Fulcrum Point Partners

If you’ve read my book or these soundbites in the past,  and/or attended any management workshop I facilitate, you are aware of SMT goals.  These are abbreviated from SMART goals.

To be as objective as possible, the A and R are eliminated because it takes the subjective out of the equation when creating a goal (of course, its harder to pronounce SMT without a vowel in the acronym!)

Since being objective is essential for management effectiveness, making goals which represent this objectivity is paramount.

Creating goals which are SMT (specific, measurable and timely) is one of the key underlying differences between managerial success and managerial stress!

But no matter how many specific, measurable and timely goals you create, even if you create them for all your employees, it will never be perfect, it will never be enough.

That’s because in the real world, things are constantly changing.  Corporate goals change, which effect your department goals, people change jobs which leave responsibilities needing to be shuffled.

There will always be the goal other duties as assigned!

So how do you balance the goals with these outside forces, these gray areas?

By having consistent follow-up in the form of one on one meetings.

If you are meeting on a regular basis (and that means a minimum of once a month) you can adjust the goals with any changes.

When you have regular one on one meetings with your employees:

• You identify changes going on to adjust specifics, measurables and times for each goal
• You give your employees a chance to discuss their challenges with changes
• You are being proactive instead of waiting for a crisis

Creating SMT goals is great but it’s not enough.  There are outside forces beyond your control which will affect these goals.

Meeting one on one helps bridge the gap between these goals and the gray which results from those things you can’t control.

Do any of your employees come up with excuses for not getting their work done?

When I teaching coaching skills to managers, I let them know the three most important aspects of coaching are:

• Listen more than talk
• Asking questions which lead to solutions
• Not getting attached to your employee’s stories or excuses

If you have employees who seem to have excuses for why they haven’t completed a goal, it’s because you have allowed it to happen!

Not intentionally of course.  But what you’ve done is the very human act of going along with their stories.

The third coaching skill, not getting attached to your employee’s stories or excuses, needs to use the other two skills of listening and asking questions.

Often we are listening to ourselves, to what we want, to what we believe.  We think we know the solution or we know if our employees are cutting corners.

But if we think we know, we may not listen for what we don’t know!

When we don’t listen we end up asking questions which aren’t effective.  Questions which keep everyone stuck especially the employee with their story.

Here’s an example:

An employee is always late with projects.  They have used every excuse:  they are waiting for someone else to finish the work; there was too much other work to do, blah blah blah.

Without using coaching skills, several things could happen.  If you are irritated or mad, the conversation could be confrontational.  If you aren’t irritated, your questions would be related to their excuses, such as who hasn’t done their work? Or what other work did you have to do?

Using coaching skills you remember that the goal is to get the project done and your question could be how are you going to get the work done by the deadline?

Make your employee figure it out!  Stick to the goal!

It’s amazing what they can come up with when you are decisive.

Of course you need to know the goal and what you need from your employee.

When you don’t engage in your employee’s stories or excuses:

• You save time because you are staying on track with the goal
• Your questions will be focused on the goal and therefore might lead to solutions
• Whether they realize it or not, you are helping your employee by creating an atmosphere for more success

Going along with their stories doesn’t benefit them or you.

By not listening to their stories or excuses, by incorporating sound listening and asking powerful questions, you have basis of coaching skills you can use as a manager.  This will make your employees more successful, your jobs easier and more effective!

Why can’t I get my employees to do what I want them to do?

When I teaching coaching skills to managers, I let them know the three most important aspects of coaching are:

• Listen more than talk
• Asking questions which lead to solutions
• Not getting attached to your employee’s stories or excuses

Questions are powerful.  They can lead us to solutions or keep us stuck in problems.  The question above usually isn’t powerful because it keeps us stuck in the problem.

Any problem we have is because we haven’t asked a question which allows the possibility of a solution.

Huh?  Why would we do that?

It’s a bad habit!

While it could be uncomfortable, after a while we get use to the questions we ask ourselves, even if they keep us stuck.  If a lot of time goes by, we may not even realize things could be different.

I was recently coaching a client who was stuck in a problem with his employee and the project they were working on.  The questions he continually asked kept him and his employee stuck.

Coincidentally he mentioned another activity he was doing which appeared unrelated to the situation.  But there were aspects of the activity which could help solve the employee-project problem.

This manager didn’t see it because his questions narrowed his focus of possibilities.  When I pointed out the possible correlation, we were able to come up with questions about this seemingly unrelated activity which helped the initial problem.

When we ask questions which lead to solutions:

• There can be alternatives to the problems
• Problems can become opportunities
• We can take actions which could get different results

Why can’t I get my employees to do what I want them to do? is not a question which will lead to a viable solution.

How can I best support my employees to make them successful? is phrased to lead to alternatives, opportunities and varied actions to possibly, just possibly, get results for your initial question!

Do we have two mouths and one ear or two ears and one mouth?!

When I teaching coaching skills to managers I let them know the three most important aspects of coaching are:

• Listen more than talk
• Asking questions which lead to solutions
• Not getting attached to your employee’s stories or excuses

One of the greatest strengths a manager or leader can have is the ability to listen. This can be a challenge for any manager, no matter what level they are at or how many years of experience they have

Truthfully it’s a challenge for everyone, but it’s especially important for leaders, such as managers, to make an effort to listen more.

There are many variables why managers might not listen: we feel we have the answer; we have a bias on the situation or a belief about the person who is talking. We don’t have the time; we’re inpatient, tired, hungry. We are bored by the topic, or we are interested in the topic being talked about

Or the noise in our head makes it difficult to hear someone else!

Listening doesn’t come naturally. It takes focus to listen. Depending on the variables listed above, it can take more focus at times to listen.

The key is to remember listening is not like breathing, it doesn’t just happen!

When we listen more than talk:
• Our questions might get answered before we answer them
• The solutions might be something we hadn’t even considered
• If we do ask questions, our questions can be based on what we heard from someone else, rather than what was said internally

It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort to focus on listening.

The key is remembering to focus with both our ears rather than our one mouth.