The Dip
A good friend of mine exposed me to the writings of Seth Godin. He is an expert on new marketing and the use of the internet with one of the most read blogs on the web.
The Dip is a book about knowing when to quit and on the other hand when to stick it out. Every new project, job, relationship and hobby start out exciting and fun but at some point the newness wears off and the reality of how hard it really is sinks in.
A Dip is a temporary setback that you can overcome if you stick it out and do not quit. The other extreme is a cul-de-sac which is a situation that you should quit as soon as you know this is not what you need to be doing.
How do you know the difference? Great question. The key to me involves passion and excellence.
If you are not passionate about what you are doing then that is a clear sign that you are probably in a cul-de-sac. To be able to break through all the problems we all face everyday requires a burning desire to do something you know that really makes a difference.
The other criteria require total transparent honesty with self. You must evaluate if the product you are offering to the market is the quality that would make people want to participate in what you are doing.
If it is then you have every reason to hope that over time other people will hear about what you are doing and will buy in and even tell their network about your services. The book is all about knowing when to quit the wrong stuff and stick it out with the right.
Listening
The key area that is lacking for most leaders as they face the highly participative team dynamics that exist today is people skills. All executive coaching research clearly points to this reality and most leaders have major blind spots when it comes to this truth and that is why it can destroy team morale and productivity.
Of all the people skills that show up on most lists of inappropriate behavior poor listening goes to the top in all current studies. Marshall Goldsmith calls it the most passive aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
All of us catch ourselves thinking about what we want to say rather than really concentrating on what the other person is communicating. Stephen Covey made seeking to understand the other person a priority before you seek to be understood as one of his 7 habits of highly effective people.
We must understand that listening is not a passive behavior. It requires several active disciplines to be successful.
We can clarify what someone has said by restating what we heard and what we think they meant. We can explore by asking additional questions about what has been said. Then we can seek confirmation from the person that is what they intended to convey.
Once you are confident you have fully understood what the other person is saying then you must take a moment to think before you speak. Make sure your response is not coming across as defensive or attacking the other person regardless of whether you agree with them or not.
Delegation
One of the best ways to leverage your leadership influence is to delegate as much work as possible to competent team members. At the start of every day you should ask yourself is there anything that needs to be done that I can give to someone else with the appropriate investment of my time?
In the Industrial age model of leadership the leaders made all of the decisions about priorities and strategies and the team was responsible only for execution. This resulted in very little delegation and significantly reduced productivity.
In this type of environment the leader would walk into the meeting and tell the group this is the new program for the fall and hear are your individual assignments, are there any questions?
In the Information age of leadership the leaders still make the decisions about priorities but delegate the development of the strategies and execution to the team. This is a major improvement and gets everyone into the game.
This meeting would involve the leader saying to the team, this is a program that we are considering for the fall, what do you think?
In the new Idea age the leader is willing to delegate the setting of priorities, strategies and execution with reserving the right to make the final decision on all recommendations from team. A meeting would include the leader saying to the team what are your recommendations for programs for the fall and why?
The need for and the type of delegation is changing dramatically in the last twenty years. In the past the leader was suppose to know all the answers to all the questions. Today they need to know how to ask the right questions and the team is responsible for the answers.