GAINMORE™ Leadership Advantage Handbook
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Values & Beliefs - personal guidance system
Many of you will use a GPS (Global Positioning System) device in your car to
gudie you to your destination. Well, each of us has our own PGS (Personal
Guidance System). The foundation on which we build our lives and everything we
do comes down to two core things: Our values and our beliefs.
There are some who argue that we are born with certain traits and that we are
predisposed to operate within those traits with a certain margin of change.
The suggestion is that we are 'hard- wired'.
Each one of us is unique (with the possible exception of identical twins). We
have a particular genetic make-up inherited from our parents which determines
our body, our brain and includes some 'hard-wired' responses to ensure our...Understanding values
Values are the motivational keys that cause people to choose to follow a
particular person, path, goal, career.
Think for a moment of the value that brought you to the work you do now. Were
you motivated by curiosity? Prestige? Success? Financial reward? Security?
Enterprise? Community? Service? Advance? There are many other values that may
be your personal drivers.
Edgar Schein identifies 10 key values that a people have and the sort of
associated goal that helps us understand the value:
Power The motivational goal of power values is the attainment of social...Golfer Values
You play golf because in playing you gain something of value to you. Your
‘reason’ for playing may include, enjoyment, fun, exercise, peace, challenge,
winning, battle, frustration, proof, friends, business, networking, gambling,
status and many others. Some of you may even have ‘forgotten” why you play,
but do so anyway. One friend of mine tells me "Because I can!" which covers a
nice multitude of possibilities, can physically? financially? socially? etc.
Whatever your reason, you find value in it.
There are times when you choose between playing golf and doing something else.
The one that you choose provides more value, for you.
For example, your buddies ask you to join them on Saturday for a game, you...Leader Values
Great leaders are individuals who have successfully developed (or taken over)
a story that appeals to the values of their followers.
A leader needs to know and understand their own values and the values of
their followers.
You do not necessarily need to know the detail of their values, but some real
knowledge will greatly help you weave the story that will work best.
Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying "You can please some of the people
all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't please
all of the people all of the time."
And that is probably the issue that many leaders face. Each individual in your...Organisation Values
Many if not most organisations now publish a statement of the organisations
values, sometimes called or including an 'ethics statement'.
Most often, these messages have good intention to genuinely identify the core
values of the organisation and then are spun by copywriters and marketing to
be both acceptable to the audience and have a positive marketing impact.
Sir Adrian Cadbury has little time for outside consultants who are brought in
to "design" a "ethics statement" stating "The ethical standards of a company
are judged by its actions, not by pious statements of intent put out in its
name."
Jack Welsh says that you must be public about the consequences of breaking...
I'll believe it when I see it!
In almost every workshop I run and in many coaching sessions, someone will ask
for empirical evidence or ‘solid proof’ before they will commit to applying
the tools and techniques that will bring them benefit.
Beliefs are similar to values in that they are part of our personal guidance
system. Beliefs often inform values, and values in turn reinforce our
standing in regard to our beliefs.
Beliefs are a critical part of what makes us who we are, but there is a
distinction that I find helpful. A belief is something that we have no
tangible, undeniable (scientific) evidence to support. It is impossible to
measure beliefs. We simply believe this to be so. Values, on the other hand,...Golfing beliefs
You need to believe something before you see it!
When you first played golf. I mean the very first day that you picked up a
club and struck a ball. Remember it? OK. Just before the moment that you
struck the ball - however well, or not so well you struck that ball. BEFORE
you swung the club you believed that:
a. Swinging the club towards the ball was the right thing to do,
b. that striking the ball would propel it in the direction of the swing.
You did NOT believe that swinging the club at the ball would cause the ball
to become embedded in the club face. What you saw was what you believed you
would see. ...Leader beliefs
This is a story of two leaders. We worked with the organisation on team
leadership because one of their sales teams was "highly successful" and
another was "doing poorly, with a very low morale". The organisation wanted us
to "find out what's working in [the high-performing team],fix the
[low-performing team] and run a training program for all the other sales teams
to be as good as [the high-performing team]."
Ann, the leader of the high-performing team had joined the company 5 years
previously as a sales representative. She was good at her job and always
exceeded her targets. She was promoted to team leader after 3 years and had
infused her own enthusiasm, determination and will to her team. Her team...
Knowing values and performance
Warren Buffet notes that lack of honesty can create adversity. His hiring
criteria: integrity, intelligence, and energy. Hire someone without the first,
and the other two will kill you."
Kouzes and Posner's excellent book, The Leadership Challenge includes the
understanding of personal and company values as key to commitment.
Interestingly, they have surveyed organisations around the world linking
knowledge of values to commitment. Their findings are presented in the chart
below:
We can see that it is much more important that each person has clarity of...Team Values & Beliefs
By now you know that understanding your own values and the values held by your
team is important. You also know that beliefs play a very important role in
shaping and guiding you and your team. That together, an individuals values
and beliefs are their guidance system and the very foundation on which they
think, act and behave.
The good and the great leaders of this world know this. Politicians are
elected on their values and the beliefs that they will deliver on them (in
spite of continued evidence to the contrary!) Wars are fought over values and
beliefs. They strike at the very core of our humanity.
So how do we discover our own values and those of our team?...Discovering Personal Values
Understanding your own values is important for a leader, for a parent, for a
human being. You already know some of the things that are important to you in
your life and your work and your team members will know some of their values.
Being able to share these and probe can encourage much greater commitment.
This is a coaching exercise, best done one-to-one. You can do this for
yourself through self-coaching - just take the role of coach and coachee.
Remember though, when coaching yourself, continue to probe to elicit responses
rather than allow yourself a quick and easy answer.
Objectives
You will be able to:...Discovering Team Values
Great leaders are individuals who have successfully developed (or taken over) a
story that appeals to the values of their followers.
Values are the motivational keys that cause people to choose to follow a
particular person, path, goal, career. Think for a moment of the value that
brought you to the work you do now. Were you motivated by curiosity? Prestige?
Success? Financial reward? Security? Enterprise? Community? Service? Advance?
There are many other values that may be your personal drivers.
Objectives
You will be able to:
Recognize key words which denote values...
Goals
Back in 1973, Henry Mintzberg caused a stir in the academic world by suggesting
that managers spent most of their time firefighting rather than managing.
Instead of spending their time on matters strategic or even important,
managers spent their work days dealing with less important yet urgent matters.
At the time, many managers spent a great deal of time wiritng and reading
memoranda, sitting in meetings that achieved little, responding to urgent
operational matters and busily rushing from one hot spot to the next.
So what's changed? Well, basically, it's gotten worse. The speed and ease of
modern communications, particularly e-mail, means that many managers spend
even more of their time reading, dealing with, and responding, than ever...The importance of goals
For far too long, consultants, trainers, guru’s and leaders have been
misleading us about goal setting. We keep hearing the same myth that people
with written goals achieve greater success in life. I fell foul of this story
myself - after all, it cam from the pages of a famous author and I’ve seen it
repeated again and again. Most recently in an article published by the
Professional Golfers Association. The trouble is, that this story becomes
linked with the concept of setting SMART goals, for which there is some
evidence, but written goals? So, I felt that it was time to set the record a
little straighter and based on just a little bit of real research…
Goal-setting is one of those things that people, it seems, are near unanimous...What is a goal?
Hold on just a moment though, what do we mean by a ‘goal’? Everyone at some
point in their life has heard that it is important for us to have goals. Goals
provide you a map to your future, whether in business, life, career or indeed
sport. It seems obvious, but a football team playing without a goal to aim for
is just kicking a ball around. But, other than the more obvious physical goals
as the target of a particular game, what exactly is a goal? And how do you
know when you have achieved it? Is it even very important to have goals? A
sporting goal is a useful analogy though, here we are more interested in the
non-sporting variety.
The OED definition of a goal is “an aim or a desired result”. That’s useful,...What is goal-setting?
Inadvertently, or deliberately, people asking us when young “what do you want
to be…” have set us on a process of goal-setting. They are asking us to peer
in our mind’s eye into the distant future and describe our goal. With little
worldly experience, we most likely think of people we admire that through
their job demonstrate what is valuable to our young minds.
What would you like to achieve in X years that having achieved it will satisfy
your personal values? Would you ask a ten year old that question? No? It’s
unlikely that they would understand - but with the massive leaps in education
and increasing pressure on children to know a whole lot more than the current...Is goal-setting important?
Ask almost anyone about the importance of goal-setting and they will affirm
that it is incredibly important. Here is a small selection of verbatim
responses to the question “How important is goal-setting?”
“The difference between successful people [and people struggling] is the
setting of tangible and measurable goals.”
“I believe goal setting does work and needs to be written down. “
“If there are no set goals, things either happen, or they don’t.”
“With measurable goals you are in action to fulfill them”
“… there’s no excuse for failing to progress if you don’t take ownership
of your own goals”...
Why SMART goals
Edwin Lock and Gary Latham have undertaken a great deal of leading research
about goals and goal-setting and neatly suggest that setting goals implies
dissatisfaction with the current condition and a desire to attain an outcome
Locke and Latham, 2006.
Why Specific and Stretching?
In Locke and Latham’s 2006 study and previous articles, there is an emphasis
on the positive relationship between goal difficulty and performance. Locke
and Latham, 1990; Locke and Latham, 2002. That is, the more difficult the goal
is to achieve, the higher the level of performance is manifest - allbeit...Goal focus and personal wealth
Respondents were asked if they were willing to share their own personal goal,
60% did so and these break down into four main focuses: Career,
Lifestyle,Money or Ability. We also asked how satisfied respondents were with
their achievement.
* For those with a Lifestyle goal focus, average wealth is 95,000 and
‘satisfied’ with their achievement.
* A Career focus, average wealth is just over 100,000 and ‘somewhat
satisfied’
* A Money focus, average wealth is 162,500 and ‘satisfied’ and lastly,...Outcome goals - some issues
The problem facing many people with regard to ‘Outcome’ goals is that there is
an element that is outside the power of the individual.
An example of the potential issues with an ‘outcome’ goal comes from a rather
sad testimony from one particular research participant:
“My goal was to have $3 million in the bank for my retirement by age 55. I
achieved my goal with great satisfaction early at age 43. Unfortunately my
bank was at the centre of a fraud and went under. 16 years later, I am still
working and slowly rebuilding my goal. So, goals are important and we need to
know what we want to achieve in life - just choose a goal only including...Performance Goals
An interesting aspect that began to show itself through the results was
personal satisfaction in goal achievement. People who set ‘Ability’ type
goals, or ‘Performance’ goals reported to be ‘very satisfied’ with their
achievements - whether completely achieved goals or not yet complete. In part,
this suggests the importance of personal values and suggests a question about
the process by which they set goals.
Through a random selection of fifty respondents we found that there is some
commonality in the manner in which goals are set:
When we compare the groups of ‘Very Satisfied’ with their achievement and
‘Satisfied’ or ‘Somewhat Satisfied’ with their achievement. The first group...SMART Golfing goals
I want to with the British Open next year is a SMART goal. It’s specific (The
British Open), it’s measurable (Win), it’s attainable (it’s an ‘Open’), it’s
realistic (a good, consistent golfer can achieve this), it’s timely (next
year).
Now there’s a whole lot of sub-goals, or outcomes, involved in getting to this
point, but as a goal, it’s pretty good. So, what’s your SMART goal for your
golf?
Some SMART examples:
I want to win the Augusta Masters in ten years time.
I want to break 80 this year....SMART Leadership goals
Goal setting process
Many people set goals for themselves when young. Often in response to questions
from aged relatives: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
When we are grown up and people no longer ask us that question, we stop
setting goals for ourself. When I ask participants on our programmes why they
stopped setting goals, they reply that they ‘tried it’ but they didn’t
succeed. And when hey continued with the activity and continued not to achieve
the goals, after a while they ‘just sort of gave up’. You’ll realise of
course, that if you do something repeatedly, and repeatedly get no success -
your desire to continue with the activity diminishes rapidly. So, your mind
does you a favour by not setting any more goals. That way, you won’t be...SWING
From our survey, those individuals who set performance goals using slight
variations of this process represent a small, though statistically significant
fraction of the sample that have a net higher annualised personal wealth
accumulation (2.15 times) and are more satisfied than individuals who use only
one or two aspects of this process.
SWING Goal setting process
1. A SMART and Sensory performance goal
2. What will I positively Win and lose
3. Am I In control of achieving this goal?
4. Stated as Now...SWING for golf
Now, let me take you though an example. I had a goal to break 80 this year. So
this is how it looks going through the SWING process (I’ll put the SWING steps
in brackets):
(S) I want to shoot 79 and better this year.(W) I will win two more
competitions than last year and see the trophies in my cabinet, feeling great
satisfaction from hearing the crowd and my peers cheer as I collect the
trophies and taste the beer that I bought for my fellow competitors with the
cash winnings. I control my practice and can visualise my goal and align
myself to breaking 80 consistently and accurately card my scores. (I) I
control my technique and can simulate the different environments in which I...SWING for leaders
Team Goals
Setting team goals adds a layer of real complexity to goal setting.
Particularly if the distribution of influence and power is shared equally
across the team. Many committees are wonderful examples of how the
goal-setting process can simply end up in drift mode when little is decided
and even less done.
In the section on team roles, I mentioned the importance of the balance in the
team. Setting team goals is one particular area that is greatly affected by
the make-up of the team and the roles within it.
We run an exercise in workshops that really gets teams to hone in on personal
values and their own particular talent. I will return to this in Team Vision.Team goal setting activity
This is a simple,fun activity to help a team understand the importance of goal
setting and communication process.
Split the team into two teams. Place enough squares (carpet tiles work very
well) in a line for all members of both teams with one extra square in the
middle.
Teams face each other on the squares:
The goal for this activity is that the teams will exchange places on the
squares....
Vision
You step up to the tee on your least favourite hole on the course. You prepare
for the shot, you utter to yourself “I will make this drive, this time it will
be different, this time, I will strike the ball square on, the ball will soar
through the air, and following a graceful arc it will land right smack in the
middle of the fairway exactly where I’m aligned”. Your unconscious mind is
informed by this belief and promptly provides you with a swing that will
support your belief.
How do you train yourself to do this? You spend several practice sessions
building a new belief about your ‘nemesis’ hole (any hole for that matter).
You visualise making the stroke, sending the ball to exactly where you want...Knowing when a goal is achieved
Shared Vision
Communication by the senses
Team Vision
In the section on Team Goals, I mentioned that we run an exercise in workshops
that really gets teams to hone in on personal values and their own particular
talent and setting team goals.
Alignment
Take Dead Aim
Aligning to the goal
Modes of alignment
There's a wealth of evidence that having goals and setting them is an important
process. And that goals are best considered as performance goals rather than
outcome goals - principally because a performance goal is something that the
individual can be in charge, whereas an outcome is often dependent on other
people and/or other things happening as well.
The difficulty with goal setting is not the process of setting or creating
goals, it is ACTING on achieving those goals. The alignment mode you are in
can make a substantial difference to your success or otherwise of achieving
your goals. There are three major modes of alignment found in Mark Forster's
excellent book entilted "How to make your dreams come true". These are "Push...Push mode
If you have to drive others towards an objective, even drive yourself towards
it, I call this being in push mode.
Push mode is typified by focusing your attention on problems that need to be
resolved, or things that need fixing. Many people use a ‘todo’ list or a GTD
(getting things done) system. Are you one of them? Take a look at yours now
and see if it is a list of problems.
The fun, creative or enjoyable things rarely make it onto a ‘todo’ list -
rather there is a tendency to say that once the list is done and I have time,
then I’ll do the fun stuff.
What’s more, you will already know that the things we pay attention to are the...Pull mode
Pull Mode, on the other hand, is about leadership and paying attention to
growth and improvement.
Rather than focusing attention on problems to be solved or fixed or overcome,
in Pull Mode we take time to clearly envision our future and allow the goal to
pull us towards it. The results of Push Mode and Pull Mode may appear to be
the same (that is the achievement of the goal) but Pull Mode takes less effort
and allows our unconscious activity to take precedence over conscious linear
processing.
The idea of Pull Mode is that you create a vision of the future that is so
compelling for you (and perhaps for others) that you cannot help but be drawn...Drift mode
The stresses of Push Mode, always making things happen and forever coming up
against obstacles and ‘time-wasters’, causes many people to fall into Drift
Mode rather than Pull Mode.
Drift Mode is quite different to Pull Mode, somewhat ‘New-Agey’ in influence
where one just ‘lets things happen’. call it karma, fate, life forces,
whatever - it generally involves emptying your mind of worries and anxieties
and just letting life happen to you. Whatever way the wind blows, you drift
along with it.
You might end up on an agreeable shore when you allow yourself to drift over
the seas of life, or you might end up somewhere unpleasant, or. most probably,...Pushmepullyou mode
This mythical creature in Dr Doolittle provides a metaphor for how many leaders
feel about leadership. They are in Push Mode for themselves, driving the
agenda and encountering resistance of their ‘followers’ who have to be pulled,
some suggest dragged kicking and screaming, in the chosen direction.
No wonder many leaders are exhausted. Many drive themselves to an early grave
or opt-out entirely and fall into Drift Mode.Which mode are you in?
Do you take pride in hard work? Do you brag about working more than 50 hours a
week? Do you use ToDo lists? Do you think that in order for things to happen,
that you have to make them happen?
If you answer yes to most or all, you’re in Push Mode.
Do you have a compelling vision of your future self? Find your work
effortless? Know that everything that needs to be done will be done?
Sounds like Pull Mode.
Have a sort of idea what I want in the future? Take it easy whenever possible
and avoid unpleasant tasks? If things happen they happen, if they don’t ‘they
don’t?...
Aligning the team
Attitude
Attitude+Aptitude = Altitude
It's all very well understanding and believing that our attitude is more
important than our aptitude, but exactly what can we do about it? What makes
the difference that you can develop?
There appears to be three major differences between those that achieve great
success in their field, and those who remain in the obscurity of mediocrity.
Successful people know what they want to achieve. They have a clearly defined
goal and a vision for achieving it, knowing that technical aptitude alone is
insufficient.
They are constantly seeking ways to learn and improve.
They consistently present a positive attitude....Technical aptitude alone is insufficient
Jimmy Conners, winner of 109 professional singles tennis titles says "There's a
thin line between being #1 or #100 and mostly it's mental."
In his well-researched book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman shows that
it's our attitude more than our aptitude that determines our altitude. Whilst
our society lauds intellectual giants and power, Goleman's research concludes,
"At best, IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life
success, which leaves 80 percent to other forces." Other EQ researchers,
Robert Cooper and Ayman Sawaf consider this too conservative. In their book,
Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations, they
write, "— IQ may be related to as little as 4 percent of real-world success —...Difference makers have a better attitude
Consider all the things that Tiger could use as an excuse at the 2008 US Open:
Hadn't played in a competition for 2 months
Recent knee operation - reduced fitness
Further damaged knee on swing during the tournament
Highly skilled and determined competitors
Poor first round
Pressure of historical wins
Expectations very high on his performance
Does not need the money
After blowing a three shot lead with 8 holes to play, Woods rallied and came...What can I learn?
People who achieve great success are always learning. They seek ways to improve
and are prepared to work through the difficulties of change required to become
better.
Peter Senge in his book, The Learning Organization, expands in great detail
about his idea for organizations to constantly seek improvement in everything.
But what about learning at a personal level? What if you are currently at the
top of your game? Surely you've already learned.
Our learning journey can go through a series of steps and the height of our
performance is determined by our technical ability and our mindset, our
aptitude and our attitude....Prepared to change
You're at the top of your game, you're doing better than anyone has ever done
in your field. Technically, you are the best in your business. You earn more
than anyone else in the same line of business. You have a serious competitive
advantage. Why would you decide to change something fundamental about the way
you do what you do?
After seven years and 142 tournaments in a row, Tiger Woods finally joined the
ranks of mortal golfers when he missed the cut at the Byron Nelson
Championship May 13, 2005. Golf pundits argue that changing his swing is to
blame.
...
A Positive attitude
We all have days (sometimes weeks and months) where everything seems to be
going wrong. Whatever you try to do, however clear your goal - there just
doesn't seem to be any progress.
Sports psychologists refer to the period when everything is going well and
peak performance is apparent as being 'in the zone'. Golfers who find their
rhythm and the ball lands just so. The athlete who has trained and is at their
physical and mental peak runs the race of their life. The business person
who's found themselves in the right place at the right time with the right
product or service.
Yet most of the time, we just ain't there. We yank the club and the ball lands...What's better today?
Being prepared to learn and change and put in the required effort is a critical
step in constantly improving. But this carries the suggestion that we should
focus on what is wrong, or what needs improving.
If we're going to consider being in "pull-mode" towards our goals and
ambitions, a much better question to ask is "what's better today?"
When you meet someone, or write a message it is 'normal' to ask "how are you?"
or "How do you do?" Now in doing so, do you really, truthfully want to know
the answer?
"Well, I've had this terrible problem with my stomach and I didn't sleep too
well last night for all the stress I'm under and..."...
Why attitude matters
Emotional Intelligence
Changing attitudes
Team attitude
Influence
Leadership is influence.
Language of communication
Being a person of influence
Influencing self
When we ask this question in our workouts, we are usually met with blank stares
at first. i call them ‘blank stares’ because to be looked at as if you are
completely off your trolley isn’t something I choose to reinforce. The first
response from that first brave soul suggests that there is no need to
influence oneself. Basically, it runs like this: I decide to do something, I
tell myself to do it, and I do it. No influence is required. I don’t have to
ask myself nicely, or threaten myself with unpleasant consequences, or
persuade myself that it will be worthwhile. Really? If we could slow down the
thought processes going on, you might think differently.
...
Influencing the team
Nature
'Natural' behaviours
Personality
Paradigms of learning
Leadership Paradigms
Team Nature
Shifting Paradigms
Network
No man is an island
Circles of influence
Leveraging your network
Team networking
Motivation
Motivation is a fruit of behaviour
Linking Values, Resources and goals
Motivating the team
Outcomes
Tactical outcome setting
Specific outcomes
If there was ONE thing...
Review
Giving and receiving feedback
What did you learn? What did you enjoy?
What's better today?
Reviewing team performance
Evaluate
Measuring learning and change
Evaluation is a continuous process
Team evaluation
GAINMORE™ Leadership Advantage Handbook
Added: 2010-02-17 03:37:21
From: (Joined 2009-06-15 05:31:35)
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GAINMORE™ Leadership Advantage Handbook
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