance on "Britain's got Talant."

Why is it that the world loves this story?  Why have millions of people searched YouTube to see it?  A client of mine put it this way:

"Because we all like being reminded that we have that greatness within."

If you mentor, manage or coach people in any way, it's your first priority to find a way to help them realize their potential.  Remind them that they are capable of greatness.  Many will resist the idea, and some will never uncover their hidden capacity for greatness.  But, it's there....in all of us, just waiting to be tapped.

Let this message serve as a reminder to never become complacent at drawing greatness out in others, and out of yourself.  For those of you who are adept at identifying greatness... I'll see you at the next Bruce concert! 

Implementing Strategies

Over the last couple of days, Dave has been discussing the importance of developing a system that reflects the strategy of your company.  The case in point for his discussion was recruiting, but the same principles apply to any strategy.

For example, our company is constantly working on improving our candidate sourcing strategies.  If you’re not familiar with that term, it basically means the marketing work we do to get job candidates to notice ads, investigate opportunities, and initiate contact with given companies (our clients).

This is not something new.  We’ve been working on this for several years, however, the methodologies that produce the best results are constantly changing.  If we don’t continue to innovate and adjust the strategies that define our system as necessary, we’ll quickly find that the value we provide to our clients will start to diminish.

One of the parallels that we notice in our work is the strategies that online marketers (specifically, the companies who manage paid search campaigns) use to lure customers.  Some of these companies are quite remarkable at implementing systems to accomplish their strategies.  Here is an example from one of these companies, called Red Bricks Media.  This contribution was made by Joe Van Remortel in a marketing report I recently came across:

“Managing paid search campaigns is more difficult than ever.  Depending on the campaign, upwards of 20-25 distinct variables can influence performance and ROI.  What worked last week might not work this week.  Based on our research and observations, focusing on the four fundamental areas can give a real boost to paid search campaigns.  

1.  Understand the complexity and the relationships between variables and performance by implementing tests to isolate the variables with the greatest impact on performance.  You must segregate winners from losers using a scientific method and statistical significance.
2.  Make iterative improvements to campaigns with active management on daily and weekly basis. Over-reliance on technologies that act like an auto pilot is a sure way to overpay and under-deliver.  Every week should show incremental improvements.
3.  Messaging relevancy is the consistent and meaningful link between keywords, consumer motive/intent, queries, ad words, and landing pages.  There is no better way to increase conversion rates and quality score.  Messaging is how paid search connects with the customer.
4.  Avoid the natural inclination to organize ad groups in campaigns by theme.  Instead focus on organizing them into performance tiers.  When properly structured this way, campaign managers have far more control over budget allocations to winners and losers.”

Does this make your head spin?  If you’re not used to working in this arena, it may seem a little overwhelming.  But, I selected this example for a couple of reasons:

First, the content is intended to be complex.  This makes it easier to see past the details and concentrate on the underlying principles.  This company has boiled down their purpose (paid search) into very well-defined strategies.  I don’t know much more about this company than what is quoted above, but based on the detail provided, I would guess they have developed well-functioning systems to help implement these strategies.

Secondly, they seem to have captured the essence of “cause and effect” for their business.  While they talk about the importance of recognizing symptoms, they rely on testing, measurement and analysis to make changes that affect results.  Without systems to implement strategies, how do you “segregate winners from losers using a scientific method and statistical significance?”

Think of the strategies you’re attempting to implement in your business.  Then ask yourself these two questions:

1.  Are the strategies for my business (office, group, etc.) well-defined?
2.  Do I have a system in place for implementing those strategies?

As Dave concluded in the previous discussions, it is foolish of us to expect those around us to buy into a system that is not well-defined.  Additionally, it is unfair to then hold people accountable to strategies that are poorly implemented. 

We Have Some Lazy Managers! Part 2 - A Focus on Strategy

When I speak to companies regarding recruiting practices, it is very easy to tell the difference between those who have a well-defined recruiting strategy and those who don’t.  Frankly, I love when executives say, “Here’s our strategy, here’s how we’re implementing it, and here are our problems.”  We can then have a fairly quick conversation regarding whether we can help. 

More often than not, I hear a poorly defined strategy, no systematic steps to carrying out the fuzzy strategy, and thus no buy in from the given company.

In the words of one of my favorite recruiting gurus, Dr. John Sullivan (a fellow Psychologist termed the “Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company magazine), most companies:

"1. Can’t even define the term 'strategy'
2. Don’t know the available strategies in recruiting
3. Don’t have a name for their own recruiting strategy
4. Don’t know the steps involved in preparing a recruiting strategy
5. Have never written down their strategy so that others can follow it
6. Have never compared their strategy in recruiting to their competitors’ recruiting strategies in order to ensure that theirs is superior
7. Have never integrated their strategy with their recruiter selection, budgeting, and time allocation processes
8. Make no attempt to measure the effectiveness of their recruiting strategy"

I’ll add one more that I see more often than not:

9. Have a great strategy (to recruit high-caliber new agents), but utilize gimmicky tactics that only attract desperate and naive people.

If your company's strategy is to hire enough high-caliber people every year so you can politely dismiss 10% of your lowest performers (and still net a significant growth in agents), then you must have a system that can accomplish that!  The system must be scalable and demand consistent steps for each manager for it to work.  Once a strategy is established, you can better assess what interferes with the execution of the defined steps, and redirect managers to get back to agreed upon priorities.

This recruiting scenario is just one example that identifies strategic weakness.  If you have managers reporting to you, and you don’t insist on figuring out if everyone is in agreement regarding recruiting strategy (and then hold them accountable to their agreement), then who really is the lazy one?

Are You Networking or "Not-Working?"

I wanted to follow-up on Dave’s article yesterday concerning the proper place for social networking tools in a job search.  He approached the topic from a candidate’s perspective.  Today, let’s look at it from a hiring manager / recruiter’s perspective.

A couple of months ago, I introduced you to Peter Weddle, a recruiting expert that I admire.  If you recall, Peter had some good insight concerning social networking tools in his bi-weekly newsletter that I thought was worth sharing.  For our current discussion, we’ll use LinkedIn as the example because it is the most common business social network.

As the name implies, social networking tools are supposed to assist recruiters and hiring managers to better network.  But, the reality is quite different:

“LinkedIn advertises itself as a networking tool for professionals.  That's fine.  But building up a huge (or even a small) address book of contacts is not networking.  In fact, given that networking is actually a form of dialogue that is most appropriately practiced as an integral part of one's business day, what's going on at LinkedIn today is best described as 'notworking.' "

Actual networking has some very significant advantages, but it is a lot of work.  The struggle is that we want the benefits of true networking, without doing the work.  Peter puts it this way:

“Now, if you've ever been in a relationship, you know two things about them.  First, you quickly learn that they are hard work.  That's why the word is spelled the way it is:  it's netWORK, not net-get-around-to-it-whenever-you-feel-like-it.  And second, you come to appreciate that relationships take time to develop.  They don't happen with the click of a mouse, whether you're on LinkedIn or Facebook or any other social or professional 'networking' site.”

Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about how relationships are built and identify a “value equation” that makes them work over time.

My New 3 Wood and Twittcrastination

If you’re out of a job or reevaluating what you want to do next, using social medias can be a useful tool in extending your exposure to a broader network.  However, it is not wise to rely on them exclusively for landing that new, interesting, challenging job. 

Why?  Because if you don’t understand the fundamentals of good job searching, these tools will only provide the illusion that your doing something productive, rather than help you land that “better fit” job. 

Remember... These are tools!  That’s all they are - Just like my new 3 wood that was sold to me with the promise that 200+ yard fairway lies will now go straight and long - It didn’t quite live up to the hype.  So, too, will your job search stagnate if you rely on all the internet’s latest social networking tools to land you that exciting new job.

Most new internet tools continue to repeat the same problems with regard to hiring and networking that have always existed:  They give you the illusion that you’re doing something productive, when you're simply Twittcrastinating.  Even though we have thousands of job postings at our finger tips, and can search the ones that closely resemble what our expertise might be, most ads are so horribly written, focusing on sterile information about the job description, that only the most desperate job seeker would answer them. 

As a side note - Are Employee Referral Programs a reliable hiring tool if the recruiter ends up hiring the most popular person rather than the skilled, yet reserved person, who might be best for the job?  

The majority on both sides of the equation (companies and job seekers) continue to miss the mark.  There are a few who "get it".  What do they get?  They get that people want more than a job - They want to be challenged with the responsibility of contributing to achieving something great. 

When companies don’t "get" this, they hire the “best interviewee”.  This is typically the most socially connected, or worse....the most desperate, because that is who they are pitching to!
 
When job searchers don’t "get it", they come across as individuals who are needy and desperate, and will do anything to look good.  Looking good doesn’t last too long once the first 90 days have passed.  Not to mention the fact that the best companies won’t hire you when you come across as simply desperate to get a job.

Great companies and very talented people want to know how each will compliment the achievement of something really interesting.  Both parties search and interview with this in mind.

So, for job seekers, the old fashioned way remains the best way.  TAKE CHARGE!  Know that the easiest way a recruiter can hire is to have someone call them and ask what the given company is trying to accomplish, and how this position is expected to contribute to this mission.  Only after you understand all of this, tell them why your skills and experience are a good fit for making THAT contribution.

While you’re doing that, I’ll be returning to the driving range, working on improving my game, while my gimmick 3 wood sits safely in my bag...

Where Do I Fit?

Everyone wants to know where they fit in life.  With work consuming 2/3 of our waking life, the million dollar question is "What job out there will give me the greatest satisfaction and provide the best fit?"

Not too long ago, there was no science of psychology.  There was no consistent, accepted way to describe the various kinds of people.  There was no validated way to classify and measure psychological illnesses.  Only in the past eighty years has there been tangible progress in this arena, and mostly in the treatment of mental illness.  We have consistently tested, annotated, characterized and treated mental illnesses with increasing success.  However, if your waiting for some assessment to tell you where to concentrate your life's work, you'll be waiting a long time... 

What I've just said may surprise some people, especially since we are in the business of helping companies and job seekers increase the odds of finding a good job match.  But in doing what we do, we've found people to have several misconceptions that I have had to address over the last few years.  Last month while reading Fast Company, I ran across an article that practically read my mind.  Po Bronson, author of "What Should I do With My Life" had been bombarded with similar misconceptions, and addressed them in this follow-up article.  This guy nailed the misconceptions so well, that I had to pass some of my favorites on to you.  I've pieced them together from two of his articles and paraphrased his words below:

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Myth #1: All It Takes is Passion

Pervasive in our society the last six years is what I call, "The Modern Dream Machine Industry."  Media companies have made a killing selling content to consumers (#1 example: The Secret) that uses the term "passion" loosely and vaguely, and makes false claims that a dream life is right around the corner if you just dust off your fantasies and pursue them.  This is what I condemn as "selling transformation irresponsibly."

I hear it all the time: "I'd love to quit my job to follow my purpose, but I've got responsibilities!"  This artificial distinction is misleading. Your responsibilities are not keeping you from your purpose, they are part of your purpose, often the very most important part. Envisioning your responsibilities as being outside the circle of "purpose" will lead you to make bad decisions about your life.

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The above is just a taste of the misconceptions Mr. Bronson discusses in his articles.  Tomorrow I will share more of these career choice myths with you...