motivating a team – Dutra Associates

Trust: A Foundational Element to Leadership Success

August 24, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

During COVID-19 and the move to work from home, many managers have had difficulty in navigating the challenge of leading a remote team. What has been revealed is that the lack of trusting relationships is one element that is seriously impacting the success of these teams. David DeCremer said, in a recent opinion piece, that “research shows that establishing trusting work relationships makes companies perform better over time and even outperform companies that do not have a strong trust culture”. To help managers who are experiencing this struggle, I am re-posting a blog I originally shared in 2017, with minor updates, which still provides relevant tips for building trust in today’s environment.

Trust Fosters Engagement and Motivation

Consider your career for a moment. Like me, you have probably had the joyful experience of working with people you trusted as well as the dreaded experience of working with those you had to guard against at every turn. Now, put yourself in each of those situations. When did you feel most engaged and motivated? I can place a pretty strong bet that working with and for people you trusted elicited the greatest engagement and motivation. Now, let’s turn the tables. How well have you built trust with your team and colleagues? Imagine the impact of creating a trust-based workplace on your quality of life as well as on your organization’s success, especially as we deal with the massive changes to the work environment over the past six months.

The importance of trust has been a consistent theme for years, both with leadership clients as well as in publications. An article by Melissa Balmain, published in Success magazine, was one that I particularly enjoyed and find it quite relevant for today’s circumstances. I’ve summarized her 8 Steps of Trust-Building below. You can read the full article here.

8 Steps of Trust-Building

Be open
Set clear and realistic expectations with your team. Help them to see the alignment between their goals and the impact on the organization.
Walk Your Talk
Reflect on your most important values and principles and whether you are actually living by them. Tie the actions you are taking with the values and principles that drive them. Even when you make difficult decisions that not everyone agrees with, you will be respected for staying true to your beliefs.
Listen First
Stay present with what the other person is saying. Ask powerful, open-ended questions that elicit insight and are thought-provoking. Acknowledge that you’ve heard the other’s message by paraphrasing what they’ve said to check for understanding. Then, share your own thoughts, openly, honestly and without defensiveness.
Say What You’ll Do, Do What You Say
As the article states, “Nothing boosts others’ faith in you like doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it”. Therefore, don’t overcommit. Be realistic when you make a promise to someone. This not only reduces your overwhelm because you won’t be working all hours to deliver on time, but also allows you to build trust, through actually following through on your commitments.
Admit Your Mistakes
If something goes wrong, the worst thing to do is to try and hide it. Instead, share what happened and identify a solution to resolve the situation. By doing this, you encourage others to be open when things go awry and to use those situations as opportunities to learn and grow.
Be Sincere
If you are talking about someone else, pretend that they are present to the conversation. Nothing destroys trust faster than wondering whether someone is going to say bad things about you behind your back.
Avoid Stereotypes
Stereotypes exist for just about everything from gender, to race, to generational differences, etc. Ignore them. The reality is that we all have more in common than we think. Treat each person as an individual and trust will grow.
Dive in
This is not about blind trust but what is referred to as “smart trust”. Stephen M. R. Covey states that “smart trust means weighing your impulse to trust against other people’s credibility and the opportunity and risks at hand”. Overall, the chances are pretty good that your smart trust in others will be worth it.

Your Trust Building Tips

What trust building tips have worked for you? Please feel free to share, in the comment section, both those that you’ve observed as well as ones that you have implemented yourself.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Skills to Create a Thriving Culture

June 2, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Think of the best manager you ever had during your career. What is it or was it about this person that made him or her so great? When I reflect back on the person who comes to mind for me, what stands out was my manager’s ability to stay calm in difficult situations, to be supportive and encouraging – a person who saw the best in me, even when I couldn’t. This manager listened to my ideas, and those of others on the team, and always made us comfortable to speak up, even if we had differing views. Additionally, this manager never hesitated to share information so that we all had the opportunity to learn and grow. No matter the situation, this manager had the capability to determine what was needed and address that need accordingly. Decades later, I still feel the positive impact of working for, what I learned later, was an emotionally intelligent leader.

EQ / IQ / Style

Much has been written about emotional intelligence over the years and many models of EQ exist. One of those models, brought to us by John Wiley and Sons, defines emotional intelligence as:

EQ: “the ability to read the emotional and interpersonal needs of a situation and respond appropriately…even if it’s difficult”.¹

Some organizations have embraced the concept of EQ and have actively helped their leaders to develop these skills. Such forward-thinking companies are finding that they are much better prepared to adapt and pivot quickly. Cultures are created where employees are engaged and motivated which significantly improves retention and positively impacts the bottom line. Unfortunately, for many organizations, developing leaders’ skills in this area has not been a high priority. Consequently, many leaders find themselves far outside their comfort zones when dealing with interpersonal issues in the workplace.

Data consistently shows the link between EQ and leadership effectiveness.² A leader’s ability to demonstrate the behaviors and mindsets of emotional intelligence is as important, if not more so, as their:

IQ: the skills, knowledge, and capability a leader possesses and the ability to apply that to problem-solve or meet goals, and
Behavioral style: how leaders approach their work and relationships.

A Solution

When it comes to leading yourself and others through the challenges being faced as we move through the pandemic, emotional intelligence skills are more critical than ever to cultivate. As leaders strive to rebuild businesses, show empathy to employees dealing with a myriad of stressors both inside and outside of work, manage their own cadre of emotions, make decisions during great ambiguity, and so on, there is a need to understand our emotional intelligence mindsets, leverage our strengths, and take action to improve the areas requiring more effort. Doing so will improve our ability to read situations and respond in a constructive way.

The good news is that there is now a program, Everything DiSC® Agile EQ™, that helps organizations and people adapt to whatever the future may hold, so that when it arrives, they are ready to meet the challenge. The power in the program lies in the combination of practical application and personalized learning. Each participant learns their likely EQ strengths based on their DiSC® behavioral style. Then, they receive specific feedback around their EQ opportunities with actionable recommendations to learn methods to stretch outside their comfort zone as circumstances may require.

Tips to Start Building EQ

Here are a few key tips³ to begin enhancing emotional intelligence. Some of these may be easier for you than others. With practice, those that are more of a stretch will take less effort.

Take a breath to help you stay calm in high pressure moments.
Separate emotions from the facts to see situations more clearly.
Confront issues that may impact important standards and goals.
Assert your conviction about your opinions and ideas.
Take concrete steps to transform your ideas into reality.
Put aside time and energy to create and maintain relationships with others.
Listen for what is not being said in interactions and use inquiry to draw out and understand the other person’s perspective.
Stay open to other’s ideas and be willing to compromise or even set aside your own preferences for the good of the team or a colleague.

Take Action

Dutra Associates, LLC is now offering Everything DiSC® Agile EQ. If you want to develop the leaders and teams who will be nimble and agile in facing challenges, both now and in the future, please contact me to discuss your organization’s needs. Both the assessment and subsequent training to deepen the learning can be conducted virtually to support remote workers. We also can support you and your team with virtual individual and group coaching to help support the development and application of emotionally intelligent mindsets.

¹ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

² John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2020 Agile Organization Survey Results; The Impact of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership on Talent Retention, Discretionary Effort and Employment Brand, Benjamin R. Palmer and Gilles Gignac, Vol. 44 NO. 1 2012, pp 9-18 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 | INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING

³ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

Navigating the Emotional Roller Coaster of Change Transitions

April 16, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar…
“I – I hardly know, Sir, just at present,” Alice replied rather shyly, “at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”

Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland¹

What have you felt since COVID-19 impacted nearly every corner of our world and every aspect of our lives? Have there been days when you’ve felt a bit like Alice – changing multiple times throughout the day? I know I have.

Over the last couple of months, we have experienced change unlike any other we’ve been exposed to in our lifetime. To successfully navigate through this time as a leader, you must take a step back to recognize and acknowledge the full impact of the changes raining down upon us. Then, choose how you wish to respond and manage the impact on you as well as on your team. In other words, logic and action alone aren’t enough to save the day. We must pay attention to the emotional roller coaster that accompanies all change, particularly the drastic changes we are currently facing.

Bridges’ Transition Model

Many researchers have explored and written about change and its’ effect on people. What they have all discovered are patterns in how we react and respond to change that are quite consistent across the human experience. The model that I have used most extensively with leaders is William Bridges’ 3 Stage Transition Model consisting of Endings – Neutral Zone – New Beginnings.

Change vs Transition

Before we look at each of the stages, let’s make a distinction between change and transition. What tends to create the challenge for us isn’t the change itself but the process of adjusting to it and moving from the old reality to the new. You see, change is external, situational, and often out of our control. In this case, the COVID-19 pandemic is the external change. The internal emotional and psychological process we go through to come to terms with the change is the transition. Consequently, we must turn our attention to the transition process. It is within this process that we will find what we can control – our response.

Endings

In Bridge’s model the first phase is Endings. This phase begins with the external event and our realization that the change is really happening. So, think back to when you first learned about COVID-19. Then, consider what occurred when it first hit your country. Then, your local area. Then, perhaps you or someone you know. At what point did you realize that we truly had a pandemic on our hands? When did you find yourself moving from the known to the unknown? This is when your Endings phase began. You likely experienced any number of emotions including denial, anger, fear, anxiety, grief, frustration or depression. Cycling between these emotions is common as well (e.g. anger one moment, fear the next). You may still be experiencing them.

Keep in mind that your colleagues and team members were and are experiencing their own emotions. What can you do to support those around you during this stage and help them to let go of the way things were?

Acknowledge and validate the emotions that others are experiencing
Articulate what is actually coming to an end. Determine what might be lost as a result of the change and what might stay the same
Communicate, communicate, communicate

Neutral Zone

The Neutral Zone represents the phase of transition where we have started to let go of the old way of being but haven’t yet found our footing in a new reality. Typical emotions that arise during this phase include uncertainty, confusion, overwhelm or frustration. While there is a lack of a solid foundation in this phase, we do begin to experiment with new possibilities. Using our COVID-19 example again, you might find yourself feeling a bit numb, overtired, struggling to get used to working from home, or overwhelmed by suddenly becoming your children’s teacher. Yet, you’re also beginning to realize that what you are feeling is natural – that you are not alone. As you move through this phase, you gain perspective and more effectively cope with uncertainty which allows you to begin to see possibilities for taking positive action.

Everyone moves through this phase at a different pace. Don’t try to rush it. As a leader, you can support others by:

Continuing to listen and communicate
Trying new things
Encouraging the progress that people are making
Giving yourself and others time to process

Beginnings

The final stage of the model is New Beginnings. This phase is marked by acceptance of the change and a renewed sense of energy that propels action. When we have successfully moved into the New Beginning, we have embraced the new reality and started to experience solid ground again. In our example, our teams will have adjusted to a new way of working, established a new structure to their day, and found a new rhythm. Creative ways of contributing to the team begin to emerge along with new ways of doing business. During this phase, emotions shift in a more positive direction. You might be feeling excitement, optimism, and a greater sense of motivation.

What can you do to support people in this stage?

Set an intention for how you choose to move forward
Encourage others to continue taking small steps each day
Stay focused on solutions versus problems
Proactively offer and ask for support from others

Conclusion

Viewing transition in terms of William Bridges’ three stages helps you understand that the needs, challenges and opportunities presented by change can be managed as a progression of responses. Your ability to understand this and apply it to yourself as well as to help your team transition during change will go a long way to making any type of change you deal with less daunting.

Where are you in the process of change? Where is your team? What might you do today to accept where you and others are in the process and to navigate your way successfully through the massive change we are experiencing?

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Signet Books, 1960, 47.

Reference:
Bridges, William. Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, 2^nd Edition. Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004.

The Key to Engaging Employees: It’s Not What You Might Think

March 4, 2019 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Employee engagement is something that we hear about on a regular basis. In fact, we hear about it often enough that it can sound like just another buzzword. Yet, it’s anything but. The lack of employee engagement is estimated to result in $7 trillion in lost productivity worldwide on an annual basis (Gallup 2017). For nearly 20 years, Gallup has been researching employee engagement and the percentage of engaged employees has barely budged in the United States during this timeframe. Based on 2018 research, Gallup has reported that 34% of U.S. workers are engaged while globally, only 15% are engaged.

What is Employee Engagement?

What exactly is employee engagement? According to Gallup, an engaged employee is one who is “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. Someone who is experiencing this type of engagement is most likely to be aligned with their team and organization’s goals and making key contributions to producing desired results. Organizations that do the best job of creating employee engagement achieve earnings-per-share growth greater than 4 times that of their competitors. Additionally, other business boosting results are enjoyed by those companies who exemplify employee engagement. These include higher customer engagement, increased productivity, lower attrition, and higher profitability.

A Simple Approach

There are a multitude of methods available for increasing employee engagement with varying ranges of complexity, time commitment and cost. Yet, the solution may be simpler than you think. When we talk about employee engagement, we often speak in generalities. It can sound as if there is a group called “employees” that we must direct something towards collectively. A one size fits all approach has less of an opportunity to positively drive your engagement levels than one simple opportunity that many leaders have, at every level, including the C-suite. This opportunity, the key to engaging employees, is to get specific about each person.

One Employee at a Time

Engaging employees happens one person at a time. The place to start is to get to know each person on your team uniquely. How much do you already know about each employee and what makes that person tick?

How many of these questions can you answer right now about each employee on your team?

What are their career aspirations?
What personal aspirations do they have?
What motivates them?
What are their most important values?
What key strengths do they bring to the team?
What type of behavioral style do they favor?
What professional development needs do they have?

Call to Action

If you can’t answer all of these questions for each employee, I invite you to make it a priority to schedule 1:1 meetings to discover those answers. Then, look for the opportunities to:

let them use their strengths each day,
take on assignments that build the skills for their future career path,
communicate with them in a way that matches their style.

Your employees want to work in jobs that allow them to do what they do best, to grow and develop professionally, and feel a sense of purpose in what they focus on each day. What drives engagement and motivation is unique to each individual. So, get started by getting to know your team. Look for ways to align what is important to each person with the work they are doing, and watch your results begin to shift.

If you would like support in increasing employee engagement in your organization, please contact me to have a conversation. We offer a simple yet powerful and practical methodology to support you in improving employee engagement.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Anabolic Leaders and Gaining Buy-In

February 2, 2016 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

In the past, we have explored the characteristics of anabolic and catabolic leaders. Click on the following link if you’d like to review that blog. Leadership: Inspiring and Motivating Yourself and Others This time, let’s look at another aspect of leadership – how information is passed along to others – to further see the difference between the two types of leaders.

In any type of leadership role – whether as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a small business owner, or as a parent, imparting information to others is an integral and essential part of leading. Catabolic leaders give information, while anabolic leaders share information.

Giving vs Sharing

“Giving” means to convey, transmit, or assign. When we give to others, we no longer have ownership of what we give. “Sharing,” on the other hand, means to partake of, use, or experience with others. When we share, we’re still part of the process – we’re “in it” with the other person.

When a catabolic leader gives information to others, they do so without much explanation, and with little buy-in or justification. An anabolic leader who shares information, however, explains well and gets buy-in, which builds trust, develops rapport, and deepens the connection with the other person.

Here’s an Example

Which of the following leaders is more likely to get the result they desire?

Catabolic leader – “John, I need a rundown of the responsibilities of the people in your department. Please get it to me by tomorrow afternoon, if not sooner.”

Anabolic leader – “John, we’re considering bringing in some additional staff members to ease some of the production crunch you and your department are under. I’d like a rundown of the responsibilities of the people in your department so that I can see who’s doing what and where some gaps might be. Since I’d like to get this process underway soon, how possible would it be to get this to me by tomorrow afternoon or earlier? After I take a look at it, I’d love to sit down with you to hear your ideas for resolving this. How does that sound?”

The two leaders asked for the same information – but how differently they asked, and how different the result is likely to be! John’s response to the catabolic leader would probably be to question what was going on and to worry about his department and the people under him, and to either put off doing the task or do it in a perfunctory way. His response to the anabolic leader, on the other hand, would most likely be to jump right into the task, do it well, and generate ideas for improvement.

My Challenge to You

Anabolic leaders get results! Over the next month, try sharing instead of giving information, both at work and at home. Those extra few minutes of explanation and getting buy-in can make all the difference.

Image courtesy of SMarnad/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Leadership and Participatory Delegation

November 1, 2014 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

In past blog posts, we’ve defined the characteristics of anabolic leaders, who truly “lead” and catabolic leaders, who “manage”. https://dutraassociates.com//leadership-inspiring-and-motivating-yourself-and-others/ Today, let’s take that discussion further by looking at how each type of leader delegates.

Most of us have learned that delegation is something that’s important for us to do in order to be effective leaders and to get things done. And, it is true. However, anabolic leaders take it a step further. When a catabolic leader delegates a task, the leader typically walks away from the delegation and leaves the team member to carry on without support. On the other hand, when an anabolic leader delegates a task, they participate throughout the delegation process. In this way, the team member knows that they are supported and valued while they are carrying out the work. Let’s be clear – participating doesn’t mean that the leader needs to do most or even any of the work. Instead, it implies that the leader is available to her team members when needed and will check in at appropriate times to ensure the task is progressing per plan. It also demonstrates that the leader is willing to personally do anything that she asks team members to do.

Here’s an example to consider. Imagine the following scenario. A small business owner is expanding from two retail locations to three. The owner of the company assigns tasks to the key team members. In Catabolic Company A, the owner gets occasional progress reports, but remains out of the picture until everything is done, at which point the team is either praised or reprimanded based on what they’ve accomplished. In Anabolic Company B, the owner not only follows up frequently with the team, but is also on hand to pitch in and work alongside them, letting everyone know that she is part of the team, and that she is willing to do whatever she asks them to do. The team knows where they are at all stages of the project, because the leader has been “in the trenches” with them. In which company are the team members more likely to be engaged and want to do a good job? Which leader is more likely to gain respect and loyalty, and inspire greatness in others?

This month, how can you show those around you that you are a participant, not merely a delegator?

Leadership: Inspiring and Motivating Yourself and Others

August 28, 2014 By Sherry Dutra 2 Comments

As leaders, inspiring and motivating yourself and others is critical to creating transformational and sustainable results. Yet, what allows you to do this well and do it consistently?

Research has shown that how well you are able to lead is connected to your level of energy. Well, what exactly do we mean by “energy”? There are essentially two types of energy: Anabolic energy is building, constructive energy that allows leaders to build strong relationships with their teams, clients, colleagues, etc. Catabolic energy is destructive and repels success in relationships, business dealings, etc.

Recognizing and understanding the characteristics and impact of catabolic and anabolic leaders will allow you to choose the type of leader you want to be.

Let’s start off with looking at the overall style of the catabolic leader. This leader manages. If we look at the definition of “manage” we find that it means, “to handle, direct, govern, or control in action or use”, and “to dominate or influence”. So, catabolic leaders tell others what to do and how to do it. By maintaining control, others with whom this leader interacts are in a non-powerful position and as a result, probably aren’t particularly engaged in their work.

An anabolic leader, on the other hand, leads. Consulting our dictionary again, we find that “lead” means “to go before or with to show the way”, and “to guide in direction, course and action”. This sounds much more supportive and empowering and it is. The anabolic leader doesn’t control or push people, but instead, inspires and motivates through words, actions and personal example.

Anabolic leaders believe that everyone has their own answers and gifts that they bring to all aspects of their lives. Consequently, there is no need to tell people what to do.

In the coming weeks, as you interact with those around you, notice when you are leading and when you are managing and pay attention to the results.