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Escaping the Box
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Debra Miller
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.
Under today’s competitive pressures to lower costs and
increase customer value, companies are increasingly urging their employees
to “think outside the box” to seek new solutions for old problems and to
address a myriad of new challenges presenting themselves each day. However,
leaders are often frustrated by the lack of creative thinking and the
shortage of new ideas. Management can’t understand why they keep getting
the same answers to their questions, yet all the while they are building the
walls of the box even higher. Tear down the walls between your employees
and critical strategic thinking by adopting these strategies:
#1 – Say “Yes” whenever you can; say “No” cautiously.
Mark was a bright and enthusiastic customer service rep with a real passion
for his customers. He continuously looked for ways to expedite orders and
resolve issues when shipments didn’t go exactly as planned. When he would
take his ideas to his manager for approval, he frequently heard “No. “No,
we don’t do it that way”. “No, we tried that once. “No, that would cost too
much.” Pretty soon, Mark gave up. He began to wonder why customers
continued to do business with his company; it was obvious no one above him
cared about them or their problems.
When an employee hears no too often especially in the
absence of a logical explanation, he eventually quits asking the question.
As a result, the walls go up blocking communication of all future ideas. As
a leader, try saying “yes” as often as you can. Even if you’re not
immediately sold on the idea, consider allowing it especially when the
employee’s commitment is obvious. If you have serious reservations due to
resource constraints, consider saying yes conditionally giving the idea an
opportunity to prove itself. If you say “yes” to their ideas more often
than not, your employees will realize you must have a very good reason when
you must say “no”.
#2 - Maintain their self-esteem. Not everything
you say is heard the way you intend. Every day, leaders say things
employees find insulting or demeaning. Words you never intended to bristle
or burn can leave an accidental scar on an employee lasting days or months -
long after you’ve forgotten your comment. Think about the following
situations and their potential implications:
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You have just told your employees to “Work smarter,
not harder.” Did you mean to imply they have been working stupidly?
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You fail to notice your employees especially when
your peers or superiors are present. Are you sending the message that
others are more valuable to you than your own team members?
-
You continue working or reading email when an
employee drops by to see you. How many fabulous ideas did you fail to
hear about because you were obviously too busy to acknowledge them?
Constantly checking your Blackberry or answering your
cell phone when an employee is trying to speak with you sends the message
they and their ideas are not important to you.
#3 - Don’t shoot the messenger.
How do you react to bad news? Do you yell and scream?
Do you dismiss the employee without comment and ignore them for days
afterward? Or, do you thank the employee for telling you something you
needed to know?
Employees are anxious to communicate good news and will
often mount extraordinary efforts to share it with you, but will postpone
delivering news they anticipate may not be gladly received. They may be
disappointed in their own actions or may fear your reaction. Teach your
employees to bring you bad news quickly; as soon as it becomes known to them
so you can seek a preemptive solution together.
In the course of every business day, there is a right
way and a wrong way to say everything that needs to be said. Learn to
temper your reaction to bad news. Take a moment before you respond. Thank
the employee for telling you quickly. Invite him or her to help analyze
the problem and formulate a corrective action.
The message will not always be good news, but it may be
something you urgently need to hear. If you cannot learn to hear bad news
well, you may not get the opportunity to hear everything you need to hear.
#4 - Honor you commitments. Gwen developed a
comprehensive plan to streamline operations in her company’s administrative
services group which included a combination of outsourcing and an
unprecedented approach to several internal processes. She had worked extra
hours to meet the boss’s deadline and was very pleased with her results,
believing the plan would exceed targeted cost reductions without sacrificing
service. She made an appointment with her boss to communicate her plan and
seek his approval. The boss’s assistant called the morning of the meeting
to say he needed to cancel and postpone until the following week. Gwen was
left disappointed and disenchanted. She had worked hard to meet the
deadline. Whatever had preempted her meeting was clearly more important than
the hard work she had put into her plan.
When you make a commitment to an employee of time or
resources, keeping it is imperative. The stakes are raised even higher when
the employee has exerted considerable effort or made sacrifices for a
project.
There are many demands on your time requiring critical
choices, but bear in mind the consequence of your choice when it results in
a failure to keep a commitment to an employee. If they can’t count on you,
you can count them out when it comes to helping you solve your problems.
#5 - Trust your employees. Trusting your
employees and believing in them may be the most important thing a
leader can do if he or she wants to eliminate the walls restraining creative
thinking. Trust creates the kind of confidence employees need to bring
everything to the table.
Building an environment of mutual trust requires you to
start by trusting them. Don’t wait until they’ve “earned” your trust.
Begin by trusting them first and continue until they give you a
reason to do otherwise.
You build trust in hundreds of ways in every interaction
with your employees; looking them in the eye when you speak with them,
answering their toughest questions without side-stepping, admitting quickly
when you’re wrong and taking responsibility for the team when things don’t
turn out as well as planned.
Only in an environment of mutual trust will you get the
very best your employees have to offer.
If your team, your division, or your company is not
performing at a high level of creative and strategic thinking, could you be
the architect of failure? Few, if any, employees deliberately choose to live
in the box. If yours appear to be there, it may not be a self-imposed
incarceration. Consider using these tips to tear down the walls and unleash
the possibilities.
For more information about
Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken
Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at
kchapman@leaderscode.com.
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